#exo apocalypse

[madcat-world]

Exo (1 of 3) - Leszek Woźniak

[volahre]

i wanna know what that’s like

[127-spring]

ranking my kpop dreams: 2022 edition

yes, i’m doing this again. i had a lot of fun last year ranking my various kpop dreams & nightmares, so as we face the last few hours of 2022, i’m at it once more with this year’s subconscious offerings. there’s been fewer of them this year, but no shortage of weird shit happening in them...

14) seventeen were on a british talk show, so i dragged my family down in front of the tv so they could learn about the group. at first, the interview was fine. then joshua started talking. and talking. about what, you ask? about the fact that his semen is so “chemically potent” that it bleaches his ceiling when he has certain dreams. at no point did anybody attempt to shut him up. of the members, only vernon looked mildly concerned. and joshua just kept going on. and on. -50/10, i have no words for this. why, joshua? why?

13) i was walking with an old friend around our high school campus, reminiscing. then, some guy got right up in our faces, trying to push us into some mud! i shoved him in return. he fell into the mud, and in doing so, broke one of his legs so badly that the bone was poking out of his flesh. we decided to leave him there. later, on a bus, i glanced out of the window and saw stray kids’ bang chan, hyunjin, and felix dancing. felix was one step out of time with the others, but i was the only one who noticed. gradually, the bus began to empty, until it was just me... and four members of tomorrow x together. they were deeply worried, and searching for yeonjun. as it turns out, he was the guy i left screaming in the mud with a severe leg injury. they hadn’t heard from him all day, and had no idea i was responsible, so i kept quiet, and joined them on the search. we looked through bushes for hours, but all we found were ghosts of grey squirrels burrowing underground. -15/10, oh yeonjun, i’m sorry. but maybe you shouldn’t have started the fight? his injury was hideously graphic, and seeing as he was presumably lost forever, it’s a pretty shitty dream overall.

12) i was back in high school with a bunch of people, though we were all our current ages rather than teens. it was never clear what the class was that we were all in - i was too preoccupied with trying to get the attention of seventeen’s joshua. nothing i did seemed to work. in a last ditch effort at the end of class, i deliberately let a bunch of intimidating academic articles spill out of my bag, hoping their titles would impress him. he didn’t notice. 2/10, he looked very pretty the entire time, but god, how humiliating. all that effort for a man’s attention. and it didn’t even work.

11) i had to go to hospital to undergo various tests. however, i was travelling there from the future, and knew that one test in particular would be incredibly painful. to distract myself from the agony, i had downloaded that 2020 male idols collab performance of red velvet’s psycho… but when i watched it, it was actually just a video of stray kids’ hyunjin performing adele’s send my love. 4/10 i was anxious about the pain to come so it was pretty stressful, but hyunjin’s cover was pretty good!

10) i was fleeing from a house, dragging nct’s shotaro and sungchan with me. i never saw what we were running from, but i knew it wanted to hurt shotaro & sungchan, and i was the only one who could protect them. along the way to safety, i found xiaojun attempting to flirt with a woman. i decided to drag him along as well. he did not appreciate my decision. 4.5/10, there’s something oddly sweet in the idea that i could protect those three from something, but it was deeply stressful trying to actually do so. also, xiaojun was very stroppy.

9) shortly after his military discharge, exo’s suho did a buzzfeed interview, wherein he revealed a secret idol tradition… any idols who wished to date non-celebrities would ask for the phone number of that person’s father. later, i had a fancall with seventeen’s joshua. towards the end of the call, he asked for my dad’s number. i whooped and punched the air with glee, while he looked visibly confused. it turned out, the entire idol industry had somehow missed suho spilling the secret. 5/10 i love the thought of suho casually revealing industry secrets like that, no fucks to give. but if it was ever real, it’d probably cause a hell of a lot more drama.

8) one day, ateez’s san announced he was transferring to monsta x… and that he was also going to become a rapper! both fandoms were fine with this news, and everyone was hotly anticipating his second debut in mx’s upcoming comeback. but when his first mx song dropped… the beat was completely destroying him. he was clearly doing his best, and looked so happy to be there, but. man sucked. 6/10 this is actually a dream from 2021 that i forgot about when i did last year’s rankings, so it gets a bonus slot here! and i feel so bad that my subconscious decided san would make an abysmal rapper, but i have to award points for his sheer effort and enthusiasm, not to mention the supportive attitude of both fandoms involved. there’d be carnage if this ever went down in real life.

7) woodz was in my bedroom… with stray kids’ hyunjin on his lap… and hyunjin was… the two of them were… there is no clean way to say this. they were both fully clothed, but i’ll let your imagination do the rest. 7/10 look i’m not the kind of person who ships idols together, i promise… but holy moly this dream was hot.

6) jiang yanli of the untamed challenged none other than monsta x’s kihyun to a challenge: who between them could make the best gazpacho soup?? to decide the victor, they had a sing-off. at the climax of her song, jiang yanli threw kihyun at a wall! when he landed on the floor, he found a lump of butter. he ate it. i proceeded to berate him over and over for his “raccoon behaviour”. 8/10, i know this is a kpop ranking, but jiang yanli deserves points for the vocals and for making great soup even in my dreams. also, kihyun did a fantastic job too, even if he did act like a raccoon afterwards. do raccoons even eat butter?

5) i was at my old high school (though again, everyone was their current IRL age), and my mum was showing me a photo of depeche mode that she wanted professionally printed for her birthday. however, i was more interested in the youtube thumbnail she had of seventeen, performing fear on a music show. she told me she was getting into them, and especially wanted to know more about “josh-hunk”. she said multiple members kept calling him that. i explained they were probably actually calling him hyung, at which point my sister yelled hyung at me and i said it wasn’t for girls. then svt appeared, and performed hot! at one point, joshua had a whole sexy strut moment that ended in him staring broodily out the window, right next to my mum! i internally screamed over not sitting next to her. then, jeonghan lifted mingyu off his feet and threw him at joshua! despite him hitting a brick wall, everyone thought it was good fun, mingyu included. 8.5/10, it was pretty cool bonding with my mum over a kpop group, but i can’t believe i chose not to sit next to her and consequently missed out on having one of the members that close…

4) seventeen’s joshua had transformed into a little yellow parrot called perus. he was being bullied by a bigger, meaner parrot, who kept insulting him and pecking him. eventually i stepped in, grabbing perushua and barricading us together in a bathroom where the other parrot couldn’t reach us. i proceeded to stroke his feathers until he relaxed. 9/10, despite him getting picked on for most of the dream, he made an adorable parrot, and his feathers were so soft.

3) i woke up one night needing to pee. i opened my bedroom door, and turned towards the bathroom - only to find a crowd of random people, all cheering for exo! exo were in a pre-performance huddle, right in front of the bathroom doorway, and as i watched, sehun slowly lifted his head and made eye contact with me. i promptly ran back into my bedroom and spent the rest of the night listening to their concert. after, i opened my door again to watch them leave. inexplicably, taemin was there with them, doing a little jig. 9.5/10, i spent most of the dream too shy to face them but even through a closed door, the concert was great!

2) i was taking part in some kind of gbbo spin-off with my old high school friends. inexplicably, seventeen were there too. at one point, jun was reading instructions. i was sitting between mingyu and minghao, and we had secretly inserted a pun of jun’s name into the instructions. i was watching for his reaction, and the three of us all grinned at each other when he realized. later, i looked up from making biscuits to find jun smiling warmly at me. 12/10, jun’s smile was just… so warm, and sweet. lovely smile to find aimed at you, even in a dream. i was also very snug between mingyu & minghao.

1) there was an apocalypse that turned people into bloodthirsty monsters! while porchay from kinnporsche was having a whole valiant hero moment, i was frantically trying to squeeze my arse through a window to escape. flash forward to a grand banquet thrown for all of the survivors. i ran into exo’s baekhyun, and told him we were cousins because we share a birthday. then he hugged me, and it was the sweetest, warmest, loveliest hug of my life. afterwards, i bumped into hyuna, and she was also my cousin, as she had replaced one of my real life cousins. we also had a pretty great hug. i went in search of more idols to hug… but got trapped by taylor swift, who regaled me endlessly with exclusive secrets about her music videos. i was too polite to walk away from her. 15/10 purely for the baekhyun hug. oh god. so warm. so firm. would hug him forever if i could.

and on that note... 2023, i can only wonder what dreams you have in store for me.

[after-midnight-rp]

❞ Will we both go home alive? ❝

― After Midnight ; a place that is rising from the ashes searching for redemption after the world had found its end. This is the place where many survivors do find their spot in hope to find a way back to life — yet life is never going back to how is used to be. Or maybe it is never meant to return to its old ways … creating a new reality within.

Only one question remains that only you can answer: Will you come and join the light? Or bask in the glory of darkness?

Come and join, after midnight.

Welcome to After Midnight RP including: ⟫ facebook based ⟫ 18 + , AU ⟫ smut , gore , post apocalyptic , semi-gang ⟫ semi-lit to literate ⟫ master x slave

↬ The Lore and World ⎰ Races ⎰ Apply 101 ⎰ Rules and Guidelines ⎰ Masterlist ⎰

[luumiinaa]

other than the tragic beginning and turn of events, they both definitely, fell in love at first sight 🥹

♡ reblogging from my shadow-reader days ♡

A Safe Place

Pairing: Chanyeol x Fem Reader (2 references)

Genre: Angst

Word Count: 11.9k

Warnings: Major Character Death, violence

Summary: You and your sister are trying your best to survive, but you can only go on for so long without food, water, and shelter. When three strangers show up, and help you battle a herd of zombies, you have to decide if you trust them enough to follow them to their camp or if you’d rather continue trying to make it on your own.

~ A part of The Undead: An EXO OT12 Collab hosted by myself ~

“Did you check all of the cupboards?”

A sigh rips through your sister as she turns toward you. “This is only our thousandth time doing this. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on it by now.”

You lean your head back and look up at the dilapidated ceiling above you. You know her sassy response isn’t because of you or your question but because of the entire situation at hand.

“I wasn’t questioning your ability. I was only hoping you had found something.”

Keep reading

[uchinagai]

rainbow rebels

Karina

Leader of aespa. Begs ningning to met y/n but always turned down, obsessed over rv, shinchan & kim ad its all her personality. Very weird and creeped out y/n a bit when they accidentally met. Everyone inside industry already knows her huge crush on someone she met once.

Winter

Vocal of aespa. Supports karinas delusions the most because she just wants to become friends with y/ns friend, song kang. Resembles puppy a lot so kim remembers her as “puppy girl with a bob”. Also huge red velvet stan.

Giselle / aeri

Rapper of aespa. Ningnings favorite and her favorite is ningning, won’t even try one bit to hide it. Wants to meet kim desperately because she claims that they have “similar vibes” so also supports karinas delusions. y/n remembers her as “the cool one”.

Ryujin

Main rapper of itzy. Met karina at some award show and tells everyone, including her fans, that they’re dating as a ‘joke’ but sometimes takes it too far. Kind of jealous about y/n since it’s karinas newest obsession aside of shinchan.

Kai / jeongin

Main dancer of exo. Met karina in SM building for a challange and became close after “hot & cold” performance. Became friends easily, don’t know how. very babygirl-fied guy and one of the sassy man apocalypse proud leader.

Jeno

Main rapper of NCT DREAM and NCT U. met karina in sm building walking around and just approached her, out of blue. Supportive friend of rina and only guy in the friend group with jeongin. (i dont know much about nct so he's here for the kicks :3)

prev - masterlist - next

[paintingwhiteceilings]

❃Seventeen’s chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse❃

a/n: soooo I wrote this for EXO and thought, well, why not do the same for svt. Anyway, enjoy!

Scoups/Seungcheol: 8/10

❀ The fists are up and he is ready to fight anyone or anything that gets too close. His physical strength will definitely get him far. At the same time, this man is also a bit, just a bit, of a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror stuff (remember him and DK in the haunted house?). In this case, it might actually help him out, keeping him on his toes constantly.  

❀ He is super competitive too. If anyone lets it slip that he might not survive the apocalypse, he will make it his sole goal in life to out-apocalypse everyone around him.

❀ Then again, as the members like to remind him, he is not the youngest and perhaps doesn’t have the best endurance any more. He needs to sit down every now and then, leaving him prone to zombies.

❀ He will definitely be complaining the entire time. Somehow, he manages to make his situation sound much worse than it really is. 

Jeonghan: 9/10

❀ Nothing really phases him, I feel like Jeonghan has maxed out all his stats and has, consequently, become unstoppable. He is an absolute ace and makes everyone wonder whether he was born to be in a zombie apocalypse.

❀ The only reason I am docking a point is due to this man’s constant exhaustion and love for sleep. His main motto is “Better be lazy than tired” so I wouldn’t be surprised at Jeonghan trying to find ways to shortcut the most basic of tasks. There is a slight, very tiny, chance for his master-mind plans to go awry.

❀ Once he finds himself in a dangerous situation or on the brink of being eaten, he will simply give up. Maybe life is truly easier as a zombie. At least he won’t have to constantly be on the run.

❀ Still, Jeonghan will be going through this apocalypse in the most efficient way possible, trying to find any loopholes to make his life easier and preserving his energy for those moments when he truly needs it.

Joshua 5/10

❀ Honestly, Joshua is such a wild card. He would definitely try to employ the “they can’t predict what I am doing if I don’t know what I am doing” tactic. Joshua becomes the definition of “can’t let them know your next move.”

❀ It would work half of the time. Either the zombies get so confused that he catches them off guard, or all he did was inconvenience himself further.

❀ Like, what if, instead of running away from the zombies, he would run towards them? The zombies would definitely not be expecting it but it would make it easier for them to, you know, kill him.

❀ His ideas are borderline insane, and nobody can really tell whether it is due to the apocalypse or because he is Joshua, having always been slightly out of his mind. He will definitely get someone else accidentally killed by suggesting a crazy plan. My money is on Hoshi.

Jun 4/10

❀ The reason this man has any chance of survival is because Seventeen treats him like a maknae. I am pretty sure they would sacrifice anyone and anything to keep him alive, and he kind of needs it.

❀ Jun isn’t particularly known for his amazing talent at sports. He always gets picked last in any GoSe episode containing physical games which makes his odds of surviving not too great. Like yeah, sure, he is ripped and probably has amazing endurance, but ask him to throw anything and he will miss.

❀ He is also unpredictable and doesn’t really listen to the others. They will tell him not to touch the zombies and he will see it as a challenge, “I can touch a zombie if I want to!”

❀ 10000000% the type to try and communicate with the zombies. He is convinced that if he can learn Korean, he can also learn zombie and ask them if they can become friends.

❀ (Maybe slightly unrelated, but he would be an amazing person to have around for emotional support. He would be great at comforting those feeling pessimistic, scared or upset.)

Hoshi/Soonyoung: -100000/10 or 100000/10

❀ It can go two ways with Hoshi. Either he hides somewhere and vanishes from the universe until the apocalypse has ended or he gets himself killed within the first day.

❀ Hoshi has proven that if he doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find him. Somehow, this energetic mess of a Gemini is able to turn invisible when he wants to. Depending on how bored he gets, he might be able to stick it out until the apocalypse has ended.

❀ If he doesn’t hide, he is as good as dead. He has the dangerous combination of not being scared of zombies and zero impulse control. He will be trying something stupid without a second thought and would get himself killed.

❀ He growls at the zombies because surely, they would be intimidated by him. He is a tiger, after all.

❀ His members are seriously considering putting a leash on him so that he can’t constantly run off doing god knows what. He just really hates sitting still, let him go risk his life getting provisions.

❀ Honestly, the main reason why Hoshi won’t survive for long is because he would do another impression of Seungkwan, resulting in Seungkwan ‘accidentally’ kicking him into a hoard of zombies.

Wonwoo: 10/10

❀ He has played enough games and watched enough Netflix to know what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Wonwoo is prepared, well-read and ready to go. He will be the smart one that tries to find out what makes the zombies tick, taking notes on their behaviours and potential weaknesses.

❀ Wonwoo is, furthermore, so incredibly athletic. He can outrun the zombies with ease, not even breaking a sweat when he does.

❀ He also seems to possess brain cells compared to some of the members and a dose of common sense. I know that there is no normal one in Seventeen but he seems to put a lot of thought in his decision-making and seems less inclined to listen to his intrusive thoughts.

❀ Wonwoo could survive on his own, his introverted side ensuring that he doesn’t really feel the need to seek out others and depend on them. The only reason he sticks around the other members is for the drama. He loves watching the others bicker for hours, eating his popcorn as he lurks in the nearby shadows.

Woozi/Jihoon: ∞/10

❀ He has no idea that there is a zombie apocalypse going on because he hasn’t really gone outside since it started. Yeah sure, the gym he frequents has been really quiet as of late, but that is an absolute win in his book and he is not to going to jinx it by mentioning it.

❀ The world could literally be ending on the other side of his window, and this man would think that the sirens would make for an awesome sample for his song. What do you mean, sirens mean that something is going on outside?

❀ It doesn’t even matter if the other members come to check up on him or try to convince him to leave the studio, informing him the world is ending. “What do you mean it is dangerous outside, it always is dangerous outside.”

❀ He will simply survive the entire apocalypse because he had no awareness of it and it had no awareness of him. Woozi is on another level entirely.

DK/Seokmin: -1000/10

❀ An absolute mess. Somewhere laying on the ground in the feudal position up for grabs.

❀ He has been screaming since it started. The joke is on him, though. His screaming is precisely what alerts the zombies to his location and he is completely unaware of it. He finds himself in a vicious cycle where he sees a zombie, screams, more zombies appear, screams more, etc.

❀ He is ruled by his fear, trying his hardest not to be scared, but is in dire need of a hug. He needs the other members to comfort him and take the initiative because he is too scared to really do anything. He will definitely get someone else to go first; what do you mean you want him to go into that dark alleyway???

❀ He would not be able to respond well to finding himself cornered by zombies. Rather than fighting back or trying to come up with a plan, DK would most definitely just scream at them to get back and freeze.

Mingyu 1/10

❀ Technically, Mingyu should be able to survive. He is an excellent cook and can whip up any dish as long as you give him some ingredients. Also, as we have all seen, this man is mostly muscle. He should be able to hold his own in a physical fight.

❀ Not to mention that Mingyu is ridiculously smart. He can come up with a decent plan and have it work out.

❀ But his downfall is, well, literally, him falling down. He is clumsy; he will either accidentally drop something that is important to their survival and break it, or run into a tree as he is trying to make his escape.

❀ He is also not the best when it comes to the scary stuff (though I feel like he did pretty well in GoSe Ego). What do you mean he has to jump down from that ledge in order to escape the zombies? No thank you. Go into that abandoned supermarket, potentially running into zombies because he has run out of food? He would rather starve.

❀ They kind of need to keep him alive to keep Seungkwan from murdering half of the group.

The8/Minghao: 10000/10

❀ He is not scared of the zombies, the zombies are scared of him. They have interrupted his meditation sessions and are now regretting awakening his anger issues. He hasn’t been chill since the apocalypse started, and is now on a path of vengeance against those who disrupted his meditation.

❀ I know that Vicious Mockery is a D&D spell and, you know, magic, but he would be the one to make it a reality. He is able to emotionally damage the zombies, giving him the ability to attack from afar. As an added bonus, they would become more and more reluctant to get close, afraid to get roasted.

❀ Considering that he is great at martial art, Minghao can beat them up physically if they make the poor decision to get up in his personal space. So yeah, the zombies have learned to avoid him at all costs.

❀ The only thing that could potentially stop his destruction of zombies is the ethics and morals of beating them up. He might get into a debate with Vernon about whether their remaining humanity makes it unethical to hurt them, and ultimately decides that it is bad for his karma to continue his act of wrath.

Seungkwan: 5/10

❀ Initially, Seungkwan is so scared of them, he won’t get close enough to get killed. He is constantly nagging the zombies from a safe distance, warning them to stay away. All it does is make the zombies more determined to kill him. He keeps asking them to stop, but apparently, the tone he uses is important or something because they keep getting offended.

❀ Honestly, without Seungkwan’s constant nagging, half of the group would be acting on their insane and idiotic ideas. Then again, he would also be the one to ‘accidentally’ sacrifice some of the members when they inevitably get on his nerves.

❀ He would be ready to throw hands if you get him mad enough, forgetting he was scared in the first place. However, where Minghao’s anger issues result in a skilled display of violence, Seungkwan is ready to attack without much thought, considering the consequences later, hence disregarding his own safety in a fight.

❀ Regardless, Seungkwan will go out in a fire of rage, taking an absurd amount of zombies with him as he goes. It is glorious and cinema worthy.

Vernon: ?/10

❀ He is a npc so he can’t die. That is definitely how that works. Vernon is simply a part of the environment, don’t mind him. The zombies don’t recognize him as someone they can eat because they somehow believe him to be a non-interactable object straight out of a game.

❀ That being said, similarly to Jun, he hasn’t been particularly blessed with amazing motoric skills. I don’t think I have ever seen Vernon properly run, I feel like rather than running he would try to out-speed walk the zombies. Do not expect him to fight, he will try the bare minimum, and even that is too much to ask.

❀ Then again, he has consumed so many films and tv shows that he does have a massive mental archive of everything that has been produced about zombies from which he can draw whenever he finds himself in a pickle. Is fiction reality? No. Is it useful regardless? Yes.

❀ Considering he is Seventeen’s other favourite child, they will try their best to keep him alive. He has them all wrapped around his finger. One little whine and they will bend over backwards to help him with whatever he needs/wants.

Dino/Chan: -1000000000/10

❀ He is trying his best. If it wasn’t for the others, he would have a decent chance at making it out alive. He is fit, motivated and confident about his own capabilities without being overconfident. On his own, he would be determined to see the apocalypse through.

❀ Pair him up with Wonwoo and nothing can get him killed. Wonwoo will keep his Dino alive even if it costs him his own life.  

❀ That being said, the members would get him 1000% killed. They won’t let him breathe for a second and he has to constantly watch his back. They love him, sure, but they also think his shrieks of panic as they ‘accidentally’ lock him in a room with a zombie are hilarious.

❀ Against all of them, he truly doesn’t stand a chance. They don’t really want to get him killed but they make staying alive arguably much more difficult for him than it needs to be.

❀ At this point, he might simply give up and switch teams. He can get revenge on them by turning into a zombie, finally having the last laugh as he munches on their brains.

masterlist

[theresattrpgforthat]

Any RPGs about being an unethical mad scientist or being a mad scientist's creation? Like creating an orangutan with buzzsaws for hands, a horribly mutated two-headed crocodile, grafting a rocket launcher onto a demon's back, giant biomechanical monstrosities, etc.

THEME: Mad Scientist’s Paradise

Hello, so I have a few games that seem specifically tied to mad science, but I also found some games about mutant animals that are a bit more focused on a post-apocalypse. I hope they are still close enough to what you are looking for!

Metamorphosis BX, by Tragos Games.

Metamorphosis BX is a post-apocalyptical MiniBX hack in which you'll roleplay a hybrid survivor in an ever-changing world in which a cataclysm fragmented time and space. It is light both in mechanics and tone, aiming to be fun above all.

This is one of the games where your strange mutations and abilities don’t necessarily come from mad science; but I think they could, if you wanted them to. This is a game that employs the use of roll-tables and gives your characters both benign and malign mutations, with different sized pools of different size dice for your hit dice. What is interesting is that you have a list of different dice pools on what is called your hit dice double-helix, aka HDDH - taking your highest dice from your dice pool every time you take a hit. This encourages your characters to end fights quickly, or avoid them when you can - and it also makes for a highly lethal game.

Mutants in the Now, by Julian Kay.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, they ruled the streets, kick-flipping off of villainous faces and slipping into the shadows. Then, they vanished from the world of tabletop gaming.

But they’re back. And ready to KICK BUTT.

Mutants in the Now is a retromodern retake on the mutant animal role-playing games long past and left behind by licensing. Mutants fight to survive, thrive, and make the world better for themselves and humanity.

I’m not entirely sure what the origin of your mutation is in this game, and it seems that’s the point. The source of your mutations is meant to be a mystery, although big tech corporations, alien conspiracies, and psychic ninjas are all on the list of potential bad-guys. The game itself has a multitude of good reviews, with a lot of praise for the flexibility available to you at character creation, and a large amount of love for the random tables.

If this game sounds interesting but you want something a little less scienc-ey, you might also want to check out the Mutants in the Next supplement, which adds in cryptids, mythical beasts, and a post-apocalypse setting to throw at your characters.

CyberRats, by Alex Rinehart.

You are genetically engineered Operatives addicted to Biotech, a glowing gel that gives you superhuman powers. 

The world is being invaded by extraterrestrials known as Interlopers. You have been employed by a megacorp to ensure that the aliens don't win, and that if they are stopped, it's you who does it, and not some rival corporation.

Winning won't be easy. But it also won't be enough. The right corp must get credit.

Can you stop the aliens? Will you sabotage the military to steal equipment and defense contracts from your competitors? How many Operatives will you lose before you taste victory?

Cyberrats, an illuminated RPG.

Here’s a game all about being lab rats - literally! Cyberrats is a fast-paced shoot-em-up about genetically engineered rats addicted to the substance that gives them super-human powers, up against a terrifying alien threat. Your characters can be altered biologically, but also cybernetically, so I have a feeling rocket launchers and exo-suits are on the table here!

If you want to hear what this game plays like, you can check out the Cyberrats Radio Hour, a 30-minute episode full of alien combat and explosions.

Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones, by ChrisAir.

Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones is a 48pg biopunk facility-crawl for Mothership RPG, inspired by the body horror of Cronenberg’s The Fly and a twisted take on Metroidvania “save stations.” This zine is the first installment of The Sleeper Crew Adventures zine series.

PCs wake up in the Mountain Forces R&D Facility, dropped smack center into the plans of a scientist gone mad in her love for the dead despot that once owned the world. Players must gather clues, navigate NPC motivations, evade monstrosities before they Become the Mutants.

This is less of a gonzo scenario and more built for fans of horror, putting the player characters in a hostile lab environment and threatening them with a number of mutations as they try to find a way to stop the mad scientist big-bad of the adventure.

This isn’t a standalone game, but rather a module for Mothership, which is a game set inspired by Alien and has many, many different kinds of modules that you can run in many different horror scenarios. This module looks rather extensively developed, with printable maps, a set of VTT tokens, and art for all of the listed NPCs and Creatures. If you want a game full of suspense and horror, you should check out Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones!

The UPLIFT, by Kurt Potts.

The Uplift is a tabletop RPG about cybernetically uplifted animal heroes saving the galaxy with superpowers! Think Guardians of the Galaxy, but you're all playing Rocket.

You awaken to find you are both less and more, you are both old and new.

You play animals who've been cybernetically uplifted by some mysterious company or lab. Through your adventures you may get the chance to learn why this was done to you, but by then it may not matter anymore. You're a hero and the galaxy needs saving.

Describe yourself in four steps, and let the GM describe to you the situation the crew finds themselves in. You roll 2d6 for pretty much everything you try, with modifiers for advantages and disadvantages. Each character will have one super-power that allows you to add a third d6 to certain rolls, to increase your chance of beating the difficulty score. You can risk personal injury or busted implants on a failure, and then spend downtime later to fix yourself up.

I like that the designer of this game took the basic rules of WSCA games and combined them with tools like clocks and downtime, which are commonly seen from Forged in the Dark games. It allows the players to deal with bigger setbacks during play, because you know you’ll have a chance to fix them down the road. That being said, you can still choose to die a heroic death if you still want to!

Science & Sabotage, by Live Real Press.

You are a team of evil mad scientists, hell-bent on creating a doomsday device that can bring the world to its knees.

Unfortunately, there is competition for the honor. You must finish your device before they finish their device. 

You don't have time to play fair.

This is a game where you actually get to play the mad scientists, rather than their creations. It’s built off of the famous Lasers & Feelings structure, so you just need a d6 or two to play. Race against a rival team of mad scientists to be the first one to destroy the world - or at least, to threaten the world with destruction. This is probably good for a single one-shot, or perhaps, if you want to combine it with one of the other games here, you might want to use this game as a set-up for the event that destroyed the world, or perhaps your scientists are instead racing to be the first to cause mutations on a global scale!

Blister Critters, by stillfleet.

Pick your favorite varmint, grab your dice, and roleplay as a cartoon animal on a radiation-blasted Saturday-morning show!

The humans are gone just like the ozone layer, and the world they left behind is overflowing with danger…

In this innovative and surreal game, you play as a small animal who can wield bizarre mutations called Blisters as well as physics-bending Nonsense powers. These strange abilities—artfully developed within the Grit System—will help you survive in a vast, cruel suburbia populated by fellow Critters and their feral counterparts, Beasts.

The sun will mutate you and give you special powers as you scavenge the piles and piles of loot that the humans have no more use for. The tone of this game is very much like a Saturday-morning cartoon, but you can also turn up the gritty dial and make it about the harshness of this new world if you want to. Blister Critters uses a number of different polyhedral dice, with larger dice assigned to traits you’re good at and smaller dice assigned to traits you’re… not so good at. Your character also has two pools that can diminish: Health and Grit, which represent your hit points and your energy respectively. Your Grit can be spent to power the special abilities given to you by your Blisters, so the course of gameplay will likely require balancing your resources as you work through various obstacles.

The Kickstarter has finished for this game, but you might want to keep an eye on it so you can see when the final product is published. In the meantime, you can also check out the Quickstart, as well as the entries to the Critter City Crawl Jam.

[hyunpic]

list of songs hyunjin has played on his lives/recommended:

note: im probably missing some & i couldn’t put links to all of them cause apparently tumblr has a link limit 🤨

lauv: julia, lonely eyes, invisible things, paris in the rain, never not, im so tired, the story never ends, i like me better

offonff: photograph, cigarette (ft. miso & tablo), dance, bath

beyoncé: crazy in love (remix)

billie eilish: i love you, &burn, idontwannabeyouanymore, ocean eyes, before i go, tv

honne: day1, la la la that’s how it goes

christina perri: a thousand years

shawn mendes: mercy, treat you better, in my blood

dvwn: phobia

dpr live: jam & butterfly

jehwi: dear moon

leehi: rose

bts: dna, waste it on me, make it right

colde: where love begins, string (ft. sunwoojunga), the museum, wa-r-r, your dog loves you (ft. crush), control me, a song nobody knows, im in love

got7: miracle, hard carry

justin bieber: lonely

josef salvat: call on me

taemin: criminal

night off: sleep

sam kim: make up (ft. crush), like a fool, sunny days summer nights

niki: lowkey

iu: the visitor, lullaby, knees, love poem, give you my heart, my sea

cha ni: starlight

sia: snowman

akmu: happening

sunwoojunga: run with me

the black skirts: everything

korea cracker: ocean (ft. hoyeon kim)

cosmic boy: can i love?

penomeco: no.5 (ft. crush)

yerin baek: blooming memories, limit

10cm: so…., however

day6: i’ll try, love me or leave me, when you love someone, you were beautiful, congratulations, zombie, days gone by, afraid

dean: d (half moon), instagram, what 2 do, bonnie & clyde

exo: first snow, the eve, love shot

sam fischer: this city

jukjae: do you want to walk with me?, lullaby

ph-1: nerdy love (ft. yerin baek), as i told you

baekhyun: love again, un village

amine: blackjack

young k: come as you are, guard you

flume: say it (ft. tove lo)

twice: dance the night away, fancy

ariana grande: thank u, next

hajin: we all lie

about: it has to be you

caroline says: winter is cold

h.e.r: u, wait for it

bol4: to my youth

monday kiz: winter is as i wished

paul kim: the road, additional

sweden laundry: the winter

jung seung hwan: in that winter

chungha: gotta go

zion.t: no make up, snow

airman: gloomy star, i’ll be your spring (ft. j_ust)

motte: dont run away

seventeen: a-teen, super

khalid: location

lukas graham: 7 years

imagine dragons: believer

bo kyung kim: dont think you are alone

jung ilhoon: spoiler (ft. babylon)

davichi: falling in love, 이 사랑

coldplay: everglow, viva la vida

lyn: my destiny

jus2: focus on me, long black, senses (jpn version)

crush: beautiful, you and i

ed sheeran: lego house, perfect, photograph, beautiful people

croosh: why

20 years of age: x

tori kelly: paper hearts

seulgi: always

luna: do you love me? (ft. george)

wisue: someone’s shining

epik high: eternal sunshine

jp saxe: if the world was ending

seori: fairy tale

bruno mars: marry you

the weeknd: earned it, die for you

jung seunghwan: its raining, an ordinary day, dear

sam tinnesz: play with fire

post malone: motley crew

jihyo: stardust love song

kim feel: your voice

sung sikyung: solar system, heejae

younha: stardust

wonpil: a journey

taeyeon: invu, some nights, toddler, drawing our moments

nct dream: boom

ha hyunsang: 3108

huhgak: memory of your scent

se so neon: nan chun, a long dream, midnight train, stranger

umi: remember me

tvxq!: mirotic

johnny balik: honey

red velvet: psycho

new jeans: hype boy

christian kuria: losing you

cigarettes after sex: k. , each time you fall in love, sunsetz, apocalypse

dpr ian: nerves, no blueberries, 1 shot

samm henshaw: broke

woodz: drowning

kelly clarkson: underneath the tree

kimmuseum: to you who cant sleep

taylor swift: betty

lana del rey: young and beautiful

harry styles: watermelon sugar, she

pink sweat$: honesty

masego: tadow

olivia rodrigo: vampire

troye sivan: youth, for him

kai: mmmh

2pm: my house

oasis: wonderwall, hey now

mac miller: that’s on me, everybody

nothing but thieves: amsterdam

bren joy: sweet

back number: i love you

mac ayres: next to you, roses

daniel caesar: blessed, ocho rios, get you (ft. kali uchis), take me away (ft. syd), do you like me?, disillusioned

green day: dilemma

puma blue: already falling

bruno major: nothing, easily, places we won’t walk, the most beautiful thing, old soul

[atinycafe]

NAVIGATION (ﾉ´･ᴗ･`)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

SADE. nineteen (she/her). muslim&brown girl. ateez writing blog. ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧

Buy me a Ko-fi

As you browse through my posts and dive into the depths of my thoughts, I hope you discover a comfy corner that feels like home in my little account. So, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, get comfy, and let's embark on this adventure together. But, before you engage with my blog or delve into my content, I kindly request that you keep the following points in mind. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Much love!

Every single piece you'll find here is a creation of mine. I kindly ask you to refrain from reposting, translating, or copying any of my works. They hold a special place in my heart, and I'd appreciate your respect for my artistic integrity. Thank you for understanding! (」°ロ°)」

As of now, I do create some explicitly NSFW content, so I kindly request that individuals under the age of 18 refrain from engaging with this account. It makes me uncomfy when minors come across this genre of content that I write. (×_×)⌒☆

All my works are female!reader unless stated otherwise ("gn reader" in the tags).

Stan list: Ateez, BtoB, BND, EXO, iKON, ITZY, IVE, KARD, Kiss Of Life, Mamamoo, NCT, NewJeans, P1Harmony, Red Velvet, Riize, Seventeen, SHINee, SNSD, The Boyz, TXT, Twice, XG, Xikers.

hard hours: closed soft hours: closed commissions: open

MASTERLIST + BLOG TAGS + TAGLIST + RULES UNDER THE CUT

MASTERLIST [4 works]

LIME SORBET — reader finally comes back to s. korea as she finished her training in los angeles, ready to debut as a solo artist under kq ent! exciting right? well her sunbaes seem to like that idea too. [alpha!ateez x omega!idol!reader]

BENEATH THE SURFACE — mermaid!reader literally gets robbed by ateez and then falls in love w them after like they didn't just steal from her?? [pirate!ateez x mermaid!reader]

APOCALYPTIC AMOUR — a tight-knit friend group's carefree days turn into a fight for survival as they navigate a zombie apocalypse [ot8!ateez x fem!reader]

COMMON MASTERLIST — all of my ateez scenarios

BLOG TAGS [15 tags]

#lime sorbet : only and all the chapters of the lime sorbet fic

#beneath the surface : only and all the chapters of the beneath the surface fic

#apocalyptic amour : only and all the chapters of the apocalyptic amour fic

#limesorbet.asks : any inquiries or questions related to the aforementioned fic

#beneaththesurface.asks : any inquiries or questions related to the aforementioned fic

#apocalypticamour.asks : any inquiries or questions related to the aforementioned fic

#sade.speaks : not related to any fic, just my thoughts.

#sade.requests : requested prompts

#masterlist : all my masterlists will be present under this tag.

TAGLIST HERE RULES HERE (please read my rules before requesting!)

[kpoptimeout]

K-Pop Debuts and Comebacks for the First Week of June 2024 (May 27 - Jun 2 2024)

May 27

aespa - Armageddon

Popular girl group are edgy queens in the post-apocalypse in this MV!

May 28

Chen - Empty

EXO's main vocal CHEN is blue in this emotional ballad.

Jay Park - Taxi Blurr ft. NATTY

K-RnB King Jay Park drops another smooth collaboration, this time with 5th gen IT girl NATTY of KISS OF LIFE!

TREASURE - KING KONG

YG's mega boyband TREASURE is back stronger than ever in this powerful performance!

May 29

Yves - LOOP ft. Lil Cherry

LOONA's Yves debuts solo in one of the strongest garage tracks in K-Pop this year!

May 30

ARTMS - Virtual Angel

LOONA members re-debut as ARTMS in this unique MV and track!

ATEEZ - WORK

Talented boy band ATEEZ returns with a catchy bop!

SUHO - 1 to 3

EXO's leader SUHO is in the retro-future in this groovy solo return!

May 31

A.C.E - Supernatural

All-rounded boy band A.C.E is back as 5 in this sweet English track!

Jun 1

No releases.

Jun 2

Nahee - Ending

Indie artist Nahee's posthumous comeback tugs at fan's heartstrings.

What is your favourite release of the week?

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Tom Hansen vs Robert Cross!

Conditions:

No restrictions.

Scenario:

After the events of Cold Fear, Tom gets reassigned to Blackwatch for his proven proficiency in combating bioweapons. Robert Cross challenges him to a sparing match to see how advanced his skills are.

Analysis: Hansen

The ocean depths are a mysterious and dangerous place. At the lowest survivable levels of Earth's surface, strange creatures straight out of Lovecraft's nightmares evolved to survive the dark, cold, crushing depths of the ocean floor. And humanity was about to unearth some of its most dangerous creatures.

In the coldest parts of the Atlantic Ocean, Russian oil diggers discovered a new form of life within the ice they were mining. Exocels. Parasitic creatures that were completely uncategorized by existing scientific theories. Capable of overtaking the higher brain functions of their host and mutating them in response to dangerous external stimuli. Naturally, the crew of the Star of Sakhalin begain trying to weaponize these new creatures to sell for a profit. Predictably, it didn't work out. The ship was quickly overrun by mutant zombies and a distress call was sent out.

The call was answered by Tom Hansen, an officer of the United States Coast Guard who really wants to be Leon Kennedy. He and his crew were sent to rescue everyone on board, only to find everyone already dead or zombified. Narrowly surviving the massacre of his crew, Tom was left alone on the ship as the only thing stopping the Exocels from falling into the shadowy hands of the CIA.

Luckily, Hansen comes equipped with every weapon a survival horror protagonist could ever need. He comes decked out with the usual affair of pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons, each laser scoped to ensure perfect accuracy. Even his standard M1911A1 can completely pop a human’s skull like it was made from confetti, to say nothing of his MP5, AK47, and Benelli M4. But all of that pales in comparison to his sawed off M79 Grenade Launcher to blow apart any Exomutant that gets hit by it, even shredding through Exo zombies that evolved specifically to withstand bullets and fire arms.

Tom would quickly adapt against the rapidly evolving Exocels, using a modified harpoon gun whose harpoons emitted a protein gas, allowing his shots to distract Exocels with delicious smelling harpoons. Perfect for luring them into a trap or grouping them together for a grenade. Hansen has fought through squadrons of Russian mercenaries, defeated invisible Exocel zombies, dodged a steel door that was blasted at him by an explosion, and survived getting infected by an Exocel that tried to eat him alive from the inside out twice.

With nothing but raw wit, determination, and witty one liners, Tom rigged the entire ship to blow with C4 and faced down the man behind the entire disaster. Kamsky, the mad scientist turned sentient Exomutant out to replace humanity with his zombified master race. Kamsky is strong enough to completely demolish a metal bridge just by jumping right through it, generating an energy equivalent to 397,700 kilojoules.

Source:

Ultimately, Hansen defeated Kamsky, blowing the Star of Sakhalin to pieces and exterminating the Exocel threat once and for all.

Analysis: Cross

Captain Robert Cross. The Specialist. The elite of the elite and Blackwatch's greatest operative. When everything's gone to hell and the zombie apocalypse is knocking on the door, he's the man the US government calls in. He's insurance. Cross contained the viral outbreak in the underground city of Springfield. He's chased down powerful infected by himself and killed them with his bare hand, and he's the only mortal man to fist fight Alex Mercer one on one and live to tell the tale.

So when the Blacklight Virus contaminated New York and turned Manhattan into a post apocalyptic warzone, Cross was called in. His mission: Kill Alex Mercer.

Cross would prove to be the most tenacious and devastating human opponent Alex would ever face. Cross had done his homework. He'd use a shock baton to keep Mercer at a distance, fire homing rockets to harass him from afar, and control the battlefield with tactical use of land mines and fire grenades.

Now, Cross is one of the earliest bosses in the game, so he doesn't actually scale to the endgame feats Alex demonstrated. No earthquake scaling or relativistic reactions for him. Mercer at this point in the story was still getting ragdolled by Elizabeth Greene.

That said, he's still clearly superhuman. Mercer in the early game could still dodge tank shells, catch helicopters, and tear down buildings by himself. Alex could even burst clean through a two foot thick metal door, a feat that would require roughly 235,600 kilojoules to perform.

Source:

How did Cross compete with this? He's Robert Cross, don't ask questions.

Even laying defeated, Cross still had one last trick up his sleeve. Realizing that Alex hadn't yet regained all his human memories yet, Cross would refer back to Alex's death at Penn Station, triggering a painful flashback that distracted Mercer long enough to be injected with a parasite. This virus would hamper Mercer's powers and nearly kill him, with Alex only escaping being brought in right there by sheer luck.

Unfortunately, this would be Cross's undoing. After Mercer expunged the parasite from his body, it would become its own entity, becoming the Supreme Hunter. It would then track Cross down, assimilate him, then use his memories to attempt to manipulate Mercer into helping it consume all life on the planet. Alex would only narrowly defeat it by the skin of his teeth.

In a way, even in death, Robert Cross was the biggest human threat that Alex Mercer would ever face.

Throwdown Breakdown:

This is a fairly simple fight, honestly.

Hansen should be pretty even with Cross in terms of stats. Cross scales to Mercer catching helicopters, while Hansen can dodge explosions, both being roughly in the hypersonic ranges of speed. If anything, Hansen should even be slightly stronger, 397,700 kilojoules vs Cross's 235,600. Buuuut, that's where it all swings the other way.

Cross is better equipped. His electric baton is a better melee weapon, his homing rockets allow him to destroy or get around Hansen's cover, while his incendiary grenades and mines give him better battlefield control over Hansen's mostly stock arsenal. Everything short of Hansen's grenade launcher is just completely outpunched by Cross's destructive weaponry.

And skill is something that Hansen can't even compete with. Hansen is a regular Coast Guard officer in out of his depth against the zombie outbreak he's faced with, while Cross was hand picked to be a part of Blackwatch, an organization designed specifically to combat such bioweapons. Cross's status as a legend by Blackwatch standards, as well as his ability to fisticuffs Alex goddamn Mercer, puts him on a different level of skill entirely.

Hansen would compete evenly initially, maybe even getting an early advantage with his greater strength and superior reflexes, but once Cross had his number, he'd be swiftly outmatched and beat down.

Then, Cross would offer him his hand, compliment his right hook, and welcome him to Blackwatch.

This Throwdown's Winner is....

Robert Cross!

[bigbutchgothgirl]

Radical...

Snapped this one while dog-hunting this week, feat. my dork-ass Exo warlock girlboy Rudie-7. A gigantic subterranean lunar chasm containing a remnant of the previous apocalypse and portent of the next one is a great safe place for skimmer tricks, i'm sure we all agree.

[after-midnight-rp]

❞ Will we both go home alive? ❝

― After Midnight ; a place that is rising from the ashes searching for redemption after the world had found its end. This is the place where many survivors do find their spot in hope to find a way back to life — yet life is never going back to how is used to be. Or maybe it is never meant to return to its old ways … creating a new reality within.

Only one question remains that only you can answer: Will you come and join the light? Or bask in the glory of darkness?

Come and join, after midnight.

Welcome to After Midnight RP including: ⟫ facebook based ⟫ 18 + , AU ⟫ smut , gore , post apocalyptic , semi-gang ⟫ semi-lit to literate ⟫ master x slave

↬ The Lore and World ⎰ Races ⎰ Apply 101 ⎰ Rules and Guidelines ⎰ Masterlist ⎰

[theatrical-penguin]

Isn’t Deathbird the same Princess who allied with Apocalypse to kill Lilandra and seize the throne in the Beyond Good & Evil arc in the original series? Why would Gladiator trust her to work for Lilandra? She’d probably have teamed up with Ronan if he’d offered her the throne.

Of course she was going to attack Xavier until he literally schooled the Shi-ar. She’s lucky he had a his own Obi-Wan moment of sensing the Genosha attack.

Maybe he can keep the exo-suit in the divorce settlement. It would come in handy helping Storm, Rogue, and Cable rewrite Genosha. Which is what we’re going to do, RIGHT?

[superman86to99]

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #1 (April 1994)

DOOMSDAY IS COMING... BACK! Superman has been having nightmares about Doomsday, which is the natural psychological reaction when someone kills you. In his dreams, Doomsday has already wrecked the entire Justice League (again) and goes after Superman, who turns into a scared little boy in the middle of the fight. Just when Doomsday is about to knock lil' Clark's head off...

...he wakes up. It's the same dream every night. So, Superman decides to do the healthy thing when something is scaring you to that point. No, not visit a therapist -- finding and killing it.

But where is Doomsday these days, anyway? The last time anyone saw him, he was floating through space after the evil Cyborg Superman tied his body to an asteroid and tossed him there. As it happens, just when Superman is thinking about finding Doomsday, a cargo spaceship headed for Apokolips runs across that asteroid and takes it in, thinking they might be able to sell it to Darkseid as a big paperweight or something. By the time the ship lands in Apokolips, everyone inside is dead -- and soon, so is everyone in its general vicinity. As Doomsday tears through Apokolips' residents, one seems to recognize him and calls him "the Armageddon Creature," which for some reason makes me think of Steve Buscemi.

Even Darkseid seems freaked out by Doomsday. He sends his elite guard to slow him down with their fancy exo-armors, which "can stop anything"... except, it soon becomes clear, Doomsday's fists. When Doomsday kills one of the guards, a little gizmo on his back starts glowing and something jumps into the guard's armor -- it's the Cyborg Superman, whose consciousness had been hiding there since Superman Superman destroyed his previous body!

So now they have two maniacs destroying poor old Apokolips (what did they ever do to deserve this?!). Desaad wants to call the Darkstars or L.E.G.I.O.N. or some other cosmic police force for help, but Darkseid would rather evacuate the entire planet than do that.

Meanwhile, after talking it over with Lois (who isn't exactly thrilled about her fiancé going after a creature that has already killed him once), Superman realizes who can help him find Doomsday: the Linear Men, the protectors of the time-stream, since they can find anything, anywhere, anytime. He stands outside young Matthew Ryder's home, causing the adult, time-traveling Ryder to materialize and ask Superman why he remembers a famous superhero loitering in his back yard one night. Superman asks the Linear Men to give him all the info they have on Doomsday, but Matthew hits him with the "sanctity of the time-stream" stuff again.

However, Matthew's more hot-headed (pun intended) alternate reality version, Waverider, manages to give Superman a "subtle" clue about Doomsday's current location:

Back in Apocalypse Apokolips, Darkseid decides to step in personally and hit Doomsday with his legendary Omega Beams. No one can withstand the unsurpassed force of the--! Oh, wait, no, Doomsday did, pretty easily. And then beat the living crap out of Darkseid. After seeing that, Desaad is like "screw this," disobeys his master's orders, and calls the Justice League headquarters... just as Superman has stepped in to ask for help in finding Doomsday. Desaad ends their intergalactic Zoom call, but this makes Superman put two and two together and decipher Waverider's hint.

Now aware that Doomsday is in Apokolips (but still not knowing if he's alive or dead), Superman borrows a Mother Box from the JL's Oberon and teleports there, only to immediately run into the Cyborg breaking shit up. Superman is ready to fight him, but the Cyborg hits him with something more devastating than any blast: a live video feed of Doomsday, alive and kicking. Well, punching.

And then he hits Superman with a blast. While the Cyborg is distracted torturing Superman, Desaad uses the opportunity to open up a Boom Tube near Doomsday to teleport him away (which they probably should have done in the first place, huh). Superman flies off to stop it, but he's too slow: Doomsday has been sent to some other planet... perhaps Earth?! TO BE CONTINUED!

Creator-Watch:

This marks the glorious return of inker Brett Breeding, who we hadn't seen since the end of "Reign of the Supermen" because he was focusing on this miniseries. This time, he's actually providing finished art to Dan Jurgens' layouts, and the result is probably his finest work yet. We've all missed Breeding in the regular books (no disrespect to Josef Rubinstein), but that makes this mini feel extra special and like a prestige event worthy of that cardboard cover and the extra three bucks. More art gushing in Don Sparrow's section below!

Plotline-Watch:

No idea if this is intentional or not, but the final page, with Superman failing to catch Doomsday's Boom Tube and wondering if he stopped himself out of fear, reminds me of the classic final pages of Jack Kirby's Forever People #1 (1971), when he intentionally stops in the middle of a Boom Tube trip. Not many comics end with an emotionally devastated Superman kneeling between some rocks in front of an orange background after just barely not making a Boom Tube trip.

Superman mentions to Lois that one of the reasons he wants to find Doomsday's body is because he remembers how obsessed people in ancient Krypton became with genetic engineering (as seen in the World of Krypton miniseries), and he worries someone might recreate him or make an army of Doomsdays. That's a pretty clever way of delivering information that will become relevant when we find out Doomsday's origin, next issue.

ELROY SIGHTING! Of course that little jerk wouldn't wanna miss an issue where his rival for Lois' affection has serious chances of suffering a violent death...

Don Sparrow says: "A small nod to the 'Emerald Twilight' storyline happening in Green Lantern, as Superman mentions he can no longer ask Green Lanterns for help in outer space." Find out why at the @greenlantern94to04 blog, which just reached Green Lantern #50! (I'm hoping to have that blog catch up to this one by the time we hit Zero Hour at least, so we can crossover.)

Another important observation from Don: "Superman’s a boxers guy now, which is a switch from the tight-whiteys he wore in the now-famous Superman #50. No, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my life, why do you ask? (Weigh in with your comment—do you think Superman is a boxer guy, or briefs? NOT about whether I’m wasting my life.)" I'm gonna go with briefs on the outside, boxers on the inside. He's a man of two worlds!

As he leaves the Ryder residence, Superman tells Matthew's confused dad to "teach your son to do what's right -- while you still have time." Am I the only one who thinks the even more confused little Matthew got a belting after that?

At the JL HQ, Maxima offers to come along to Apokolips to have her own rematch with Doomsday, but Superman says no because he wants to face his fears alone. I feel kinda bad for her, but she must be pretty used to Superman turning her down by now.

I like this little car parked outside Darkseid's palace. Did a cabbie get so lost that he ended up there? Did he still charge $6,50?

Not even the Linear Men could figure out where exactly this miniseries fits in the continuity. This obviously takes place after Action #694 (February 1994), the issue where we last saw Doomsday floating in space, and before the Zero Hour event (September 1994), due to certain events involving Matthew and Waverider. Thing is, that Action issue takes place during the long storyline when Superman is losing control of his powers, which doesn't seem to be a problem in this miniseries. That storyline ends in Action #699, which is also the first part of the "Battle for Metropolis" storyline, which leads directly to Metropolis becoming a big pile of rubble in Action #700. Metropolis seems fine in this mini, so this must be taking place during Superman's power woes, but something about him being stronger than usual during such an important rematch doesn't seem right to me. Let's all just blame this on Zero Hour messing with the time-stream.

Patreon-Watch:

Our patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca got to read half of this post back in November, because Don got a bit ahead of himself, and now they get to read half of our upcoming post on Man of Steel #28, because it happened again! Take advantage of our absentmindedness by joining us at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

Speaking of Don, he's got way more to say about this issue, so keep reading...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

Some context behind the art on this issue:  While I was essentially a DC-only kid in the early 90s, you simply couldn’t ignore the revolution happening at Image Comics.  I still maintain that those early Image books weren’t popular only, or even mainly because of the creators, and certainly not because of the stories—I think what set them apart were the incredible production values.  (The fact that there isn’t that much appetite for trade paperbacks of early Spawn or Savage Dragon issues bears this out.) The paper quality and digital colouring that Image Comics offered blew the doors off of what DC was publishing regularly.  And it wasn’t that DC was incapable of using the same techniques, or paper supply—indeed the astonishingly illustrated Batman movie adaptation from 5 years earlier showed they could.  So while I found Image comics to have enviable art, but no stories to my taste, I couldn’t help but wish that my beloved Superman comics could look as nice as the Image comics on the newsstands.  That’s one part of what made these issues so exciting.  Of course, a rematch with Superman and Doomsday was another attraction, and as if we needed a third reason, this mini-series reunited Jurgens and Breeding, who weren’t the usual team on the superbooks at the time. 

After all that, we start with the cover, and the simplicity would certainly make it jump off the stands.  Jurgens was always the most posteriffic Superman artist, where the action poses would make a great pinup, but without sacrificing story.  This cover is a great example of that, with a determined Superman flying into battle on a computer-generated background of flames on the front cover, with Doomsday stomping into action on the back cover.  Even the title pages boast some great production values, as the brushed steel photoshop texture and rounded gradients on the rivets make for a much more photo-realistic finish than usual. 

Issues like this one are tricky, because it’s tempting for me to comment on every darn page, because the art is so consistently at a high level.  So, in the interests of keeping this post from becoming a novel (yes, I know I went overboard in the Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special issue!), I’ll just highlight the very best of the best.

The slow buildup of the early pages are very well done, as the peaceful dreamlike setting of Clark’s childhood farmhouse give way to the adult nightmare of Doomsday.  The full page splash on page 4 is perhaps the defining image of Doomsday (one we saw repeated in modern times, as it was swiped last year in the aforementioned 30th Anniversary issue).

I like seeing the Superman-era Justice League (even if it’s among the wreckage), though my copy has a colouring error on Blue Beetle’s costume).  

The outer space scenes, of the doomed space freighter crew have a scary, claustrophobic feel, and I can definitely remember my heart racing seeing Doomsday awake (even though we knew he was a long time ago).  The design on this ship is reminiscent of the semi-canonical Superman/Aliens mini-series that’ll come out in about a year’s time.

As any loyal reader knows, I love good Lois art, so seeing Lois in her pajamas is a treat when handled by this art team.  Later in the issue we get a Darkseid that rivals John Byrne himself for my favourite depiction of the lord of Apokolips.

We are also introduced to the new look Cyborg Superman (Jurgens tried hard to establish his name as simply “The Cyborg” but it never really took—even with Vic Stone not in the comics of the time, I think DC fans always thought of “Cyborg” as a good guy) which is one of my favourite looks for him.  I think I may slightly prefer the look he had in mid-2000s Green Lantern comics overall, but even they took the red and black look established here.  It’s a small panel, but I remember copying and re-copying the little shot of a very handsome Superman flying toward the camera on page 26.  The subtle gradients in the colouring really add a lot. 

Back to Apokolips, the simple silhouette of Darkseid using his omega beams is a stunner, especially with the sizzle effect at the edge of the beams.

Not sure I pictured Darkseid having red blood, as we do (dark gray maybe?  Black?) but the image of someone as imposing as Darkseid yelping in pain is definitely one that will linger.  For pure cartooniness, I love the panel of Desaad’s shock at seeing Darkseid KO’d.  After seeing the Lord of the Rings films, I always pictured Brad Dourif as Desaad, but at this time (and certainly seeing this panel) I think Marty Short would have made a great one. 

I appreciate the Justice League being involved, even tangentially, given their involvement in the first Doomsday battle.  Though Maxima’s costume is technically more demure than when Superman was in the league (in mourning for Superman she updated her look in Justice League America #71) as she’s covered chin to toes, she somehow seems more naked than ever in these pages.    

There are a couple reused panels in this comic, which stand out—page 40 reuses the famed Doomsday portrait mentioned earlier and that same page inserts a shot of the Cyborg’s eyes that is clipped from page 43.  Not the end of the world, but noticeable to me.   As Superman emerges from the Boom Tube, I like the blue-tinged lighting on his costume, some good colouring there.

Lastly, the body language as Superman passes by the closed Boom Tube that transported Doomsday elsewhere is well observed. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

This mini-series also highlighted an unfortunate trend of the early-to-mid 90s—that anything really big rarely happened in the regular titles, but was relegated to special—and enormously more expensive—special issues or mini-series.  Despite this story being seismic in importance, it was mostly ignored by the events in the tightly-linked Superman titles at the time.  Which to me felt like a missed sales opportunity, certainly the rematch between Superman and Doomsday would have bolstered sales line-wide, had they done it in the regular books.  But having a new-reader friendly self-contained story, by a single writing and art team AND a high price point won out in the end.  This was also true in the Batman titles, where pivotal characters like Azrael and Bane were introduced in prestige format one shots or mini-series rather than the monthly titles.

Maybe another reason this story was confined to a mini-series—it’s quite gory in some places, perhaps too much so for a code book?

Back in the 90s, they’d always play it coy about whether Superman and Lois have a sexual relationship, but as in the past, they do give hints to support one reading or the other. On the one hand, they keep separate apartments, but on the other, they do have potentially meaningful captions like “hours later” that may contain multitudes.

I gotta say, I was sorta surprised and impressed that DeSaad didn’t immediately make a power play in order to rule Apokolips himself.  Though, he likely knew that no matter what he’d need someone as powerful as Darkseid (or Orion, or Mr. Miracle) to combat Doomsday.

I do get a kick that even under duress, DeSaad still officiously signs off with a “DeSaad out!”, Seacrest style.

It’s grim, but the expression on the face of the dead inspector is unintentionally hilarious to me.  Almost like it begs for one more word bubble. [Max: Don's gonna hit us with a "Totally Rad!" isn't he?]

[Max: ...I stand corrected.]