#he's the kind of guy who animals are drawn to FIGHT ME

[moraxsthrone]

wrio happened upon a kitty while visiting inazuma and i couldn't help but think how precious it is that he probably stops and takes the time to pet small animals (if they'll let him).

he probably squats down and puts his hand out, softly inviting them to come closer and rub their lil heads against his fingers and he gives them treats and plays with them for a few minutes before sighing, "would that i could take you home with me but," looking around at the green grass and iridescent flowers, "you're better off here where there's sunshine and a breeze..." 🥺💗

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Prime Season 3: Final episodes, final thoughts

Well, here we are. The final seven episodes of Sonic Prime are out on Netflix, concluding the story of Sonic's adventures in the Shatterverse. I've previously shared my thoughts on the first and second seasons, which I was pretty mixed on, but there were still glimmers of hope. The fluid animation, Shadow being fun in all his appearances, Nine being fairly interesting as a jaded alternate version of Tails, etc. There was enough to make me believe that after some highs and lows there was still the possibility that this show could end on a high note - or at least a decent note.

This did not happen.

Sonic Prime's final season sucks. The ending sucks, and the road to get there sucks. It's left me wondering what the point of all this even was. There are still moments I like that I'll try to highlight, and the animators and voice cast are still clearly giving it their all, but these efforts sadly don't outweigh the overwhelming mediocrity of the story. I would barely even recommend other Sonic fans who are on the fence go out of their way to finish it. I won't begrudge people who got more out of this show than I did, but I think overall I just really, really dislike Sonic Prime.

...The problem, of course, is that all other discussion of the show has been overshadowed by needlessly hostile arguments over its place in Sonic's canon. So we've gotta talk about that, too.

(This post will contain full spoilers for Sonic Prime.)

The show's out of ideas but they've gotta stretch that shit out to hit the 23 episode mark somehow

Season 2 ended with the big twist that Nine decided to betray Sonic and Shadow, taking the Paradox Prism for himself so that he could go turn the empty world of the Grim into his own little paradise, since he doesn't believe he'll fit anywhere else. Nine has made himself the true big bad of the show.

The main impact this has is that now, instead of fighting endless identical Eggforcer bots and members of the Chaos Council over and over, the good guys and the Chaos Council have to fight endless Chaos Sonic-style robots sent by Nine while he goes "grrrrr I need Sonic's energy to stabilize the Paradox Prism." This continues for six whole episodes until the series finale, when the show decides it's time for Sonic and Nine to quickly make amends, fix everything, and send Sonic and Shadow home.

That's pretty much the whole season.

I cannot emphasize enough just how much of this final season is just fight after fight after fight against Nine's bots, and how fucking boring that gets. The season feels like one long, drawn out final battle that did not need to be nearly this long, but Nine had his big heel turn 2/3 of the way through the show and we've gotta fill up the rest of the time somehow. The novelty of the bots being based off of Sonic's friends (including the Chocobo-sized Birdie from the jungle world) really wears off quickly when they're just used as generic, silent mooks that the good guys have to fight by the dozen like it's the climax of an MCU movie. The first episode of the season with Sonic and Shadow fighting the new bots is pretty good, especially because Sonic and Shadow's dynamic is one of the few redeeming aspects of this show's writing, but after that it just gets boring. Three full episodes in a row are spent showing all the characters fighting robots in an empty wasteland while Nine scowls next to a big beam of energy. I found myself missing the in-your-face attitude of Chaos Sonic so much. He truly was one of the best parts of this show.

While the cast is busy fighting all these robots for what feels like an eternity, various things of varying levels of interest happen. There's a halfhearted attempt to have some kind of rivalry between Shadow and the main Grim Sonic throughout the final battle, but it completely falls flat because Grim Sonic has no personality whatsoever. It's like Shadow beefing with an above-average Egg Pawn. (Actually, no, that would be funny.) There's also a death fakeout with the two other versions of Tails, where they make a makeshift bomb and throw it a little too close to themselves on the battlefield and seem to get vaporized. If they had actually died there they would have had the funniest, most pointless deaths in the entire franchise.

I also realized at one point that they were trying to do the Avengers girl power fight thing with the three versions of Amy fighting a bunch of Rouge bots. This was very funny to me. Actually, so much of this is just following the tired MCU formula to the letter. Fighting over a macguffin, two armies just kind of running at each other and clashing in a big empty field, constant one-liner quips instead of actual jokes, the need to take out key targets to make the whole enemy army disappear, a villain who has a point but has to randomly hurt people so that there's an excuse for the heroes to fight him. When combined with how shit the multiverse stuff is, this whole show really is just Man of Action tackling some of the most played out storytelling tropes in modern pop culture in the most bland way possible. What a bunch of hacks.

By far, the one truly fun thing that happens in this protracted final battle is when a giant robot based on Big appears. It doesn't have arms or legs, but it can swing itself around to use its tail like a giant mace, and it can also shoot Froggy-shaped missiles out of its mouth. I wish the rest of the show was even half as fun as this. Again, Sonic Prime has just enough good moments to make you mad that the rest of the show isn't better.

The thing is, all this repetitive (but well-animated) action and the thin excuse plot would be totally serviceable if I just gave a shit about the characters involved. But I don't. I don't care what happens to the pirate version of Amy who goes "arrr." I don't care about what happens to Hipster Eggman. And unfortunately, by the end, I didn't really care about Nine, either.

Nine as a villain

It's hard to criticize the story here without it coming off as a broad condemnation of the tropes at play. The thing is, I like many stories that try to do similar things. I love clashes between heroes and villains that are really just fantastical exaggerations of more personal conflicts. I love stories where a tragic, sympathetic villain lashes out at the world as an expression of the pain they feel, and a compassionate hero just has to get through to them. I eat that shit right up. Undertale is my favorite game ever made. Shit, I love other Sonic stories that do these exact things. And Sonic having to fight an alternate timeline version of Tails also has so much potential for drama!

So I can very easily imagine a version of the show where all this works for me. That just isn't the version we got.

Like I said last time, Nine's motivation is just too sympathetic and understandable for his sudden turn to supervillainy to make any sense. He just wanted to start over somewhere where he can be happy after a childhood filled with bullying and loneliness. Nine betraying Sonic and stealing the Paradox Prism to go make his own world? That tracks! Especially since we don't even know if Nine will still exist if Sonic goes through with his plan to restore his original world! But trying to kill everyone in New Yolk City by tilting the world 90 degrees, intentionally targeting the civilian population because it'll get to Sonic? Nope! Sorry, that's a bridge too far. I don't buy it. He's jaded and antisocial, but he doesn't strike me as cruel. Writing in an excuse about him needing Sonic's energy to fix the Prism does not make this make more sense.

This was really just one of those conflicts where it felt like everyone should stop and talk it out. Instead we got six episodes of fighting before one of Sonic's many, MANY attempts at reasoning with Nine throughout the season finally works. This isn't me pulling some Cinema Sins bullshit where I complain about characters in a work of fiction not always behaving rationally - the real problem is that it's just so damn repetitive waiting for this conflict to resolve. This could have been wrapped up in two or three episodes and instead it takes seven.

A brief aside about that weird Dorkly-ass Sonic Advance 3 flashback scene hacked together with mismatched sprites where Gemerl happens to be present, presumably just because he's a part of the sprite for the Sunset Hill boss, and seeing him briefly makes me remember the extended cast from the games and how much I wish they had just made a cartoon about them instead of a bunch of stock characters wearing the skin of Sonic's friends, but then Gemerl just explodes with the boss machine at the end while Eggman is shown to get away so I guess Gemerl just dies in this flashback

Yeah that sure happened huh

The ending

Despite having a final battle that felt like an eternity, Sonic Prime is a show that just kind of... ends. And that ending is weird and haphazard.

The understanding I had was that Sonic's normal world had "shattered" when the Paradox Prism was destroyed, and from those remnants these new worlds were created. This is why they use terms like "Shatterverse" and "Shatterspaces" and why there's shattered glass/crystal/whatever imagery everywhere. This is a broken, fragmented version of the real universe. Right? Right?? Isn't that the entire premise of the show? And therefore, if the universe has been shattered, then fixing it means putting all the shattered pieces back together. Which I would assume means that the Shatterspaces cease to exist.

So, in the ending... Sonic's world seems to just exist as another Shatterspace. Restoring the Paradox Prism doesn't seem to combine the worlds or anything, it just fixes the broken portal to Sonic's world that exists alongside all the others. So... what exactly was the point of all the shattered glass symbolism?

Things only get more confusing as the ending progresses. Shadow brings Sonic through the portal before the draining of Sonic's whatever energy makes him disappear, and they're transported back in time to right before Sonic broke the Paradox Prism. Only Sonic seems to remember what happened (Shadow might remember, but he doesn't say anything), and with the Paradox Prism never shattered, it's unclear if the Shatterspaces exist now.

I'm not particularly hung up on the time loop ending. It's very much in line with all sorts of classic morality tales like A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life, where the flawed protagonist goes through some kind of magical experience and then returns home with a new appreciation for the people in their life. It's always been pretty obvious that was the type of story they were telling. I'm more bothered by the fact that there's no time whatsoever spent on whether or not the other worlds and the characters in them continue to exist. Sonic seems to act like the worlds will go on without him before he leaves, but it's not like we get an ending scene that shows how the other worlds are doing, so they really truly might as well not exist anymore. Sonic just wraps up the adventure from the first episode when he gets home, and before he can explain what happened from his perspective he's interrupted by a mysterious energy wave from off-screen and it's off to the next adventure.

(Despite this odd cliffhanger ending, the show is extremely over and not coming back. I have to imagine this is just a "the adventures never end" type ending and not a hint that more shit is going on with the Paradox Prism.)

This ending is also a terrible resolution to Nine's whole arc, despite him being the driving force of so much of the show. The way I see it, there are are three possible fates for him:

The Shatterspaces continue existing, and things go as Sonic expects them to go. Nine is allowed to make the Grim into his own little utopia, and everyone else leaves him alone instead of punishing him for all the trouble he caused. Instead of finding love and acceptance so he can heal from a lifetime of bullying and loneliness, Nine is allowed to run away, isolating himself from every other living being in the multiverse, and live alone as the god of an empty world with only his own creations as company. Sonic was his only friend, and he's gone forever now.

The Shatterspaces continue existing, but because of the time travel ending, most of the events of the show never happened. Sonic never helped defeat the Chaos Council, so they still control New Yolk City. Nine is back to living in this dystopian city with no friends. He never met Sonic.

The Shatterspaces have been erased. After fighting so hard for his right to exist as his own person and not just a "wrong" version of Tails, when the timeline is altered, he just... stops existing. Along with almost every other character in the show.

Do I even need to explain why these are all unsatisfying?

Misc. thoughts

I skimmed over this, but a lot of the final season is just spent seeing Sonic's friends bicker with the Chaos Council and then Sonic has to beg them to get along to save the universe. It gets old.

We also never really got an explanation for why the Chaos Council exists. They can't have come from other Shatterspaces because there ARE no other Shatterspaces. If the original Eggman was just split into five guys or time travel was involved or whatever, it never comes up. I can live with this, but it seems like an odd omission for a children's show that's constantly bogged down in technobabble explaining the mechanics of its extremely small and finite multiverse.

I have no idea where Shadow was for the first part of the final battle. I figured Nine must have captured him off-screen after Sonic first left the Grim, but Shadow was just... hanging around until his cue in the script, I guess?

Sonic saying "help a brother up" to Shadow was funny

Hipster Eggman pointing to one of the few nameless extras who tagged along for the final battle and going "Who are you? Seriously, does anyone know who this is?" was the only funny thing he did in the entire show

Mangy Tails randomly pressing buttons on the Chaos Council's generator like a curious animal and managing to improve its output was cute

Rusty Rose randomly realizes that the Birdie in her chest actually isn't being used as a power source, and that the Chaos Council was just... using that to manipulate her, somehow? I don't really know how that works but whatever

The Sonic Advance 3 flashback uses the actual boss music from the game, but they can't use the real Sunset Hill theme because they didn't wanna pay Masato Nakamura for using the Green Hill motif, I guess

To my fellow fans of bad games: did you know that Man of Action wrote the story for the bizarre Square Enix game The Quiet Man? The one where the lengthy FMV cutscenes play out with muffled audio and no subtitles because the protagonist is deaf, so you can't tell what's going on? And you had to do a New Game+ playthrough to actually hear the audio and understand what's going on? The worst-reviewed game of 2018? That one? I only learned that recently and it blew me away

So yeah, that's the end of the show. I didn't like it, and I don't think I liked the show much as a whole. I am far from alone in this sentiment, but the reasons why people dislike the show... those vary a bit.

The canon conundrum

More than anything else, it seems like most other discourse surrounding this show has been consumed by one talking point:

How can this be canon? Why is it canon?

I want to state very clearly up front that I, too, am a person who's noticed and complained about the inconsistencies with the games in Sonic Prime. Some of the characters are a bit off - or, you know, completely unrecognizable when discussing the writing of some of the AU counterparts. I think it's lame to say Sonic and friends all live in Green Hill and act like that's the entirety of their world. That sort of thing. But if Sega says it's canon to everything else? Sure. Fine. There's weirder shit in the canon.

Really, most of this can be explained away pretty easily. The show was written at a time when Sega was still figuring shit out and there were looser restrictions. Why does Sonic act a little more immature? Probably just because Prime is aiming for a slightly younger audience than the games or the IDW comics. (And also it's, y'know, written by Man of Action, who people have accused of only knowing how to write one kind of protagonist for years.) Why do Sonic and friends live in Green Hill? Because that's the most recognizable location from the games, and the game world doesn't get enough screentime to justify modeling multiple different environments, so they just focus on Green Hill. Why is this considered canon to the games? Because this is the first Sonic cartoon that outright references events from the games as things that have happened to Sonic in the past.

But announcing early on that Prime would be canon certainly let fans' imaginations wander. It was one of the few things we knew about the show before it premiered. People wondered if characters from the games and comics who had never made any appearances in Sonic cartoons might get their time in the spotlight. We wondered if it would tie into the lore or any existing storylines in interesting ways, like the IDW comics do. But above all else, we hoped that its canon status would mean that Sonic Prime would finally be the Sonic cartoon that was faithful to the source material with no catches. We've literally never seen the actual world of the games brought to life in a TV show. Sonic X came the closest, but that still took its liberties. And so hype built for this Canon Sonic Cartoon.

And then it actually came out, and after a brief intro in Green Hill based loosely on the games, it spent most of its running time focusing on things like "what if there was a version of Eggman who was a bratty teen who just wanted to play video games?" The disappointment among fans is understandable. I am disappointed. Look at how much I've bitched about this aggressively mid cartoon.

Some fans, however, came up with an elaborate theory about the series. You see, when asked about the show's place in the game timeline during a live Q&A, Ian Flynn (who only served as a consultant on Sonic Prime and did not write any of it) said this:

"I cannot answer because I know the answer, and you haven't finished watching the show yet."

A couple days later, when answering another question about Prime's place in the timeline and also about a writing discrepancy, he said this:

"As to where it fits on the timeline, I can't speak to it because that would spoil the show to a degree. So you're just gonna have to wait 'til it's done. Towards the other point, I don't know how much I can say, so it's probably better that I not comment. That's a really dissatisfying answer, I know, I'm sorry, but my hands are kinda tied on that one."

I feel the need to quote Ian directly here, because these very basic statements about how he can't talk about behind the scenes shit or anything from unreleased episodes was GREATLY misinterpreted by the fandom. People clung onto Ian's claim that we had to keep watching like a life preserver. Some took it as Ian saying that the ending would explain everything. Finally, we'd have a definitive answer for every little discrepancy and the apparent differences in worldbuilding. An explanation for why Sega and the producers repeatedly insist this show HAS to be canon.

And to these fans, the only explanation that made any sense... would be if the ending of Sonic Prime pulled a Flashpoint.

As this theory explained, the Sonic we were following in Sonic Prime wasn't the Sonic we know from the games and the IDW comics, and likewise the world he comes from isn't really the game world. This is a different Sonic who fights a different Eggman in a world that's literally just Green Hill. It was a hint that something was off all along! But in the end of the series, this Sonic would sacrifice himself to merge all of the Shatter Spaces together and form a brand new world, and that would be the more visually diverse world of the games and comics. According to this theory, Sonic Prime was canon because it was a new origin story for the entire franchise.

I want you to really stop and think about how asinine of an origin story this would be. Really drink this in. The idea that there was another, slightly different version of Sonic who went on a kinda shitty multiverse adventure and then sacrificed himself to create the real Sonic that we've known since 1991. People convinced themselves this made more sense than the simple explanation that a different team of writers got some stuff wrong and Sega didn't make them change it. Interviews where producers talked about drawing on Sonic's "mythology" (ie: they reference the games in the show) were taken very literally - they must be saying that Prime's story is mythological in nature, and that this show would be integral to the games' mythology. Why bother making a show that's canon if it's not going to be crucial to that canon, after all?

The final episodes dropped, and none of this happened. Because of course it didn't. It was all Sherlock fandom-level copium. But fans were left confused by the lack of a grand reveal of where Sonic Prime fits in the timeline, believing they had been promised this, and they turned to Ian for an explanation. Ian's answer:

It doesn't matter, b/c Prime wipes itself out. It's sometime after Advance 3*, but otherwise, it's moot. I didn't want to sour anyone's expectations or investment by spoiling how Prime resolves, that's all. If you enjoyed it, awesome. Savor it. If you didn't, then you can safely ignore it. Simple as that.

* About a trillion people have um, actually'd Ian to point out Orbot and Cubot briefly appear in the show, but if we're really being pedantic here we don't actually know how long before Colors Eggman built Orbot and Cubot, so it wouldn't be fully accurate to say a story featuring Orbot and Cubot couldn't be set before Colors. Either way, a story set anywhere around Colors, or at any point later than that, could still be described as "sometime after Advance 3." Advance 3 is just the most recent game that has specific in-game events referenced in the show. Yes I can feel myself morphing into the nerd emoji before your very eyes

Anyway, this is the latest reason Ian is getting death threats on Twitter. This time it's over a show he barely even had any input on!

I'll cut to the chase. It is truly wild to me that people are getting this heated over canonical inconsistencies in a series as historically inconsistent as Sonic, to the point that they think threatening Ian is justified. The aesthetics of the entire world Sonic inhabits change every other game. Sonic Chronicles may no longer be canon due to the Penders lawsuits, but it was canon at one point, and it took huge liberties with Sonic's world, moving Green Hill off of South Island and reinterpreting Station Square as a tiny outpost in a snowy alpine forest region. Characters' personalities change from writer to writer and based on what Sega wants at the time, with some being WILDLY different across different games. One game Sonic will be stoic and cool, the next he thinks "Baldy McNosehair" is the funniest thing ever. Sega's STILL trying to figure out what Amy's personality is supposed to be. We still don't have the explanation for how the two seemingly contradictory backstories for Blaze can fit together. There have been multiple huge, sweeping retcons, and retcons to those retcons. Sonic Forces claims that Classic Sonic is from an entirely different universe than Modern Sonic, and the plot only makes any sense if that's true - otherwise, Modern Sonic would have already known Eggman was going to beat him and take over the world when he did, because his younger self had already lived through that war. All of that makes no sense in the newly reunified timeline, but Forces is very much still canon.

For fuck's sake, we're talking about the series where Eggman blew up half the moon and then it looked completely normal in every other game after, explained away as "the moon just rotated so we can't see the destroyed side from Earth." This has never, ever, ever been a franchise where everything lines up perfectly with no issues. It's not that serious.

The real core problem with Prime isn't that things don't line up 100% with our current understanding of canon, or that Sonic's characterization means this can't be the real Sonic, or anything like that. The problem, as I've been saying this whole time, is that the story is bad. None of these discrepancies would truly matter if the story was better. They'd just be nitpicks. The fact that Sonic and friends live in Green Hill would be the farthest thing from my mind if the drama was more engaging, if the villains were better, if the jokes were actually funny, if more of the alternate universe counterparts of Sonic's friends had more than one generic character trait each, if the multiverse was more creative and varied, if the final seven episodes of this show didn't devolve into the third act of an MCU movie and then just arbitrarily end, if Nine's character arc actually had a satisfying conclusion instead of ending with either isolation or nonexistence. Maybe we'd be seeing people talk about more than just whether or not it should be considered canon if the writing was any good.

"Canon" is not real, and it sure as hell isn't worth sending people death threats over. It's a storytelling tool. Real human beings decide what does and doesn't go into that canon, or how much they do or don't want to draw on past stories, when creating a new story. Serving that canon is secondary to creating a story where the emotional truth resonates with the audience. And Sonic Prime failed to do that. That is its true failing.

And finally, to close out...

Since people will ask, here are my current ranking of the Sonic TV shows, now that Prime is finished.

Sonic Boom

Sonic SatAM

Sonic X

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic Prime

Sonic Underground

Yes, I'd say Boom is my favorite. It's far from my ideal Sonic cartoon, but it gets a lot of points for being as funny as it is. But the top four are all shows I'd say I like, more or less. They all have their pros and cons.

So now, uh... I guess let's hope the live action Knuckles show coming to Paramount+ is better than the underwhelming synopsis of "Knuckles helps deputy sheriff Wade train in the ways of the echidna warrior" would imply? Maybe we'll get lucky?

[reikorun]

KlubOutside Q&A 201-300 [Translation]

Translated by @reikorun

Q201.

2021.09.20

I like Luppi. I was absolutely overjoyed when Luppi made an appearance as a playable character in Blade Battlers 2nd which was released on PS2. In this game, Luppi's arms transform into tentacles and he could extend them to attack. I was surprised because there was no such depiction in the original work. Did sensei also supervise the settings for attacks in this game?

A201. 

I can't recall so I probably didn't touch it. Luppi fighting with outstretched arms is so entertaining to me. I think that outlaw kind of feeling is one of the greatest qualities about games back then.

Q202.

2021.09.20

Of all the characters you have drawn, which one did sensei consider the most difficult to design?

A202. 

Shun Shun Rikka, or rather the image of Orihime's abilities is the one thing which changed the most without quite clicking together. Initially, the story was that Orihime herself would grow Horns and sprout a tail, becoming sort of like a dragon girl.

Q203.

2021.09.20

Sensei, is there any character that you have drawn who makes you think "this guy is insufferable"? 

A203.

There isn't. I draw while thinking “this is so scummy, that's the best thing about it.”

Q204.

2021.09.20

Does Kubo-sensei have any fetish? When I look at sensei's drawings, I can't help but speculate that you like slender wrists and long fingers, regardless of gender. 

A204.

I don't have any particular fetish. I think it's because I draw illustrations using my own hands as reference.

Q205.

2021.09.20

Regarding Ichimaru Gin's eye color, I believe it was red around the early days of the anime, and then changed to blue in the latter half. What does Kubo-sensei think of his red eyes around this early stage? Also, as far as Kubo-sensei's canon is concerned, is it safe to assume Ichimaru Gin's eye color is blue? 

A205.

In the early days, the checks were not being handed down to me so they ended up being red. For the record, the anime related mistakes were errors made by my editor at the time who didn't bring the checks to me. Because of this, I drew Gin with his eyes open on the cover of volume 20.

Q206.

2021.09.20

Rukia's visuals in the live-action adaptation has become quite a hot topic of conversation, but was the matter reviewed by Kubo-sensei?

A206.

I had made it clear from the beginning that I would not be involved with the live-action project, so basically the whole thing was given the okay. Even regarding Rukia's hair, there was a conversation where they said "we'd like to go ahead with this" so I assumed there was a clear vision but it turns out there wasn't. I don't dislike the movie itself. Renji was extremely good.

Q207.

2021.09.27

Kubo-sensei, to what extent do you supervise merchandise and so on? I'm very happy that a lot of BLEACH merch has been released recently.

A207.

I feel like I'm supervising the things my editor can't make a judgment call on. Speaking of editors, they try their best to avoid handing over supervision duties to authors so that they can allow authors to concentrate on their creations, but after the series had ended, I had some free time so my editor has started bringing me more supervision duties than before.

Q208.

2021.09.27

If it were to come true, would you ever wish for a BLEACH anime adaptation, which faithfully follows the original work, to be broadcast by way of a remake?

A208.

I think I would.

Q209.

2021.09.27

It seems that the 2021 art exhibition will only be held at one location in Tokyo, but would it be possible for you to consider holding it at a variety of other locations? I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm sure there are many people across the country who live a considerable distance away and can't make it. It's a wonderful opportunity, so I think it will be easier to visit if it is hosted in various locations. I think it's a really difficult task, but I would be grateful if you could consider it just once.

A209.

I also want to show the exhibit to my parents, so I hope it will be held in Hiroshima.

Q210.

2021.09.27

Even though Byakuya and Ichika-chan never interact in the original work, I can easily imagine Byakuya being an uncle. I wonder why that is?

A210.

I can imagine it too. Byakuya's face whenever he tells her "kamawanu*"…. (*It's fine/I don't mind)

Q211.

2021.09.27

In volume 58, chapter 518, when Grimmjow was trying to interrupt Urahara and Ichigo's communication, Urahara instructed Orihime and Sado to "use the you-know-what to chase him back outside the tent", but what exactly was the "you-know-what"? What in the world is it, that it can throw Grimmjow off balance to such a degree…? I've been wondering about this for a long time.

A211.

It's a device which emits a sound that Grimmjow dislikes.

Q212.

2021.09.27

Is Ninny-chan easier to draw than Noel-chan?? I was curious because there are more illustrations drawn of Ninny-chan!

A212.

This is because the clothes I want to draw tend to suit Ninny better. If you have big breasts, it's probably difficult to find clothes that suit you.

Q213.

2021.10.04

Ginrei is Byakuya's grandfather, but Kyōraku did not mention his name as a Shinigami who has been Captain for 100 years or more, so perhaps his career as a Captain was rather short?

A213.

I forgot to mention him! Let's just pretend it was Shunsui's blunder.

Q214.

2021.10.04

Do you find that characters of a certain age group are easy to draw, and conversely,  characters of a different age group difficult to draw? 

A214. 

I'm not very good at drawing children or toddlers.

Q215.

2021.10.04

I have been curious about Tsubokura Rin-kun of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. Rin-kun's hair wasn't filled in when he was in monochrome, I thought for certain he had pale blonde or white hair. However, in the anime his hair was dark brown … so as far as you are concerned sensei, what colors did you imagine when designing him? 

A215.

Was that the color it turned out to be? The image I had in mind is a pale sepia-like color.

Q216.

2021.10.04

Isn't it too bothersome to draw Grimmjow's hairstyle??

A216.

It's too bothersome isn't it? I wonder if you could give him a stiff pompadour instead?

Q217.

2021.10.04

Do you remember the first game you ever played?

A217.

It's "GeGeGe no Kitarō - Yōkai Daimakyō" which was purchased for me together with the Famicom unit itself.

Q218.

2021.10.04

Do you get asked to draw portraits by acquaintances?

A218.

I have always refused all portrait requests from both friends and celebrities.

Q219.

2021.10.11

What is Kensei's specialty dish? 

A219.

It's "Whole Pumpkin Gratin". The highlight for him is the part where he gets to use his bare hands.

Q220.

2021.10.11

When I saw the Playlist on KlubOutside, I was surprised at the wide scope of Sensei's music choices. How do you discover new music?

A220.

SoundHound is my recommendation.

Q221.

2021.10.11

Is the bellyband worn by the Shinigami Men's Association the same as the one worn by Kirinji Tenjirō?

A221.

It's different. The bellyband Tenjirō wears was made by Senjumaru.

Q222.

2021.10.11

Now that I think of it, what does "Whiskrs" mean? I looked into it, and although there are some existing terms, I couldn't find anything in particular with regard to its meaning. I don't know whether sensei came up with the name or not, but perhaps it envelopes some special meaning? 

A222.

It's a modified spelling of the word "whiskers". I came up with the name, or to be more specific, it's originally the name of a store that exists within the BTW universe. Though, this still has yet to make an appearance in the story.

Q223.

2021.10.11

When you go out, have you ever had a fan recognize you as Kubo-sensei and then attempt to speak with you?

A223.

A long time ago, another author wound up uploading a photo of a drinking party I was with to Twitter in the middle of the get-together, the restaurant was identified from the photograph and I was ambushed. It was late at night and I was on my way home alone, so it was really scary. That was probably the one and only time I was approached on the street.

Q224.

2021.10.11

Sensei, have you ever felt negatively about your own work in the past? I am currently creating works with the goal of becoming a designer, but unfortunately I feel embarrassed to display even the things I have created very recently in front of others. How do you overcome this from your perspective, sensei?

A224.

When I first became a manga artist, I felt embarrassed when my editor read my draft right in front of me. If you are creating something that personally satisfies you, you're just not accustomed to showing it to the average person, so you have no choice but to show it to a bunch of people and get used to it. 

Q225.

2021.10.11

Have you ever had a character Awakened in Brave Souls? If so, I would like to know which character it is.

A225.

It's Fierce Battle Aizen. Though, it's more like I just ended up Awakening him when I was targeting others.

Q226.

2021.10.18

In the work, it was never once stated from a  reliable source that Tōshirō's Bankai comes undone once his petals dissipate, but what actually happened when his petals fell away during the period he had an imperfect Bankai? 

A226.

Hitsugaya would injure himself after going through an imperfect growth.

Q227.

2021.10.18

When Rangiku had collapsed, Gin said "the fact that you passed out from hunger, it means that you have it too, right? Spiritual Power." and in Volume 11, there is a description from the exchange between Rukia and Renji that those with Spiritual Power feel hungry. But why didn't Hitsugaya realize he had powers until he dreamed of Hyōrinmaru?

A227.

Because his grandmother taught him that "only children get hungry.”

Q228.

2021.10.18

Why did Orihime's Rikka grow larger when Chad and Orihime returned from training in the final arc? I was curious because no one touched on the matter.

A228.

That's because Kisuke modified it to match her clothes (a cover was installed on the outside of the pins to make them difficult to break), but nobody said anything because they didn't think it was particularly worth mentioning.

Q229.

2021.10.18

When I was looking at "Hirako glasses" which was updated on the Gallery's Graffiti section, I became curious, what is that thing Hirako Shinji is holding in his mouth? Considering the hot drink in his left hand, maybe it's a cinnamon stick or something?

A229.

It's a cigarillo that he's holding in his mouth purely for fashion. I looked into it when I drew it but I couldn't find anything that matched the size I imagined.

Q230.

2021.10.25

Good evening! The work titled "maturity" in the gallery that was released on April 3, 2021, could that be Mayuri-sama?

A230.

It's Mayuri. When I tried to type the title "mayuri", I accidentally tapped on the wrong suggestion and entered that instead, I left it as it is because it's a pain to change it.

Q231.

2021.10.25

Did Ikkaku make the strap that Ichika has attached to her bag in JET?

A231.

That's right.

Q232.

2021.10.25

In BLEACH, how much influence did the ranking results of popularity polls have on a character's level of activity?

A232.

It's irrelevant. I'm the type who thinks "isn't that kind of thing discourteous to characters with few votes?"

Q233.

2021.10.25

Regarding the art exhibition, is it possible to increase the number of venues? I would absolutely love to participate, but due to the current situation, it is quite difficult to travel to Tokyo. Nevertheless, there are many fans of sensei and his work around the world. Although this is a very presumptuous request, I would be extremely grateful if you could consider it. Best regards.

A233.

I'll let my editor know! Murakoshi-saaan!!

Q234.

2021.10.25

Sensei, given that you play a lot of Dragon Quest, I was curious, is "Zaraki" - the district of Rukongai which Zaraki Kenpachi took as his name - based on the spell "Thwack" (*Zaraki in Japanese).

A234.

That's correct. Hold on, have I never mentioned this before?

Q235.

2021.11.01

Is there any reason why Kyōraku-san couldn't grace the cover of a tankōbon? I wanted him to have a cover.

A235.

It's just a coincidence. I wanted to draw it too.

Q236.

2021.11.01

Are Renji's tattoos only on the upper half of his body? Do they not continue down to his thighs?

A236.

They don't continue down. Wait? Have I never drawn his thighs before?

Q237.

2021.11.01

Is the double chant that Rukia recited during the fight against Aaroniero, simply the Sōren Sōkatsui chant split in two, with the Rikujōkōrō chant sandwiched in-between? Or does the substance of the chant change slightly depending on whether each is invoked independently or as a double chant?

A237.

It's a shortened version of Rikujōkōrō inserted between the full version of Sōren Sōkatsui. The effectiveness of the spells will increase if you perform both chants in full, but the time efficiency will decrease, so that would diminish the purpose of a two layered chant.

Q238.

2021.11.01

When a Zanpakutō is inherited from another person like in the case of Tōsen and Kenpachi, will the essence of its soul be overwritten? Or will it be made to mix with the essence of the previous owner?

A238.

Generally it is overwritten, but in some cases it may mix.

Q239.

2021.11.08

Were there any foreshadowing elements that made you go "ultimately, nobody noticed, huh?" up to the end of the BLEACH serialization? If so, is it likely there will be an opportunity to present it somewhere?

A239.

After I've finished playing a game or watching a movie, I like spending time alone thinking about what happened here and there or discussing with others about this and that. I want to create moments like that, so there are some parts where I try to depict things in a way that is not easily noticed, that's why unless someone correctly points it out, I try not to say much. 

Q240.

2021.11.08

Why didn't Ryūken give Uryū the "ken" (弦) character in his name? ×[1]

A240.

Because he was thinking that he didn't want to let Uryū become Quincy.

Q241.

2021.11.08

How far have you progressed in Monster Hunter? If there is a monster that you like among the monsters that appear in this title, please tell me about it!

A241.

I haven't played in a while. In this title I like Goss Harag.

Q242.

2021.11.08

Can I post the photos from the gallery on social media??!?!?

A242.

I guess it's not allowed, going by the FC rules. You can post my dog from Deskside at least.

Q243.

2021.11.15

Have you ever had to change a scene you originally wanted in order to make the depiction more in line with Jump guidelines? If so, which scene is it and how did you truly want to draw it? 

A243.

During the time Jump had a large circulation, extremely graphic depictions were not allowed, so I had to redraw some of the places where Mayuri appears. The first thing I fixed was the scene where his squad members die in an explosion.

Q244.

2021.11.15

There are characters for whom the theme music feels perfect, and on the other hand, others for whom the theme music is unexpected. By listening to each character's song, I feel like I am able to learn more about a character's inner being, it's so much fun! When deciding on a song, which does sensei place more importance on: the lyrics, or the melody?

A244.

It's only about the melody, sound and vocal quality. If it's the case that the lyrics also match, it's just a coincidence.

Q245.

2021.11.15

The market for e-books has grown larger, but when it comes to electronic and physical copy, people often say things like "you should buy the physical book!" What do you think? 

A245.

Either one is fine. Even I read most of my manga electronically now. I like making paper books but I think physical paper copies will become more of a collector's item in the near future.

Q246.

2021.11.15

Kubo-sensei draws many animals, but are there any that you particularly enjoy drawing?

A246.

Right now it's dogs. Since owning a dog, I've started to grow fond of animals, so I feel like I may reach a point where I'm able to draw animals a little better now. 

Q247.

2021.11.15

If there was an entrance song for Chad's boxing match, I wonder what kind of music it would be? If you have a song in mind that you can imagine for this scenario, please share the artist's name and song title with us.

A247.

It would be "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band.

Q248.

2021.11.22

An illustration of Tatsuki wearing a Shihakushō exists, did you originally plan to have her transform into a Shinigami? 

A248.

The one I drew for Jump Festa a long time ago, right? That's just an illustration I drew for Jump Festa that one time.

Q249.

2021.11.22

It seems like Rukia often wears dresses in the Human World, is there some reason why? If you have any particular preferences regarding the clothing choices of the BLEACH cast, please by all means, tell us about it!

A249.

I'll give you three example reasons for why they wear what they wear:

Orihime's body type makes it difficult for her to wear a dress.

I wanted to make a physically active Rukia stand out by making her wear clothes that are ill suited for physical activity.

Rukia was wearing hakama in Soul Society, so she's not familiar with fitted clothes.

Q250.

2021.11.22

You may not remember this … but during an autograph signing session, I was the one who announced "I'm getting married to my boyfriend who I initially became friends with through BLEACH!" We broke up at lightning speed after that! (Peace sign.) But sometimes we hang out and are on good terms as friends. Now my question is, what is sensei's favorite color?

A250.

My condolences. It's orange.

Q251.

2021.11.22

In the JET Q&A segment, you replied that the Vice-Captains of the 13th Division ten years later would be Sentarō and Kiyone, but I believe Kiyone was also the Vice-Captain of the 4th Division, so does that mean that they are concurrently serving as Vice-Captains?

A251.

That would be a mistake. Sentarō is the only Vice-Captain of the 13th.

Q252.

2021.11.29

Please tell us how Unagiya Ikumi-san and Ichigo met in the first place.

A252.

Their meeting came about when Ichigo delivered Kaoru, a lost child (and Ikumi's son) back to his mother. (Ikumi encountered them en route.)  

Q253.

2021.11.29

Ichigo remembers the time Orihime carried her older brother Sora to the Kurosaki Clinic, but does Orihime remember meeting Ichigo at this time? When Ichigo entered high school, he noticed that Orihime was the girl from back then, does Orihime realize that it was Ichigo who greeted her at that moment?

A253.

Ichigo is the only one who remembers. Ichigo remembers that scene clearly because he felt a strong sense of one-way sympathy for Orihime, who was on the verge of losing her family.

Q254.

2021.11.29

Sensei, what's the one thing that makes you think "I'm second to none when it comes to this!"?

A254.

My Mickey Mouse impression.

Q255.

2021.11.29

I got the impression that Aizen-sama was often drinking black tea at Las Noches, but I wonder if likewise he drank Japanese tea during the time he was in Soul Society in the role of a Shinigami? Or is it that Western style food and drink like black tea also exist in Soul Society, and he has been a black tea enthusiast since long ago?

A255.

I drew that because I wanted a scene where Aizen eats the same thing as the Espada, but when it came to eating, there were some characters (like Ulquiorra) who I didn't want to depict in a dining scene (at that point), so I merely chose black tea as a compromise, therefore it's not that I was paying any particular attention to tea itself. 

Q256.

2021.12.06

Is it possible for a member of the Gotei 13 to transfer to another Squad at their own behest? Recruitment of Captains or Vice-Captains from other Squads has been portrayed, but what is the situation like for ordinary soldiers?

A256.

It is possible if they make an application and obtain permission through their superior officer all the way up to the Captain. However, If they don't have any accomplishments their superior will reject it so it's difficult for an ordinary soldier.

Q257.

2021.12.06

Do you have a favorite coffee shop?

A257.

The place I frequent the most is Hoshino Coffee. I want to go to Komeda but I haven't had the chance to go yet.

Q258.

2021.12.06

What kind of life did Ikkaku-san and Shino-chan lead in Rukongai? I'm not sure if they're related by blood or not, but are they still family?

A258.

They're ordinary relatives. The Madarame family are a distinguished family and Ikkaku is treated like an oddball.

Q259.

2021.12.06

What do you order when you use services like Uber Eats for delivery?

A259.

The thing I order the most is Starbucks' White Mocha. By the way, I don't use Uber because I had a scary experience in the past.

Q260.

2021.12.06

I would like a YouTube channel or something to be created for Uni-chan. 

A260.

If I could get someone to do the editing for me, then I would like to make one to document my dog's growth, but I don't think I would update it often….

Q261.

2021.12.13

If you were to spend a day with any character from "BLEACH" or "BURN THE WITCH", who would you like to be with?

A261.

I seriously thought about it, but maybe being with Balgo would be the easiest….

Q262.

2021.12.13

Speaking in terms of BLEACH characters, who would you compare the breast sizes of Noel-chan and Cquntnire-san to? 

A262.

It's more or less that I'm drawing Noel like Orihime and Cquntnire like Nel.

Q263.

2021.12.13

What is Kubo-sensei's favorite rock or metal band?

A263.

I haven't been listening to much metal lately…during my high school days, I liked ROYAL HUNT and IN FLAMES.

Q264.

2021.12.13

This is closer to a request than a question, but I would like for you to issue and sell, the currently trending, NFTs with BLEACH illustrations! If that were to happen, I would definitely buy them!

A264.

I'll let my editor know about this also. Murakoshi-saaan!

Q265.

2021.12.13

What is your favorite ice cream?

A265.

Lately, I've been liking HERSHEY'S Chocolate Ice Bars. It's also nice that each bar is small and just the right size.

Q266.

2021.12.20

I have a question regarding BTW Magic. In chapter 0.8 which is a one-shot, Noel-chan uses Absolute Dragon Shatter in Front London, but in chapter 1, numbered Pipers spells known as "Magic" made an appearance. As a premise, I believe that Magic and Absolute Dragon Shatter are alike (as they both use Witch Kits), I suspect that the reason why Noel-chan adopted this unnumbered attack method in Front London may be due to one of the following two points:

1. Magic is an attack method that utilizes the medium of Witch Kits to feed on a special energy similar to Reishi which exists only in Reverse London, on the other hand, Absolute Dragon Shatter is an attack method made for Front London, which does not require this special Reishi. 

2. Given that it was an attack against a Disguiser Dragon who had remained hidden for ten odd years, Absolute Dragon Shatter was used as an arcane means and is considered the highest order of Magic or even a method surpassing Magic itself.

I'm really interested about the relationship between Magic and Absolute Dragon Shatter, will it be revealed within the story in the future!?

A266.

How insightful, I'm not sure whether or not I'll get to write about it in the future so I'll explain. In Front London, you can basically only use spells through items that are "charged" with magical power. The gun-pipe is not a rechargeable item, but Noel habitually fills it with magical power of her own accord, the release of that power is Absolute Dragon Shatter. Only Noel is able to use it. 

Q267.

2021.12.20

The person Ichigo respects is Shakespeare. Given this fact, does it follow that this is a universe where eminent figures like Mozart and Napoleon existed?

A267.

Eminent figures certainly exist within the Soul Society too, but if I were to touch upon that, the manga would end up in a completely different place, so I didn't bring it up.

Q268.

2021.12.20

Do Szayelaporro's glasses have lenses? Since it's a mask, there should be no lenses so I assumed it was the frame alone. However in the anime, there were depictions of lenses reflecting the light and gleaming so I was confused! 

A268.

There is no lens.

Q269.

2021.12.20

Were all the designs of the Zanpakutō which materialized in the Zanpakutō: The Alternate Tale arc, created by you, sensei?

A269.

I came up with some ideas and had an image in mind, Kudō-san designed them, I checked them. They pass for various reasons like being "just as I imagined!" or being "interesting because I wouldn't have come up with this design myself!"

Q270.

2021.12.27

Do you have a favorite character from Dragon Quest numbered titles or spin-off works?

A270.

It's King Grossner (Dragon Quest 10).

Q271.

2021.12.27

I heard that you like figure skating, Kubo-sensei, but do you have a favorite athlete?

A271.

It's Candeloro.

Q272.

2021.12.27

It is mentioned in the novel "WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU", that when Shiba Kaien died in battle, Isshin was the Captain of Squad 10. Why didn't Rukia, who was already serving as a member of the Gotei 13 at the time, realize that Ichigo's father was Shiba Isshin when she was freeloading off of the Kurosaki family? 

A272.

There are two reasons for this: for one, his outward appearance was completely different. Secondly, he was a Captain from another Squad and she was a regular soldier, so they didn't have much point of contact in the first place. To go further, given that there is no way for a Shinigami to have children with a human (only Kisuke knows how), the idea that a "Shinigami may become human and produce children in the Human World" did not occur to Rukia.

Q273.

2022.01.03

I like the accessories (hats, sunglasses, etc.) and clothes that the characters are wearing in KlubOutside's Graffiti, they are exceedingly stylish. Is it possible to put them up for sale? 

A273.

I will let the FC manager know about this. Totani-saaan!

Q274.

2022.01.03

Sensei, do you have any plans to publish, for instance, the yonkoma you drew for the magazine into a single book someday?

A274. 

It might have been published in JET.

Q275.

2022.01.03

When you were writing BTW, who came to your mind first between Ninny and Noel?

A275.

Out of all the characters in BTW, Noel was the first.

Q276.

2022.01.03

When Rukia entered her name into the family register, it's assumed that she did not change her last name, but now that she has become a Captain, it means there will be two Captain Kuchiki, so how do the other troops distinguish between the two when addressing them? Is it possible that she will revert to the Abarai surname?

A276.

Many of the troops differentiate between them by calling them Captain Kuchiki and 13th Captain Kuchiki. 

Q277.

2022.01.10

Did Zangetsu eventually return to being a single blade? The "Ten Years Later" version of Ichigo was implemented in the social game - Brave Souls, and he wielded the "Zangetsu which emerged from a broken Tensa Zangetsu" as seen in the final stages of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. Zangetsu which was reforged into two swords for Hollow and Quincy, became one as Tensa Zangetsu in Bankai, so I thought for sure it would return to two swords once the Bankai is disengaged.

However, does this mean that Zangetsu did not return to two swords due to the fact that after activating Bankai, Ichigo's Hollow and Quincy powers were absorbed by Yhwach, and that his Bankai was damaged among other factors? Or is it that it's possible for Ichigo to wield both the dual swords and the single sword if he so desires?

It may just be game original staging to begin with, but I was intrigued.

A277. 

Since I haven't described this in detail nor do I plan to portray the matter any further, I'll give you an answer. The two blades of Zangetsu are the "sword" and the "sheath". The correct form of a Zanpakutō is one that has a sheath, and there are only two swords without one: Sayafushi and Zangetsu. What fixed Zangetsu into its "correct form" is the dual swords state, and in Bankai Zangetsu is placed back in its sheath, what emerged after that sheath was shattered is the "True Zangetsu". The shattered sheath was absorbed by Ichigo, so I think he is also able to return to dual blades if he wants to, but I suppose that depends on Ichigo himself.

Q278.

2022.01.17

I've always wondered about this since reading volume 12, but was there a physical relationship between Aizen and Hinamori? I think it's more fitting for Aizen to not engage in this sort of thing, so I'm on the side that says it didn't happen.

A278.

I won't answer this because I think it'll be more fun to leave it unanswered.

Q279.

2022.01.17

Is Hōzukimaru a rare type of Zanpakutō which always requires the sheath for its Shikai.

A279.

That's right.

Q280.

2022.01.17

Kubo-sensei, when it comes to TVs, are you in favor of wall-mounted? Or do you prefer freestanding?

A280.

Mine is attached to a wall storage unit with an extendable arm.

Q281.

2022.01.24

Upon being granted a letter, does the Schrift allow abilities to manifest based on the nature of an individual? Or does His Majesty already know what they are before granting it at the epithet stage. 

A281.

Yhwach can see words almost as if they were engraved on the individual's body. Those who are bestowed Schrifts, which were previously lost through death in battle and so on, are discovered from the words engraved on them and then given power.

Q282.

2022.01.24

Do Yōkai and Yōsei exist in the world of BLEACH?

A282.

It would be more fun if they did.

Q283.

2022.01.24

A color version of the BLEACH e-books exist, but does Kubo-sensei decide on the color scheme and such?

A283.

There are parts that I check and parts that I don't (I only check what my editor asks me to check), but even the parts that I do were decided upon rapidly in the intervals between my work schedule during serialization, so when I look at them afterwards, I often come to think "was this the kind of color I chose??”

Q284.

2022.01.31

Sensei, if you had the opportunity to be involved in a project in the future, what sort of creative work would you like to be involved in? (Live-action film, animated movies, manga, dramas, YouTube, etc.)

A284.

If I could get involved with the story aspect, then it would probably be a game.

Q285.

2022.01.31

If you could actually sell any kind of merchandise at the fan club shop, what kind of items would you want to sell?

A285.

Bracelets with the text from the opening poems.

Q286.

2022.01.31

Is the reason why Uryū was not affected by Auswählen connected to Uryū's grandfather?

A286.

There's a bit of a complicated setup regarding this, but it might appear in the anime adaptation of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. (Depending on the composition.)

Q287.

2022.02.07

It has already been decided that the Thousand-Year Blood War arc is getting an anime adaptation, but will there also be an anime adaptation of the side story novels? I'd especially like to see "WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU" in the anime which depicts Rukia and Renji's marriage and the progress of Ichigo and Orihime's relationship.

A287.

Ah, I see. If there is enough room, then it may be possible.

Q288.

2022.02.07

Is it not true that Gigi is a girl? It kind of seems like Yumichika only said otherwise to provoke her.

A288.

Giselle is a man.

Q289.

2022.02.07

Who was the one to slash Rukia from behind during the first invasion by the Sternritter?

A289.

The plan is to depict this in the anime version.

Q290.

2022.02.14

Is the giant spoon used by Hikifune Kirio of Squad Zero actually her Zanpakutō?

A290.

That's correct.

Q291.

2022.02.14

During the performance of the ROCK MUSICAL BLEACH, Kubo-sensei personally talked to Tsuchiya-san, who played the role of Gin, about Gin's true intentions and purpose, as he was having a difficult time interpreting the character, and Gin's true intentions had not yet been revealed within the story at the time. I remember there was an episode which went something like that, but in so doing, did you also discuss everything which occurred with regard to Rangiku and Aizen? Also, did you not have any reluctance to divulge information which has not yet been revealed in the story?

A291.

I feel that we talked about things like how Gin viewed each character rather than the story itself. If it is necessary for the performance, then there is a possibility that I may also convey undisclosed information to the voice actors so it's not limited to this particular occasion.

Q292.

2022.02.14

Is the "table with English language BLEACH quotes suspended inside its transparent legs" which you wrote about in the cover flap comment of Volume 44, still being used? I would love to see photos of sensei's favorite furniture and more!

A292.

I use it when I'm composing my drafts at home. The tabletop is in disarray, so I hope a photo of the legs will do.

Q293.

2022.02.21

With regard to the role of a Shinigami, it involves cleansing Hollows of their sins by way of a Zanpakutō and sending them to Soul Society in peace, but was this role simply to extinguish Hollows until Nimaiya Ōetsu showed up?

A293.

It was only after the creation of the Gotei 13 that the role of a Shinigami was properly defined.

Q294.

2022.02.21

At what age did Chad get his tattoo? Was it when he moved to Mexico? Or did he get it inked in his own hometown in Okinawa? I would be grateful if you could tell us.

A294.

He got his tattoo in Mexico when he was 9 years old.

Q295.

2022.02.21

I heard that the Lost Agent of the Shinigami arc concluded earlier than planned, is that true? If so, I'd like you to tell us about the story you were actually planning to write.

A295.

You mean the rumor that I was planning to compose an episode for all the classmates but I got bored and decided against it? If so, then it's true. I feel like I mentioned that in a character book or something.

Q296.

2022.02.21

Have you ever wanted to draw Oiroke manga? (*Manga with light erotic content.)

A296.

I'm not confident that I'd be able to draw it well.

Q297.

2022.02.28

In the BLEACH PS2 game "Bleach: Erabareshi Tamashii", techniques such as "Hadō #20: Shōtenkyū" and "Hadō #26: Gōensai" made an appearance, but were these Kidō Kubo-sensei's ideas or the creations of the game staff? If it's the former, I'd also like to know how to write it in kanji!

A297.

I had no involvement with that so they're the creations of the game staff.

Q298.

2022.02.28

I really love the relationship between Ichigo and the store manager, Unagiya Ikumi, and you can sense in the air how Ichigo suddenly turns back into a child. Please tell us if there was anything you paid extra attention to when creating Ikumi-san.

A298.

Ikumi is a character that was born because I wanted to create a place for Ichigo where he could be himself outside the Kurosaki home due to a plot development, that is, the sudden loss of a place where he belongs in the Lost Agent arc.

Q299.

2022.02.28

In "BURN THE WITCH", it seems that each division is armed with a different type of weapon, but in the event that they change affiliations, like how Bruno encouraged the witches to do in the story, do they undergo training with new weapons?

A299.

They train with new weapons. It is also among the Director's faculties to ascertain an individual's suitability for a weapon and then offer an invitation to them.

Q300.

2022.03.07

Is the thing under Hisagi's left eye, tape? A tattoo perhaps?

A300.

It's a tattoo.

Translation Footnotes:

×1. 弦 means bowstring and is in both the names of Sōken (宗弦) and Ryūken (竜弦).

[storgicdealer]

ahem. cracks knuckles.

you know what time it is boy

highlights of attacking the innocent (also balling): general analysis of influencer arc episode 1

(so. the green onceler arc might be actually real)

THIS EPISODE WAS SO SICK. the animation????the music??????? the 3D CYBERSPACE??????????? MWAH chefs kiss . and the most interesting new thing: new character to play dolls with (thank you everyone who put their 5 cents in and shared a braincell: calling him greenscreen)

and. god.

the 3d insides of the computer box and programs... GOD !!!!!! GOD !!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR BABY!!!!!!!!

i NEED to find out the dimensions of it.

the way the ab team decided to expand on the 3d perspective just like this is. oh my lird

personally this means SO MUCH for me as the #1 lover of the "internet is walkable" trope. one of the main reasons why i adore avam so much

more points on that: the icons dont seem to.. "gain shape" until they're interacted with: in this case picked up by the cg. another point: sticks need to apply force to an icon to open an app . swag

additional note: the episode itself seems to begin in sticksfight?? or just a random table that was drawn

additional note electric boogaloo: green seemed to hit the CEILING when performing his ballin movement. is the gui of the computer really not that high?? and.

where are the doors. where are. where is the backstage that the sticks constantly come out of. hello

the way they interact with adobe premiere is SO SO interesting. the whole process of videomaking in the universe is something im gonna be thinking of for a GOOD while

(small note: i know sticks own hammerspace and can basically bring out anything but. is the red cape the red fabric green used in the matador short?

now, onto our new character

greenscreen seemed to appear out of the adobe video being overloaded? with effects n unnecessary sfx and clipping masks and such, causing it to glitch. in fact, adobe itself warned to proceed with caution the second the cg put too much stuff into it.

honestly, we can always put this monent into the "something glitchy-fucked happens and there are consequences" category, with the consequences just happening to be a new guy (thank you so much whoever did that). but worldbuilding wise, how exactly did it manifest? did the excessive amount of effects and glitches.. shape a creature into existence? with it taking the appearance of green as the main character that appeared in the video the most. sort of like a puzzle to create a being?

what's interesting, the screen focuses on the cg throwing the video away before the sequence with it gaining sentience by taking the form of green starts.

now, the main thing about the fight scene to me is how greenscreen took all of his movements/actions from the video itself,

and how many people have already pointed out, is that..

he doesn't seem to have wanted to attack in the first place.

screen, from the beginning of his existence only possessed powers/moves that green & cg themselves have shown in the video. and of course, the main point of the video itself was fighting a monster — obviously filling up the video, the whole essence of the character, with mostly that. his whole being was shaped up that way.

screen might've tried acting friendly, or neutral at least — but the whole way the video, a fighting video, was jumbled with glitches kind of.. forced him not to exhibit any other behaviour. perhaps, if not for these glitches, he could've controlled his own actions — he would still know the most of the world from the video, but at least, if he wanted to fight — he could control it. and do it himself, if he wanted.

(additional note: greenscreen seems to glitch everytime he's hit, also.)

the time he does attack, himself — is when he is cornered, and has been shown nothing but violence from others.

woah that pal has some seeerious issues to get under control ! anyways, onto other highlights of the video! (/silly)

the new video did a WONDERFUL job at showcasing the cg's fighting style in a new, clear manner. the gang regained the weapons they have wielded in the first part of "wanted", but in another form.

orange, equipped with the classic brush tool, seems to be mostly focused on defense. (regaining the previous defense styles based on the last parts of wanted & avm s3!)

red seems to focus on melee and hand-to-hand fighting,

blue, classic: fighting at a distance with the bow.

yellow seems to also fight at a certain distance, but it is only a hand's reach: enough to hit, enough to not get hit. (this also heavily reminds me of yellow's behavior with the staff, where in fight she has mostly hung out in the middle: aiming and attacking from a certain distance.)

i'm not particularly sure what category to put green in, also taking in his usage of the rod in avms3 and a .. gun. in the beginning of wanted. but his moves are the most agile and sharp (literally) out of the crew.

a bit of the video i am . Really interested in

finding out about his adobe-abilities, screen consumed other bits of the program to use it for attacking. including posterizing time, which is not only a quite strong ability in on itself, but!

..also seemed to affect other sticks, while he, himself — was unaffected by time.

the move seems to be incredibly powerful??? like. if it was that easy for a glitched video to consume parts of adobe, use it for his own powers, to a point of manipulating time???

damn. the cg basically created an adobe demigod????????

another supposition i have onto why it worked on sticks: the cg were drawn themselves, and drawn in adobe flash, therefore being interacted with as symbols whether they were affected because of just being drawn beings themselves, or because of some kind of influence all adobe programs might have on each other — their creation itself is probably the reason for this. (once again. they created a killer machine and provoked it itself!!!!!! damn pick a struggle!!!!!/j)

the episode finishes off amazingly in my opinion by the cg recreating and using the basketball movements they learned when filming their first video. they Slamdunked a stick. good lord

anyways. FEEL FREE TO ADD ON TO THIS POST WHATEVER YOU WANT !!! i appreciate all notes !!!! :D

[kirbybecomesastarwarrior]

Once again I thank you all so much for supporting me during the Kirby OC Tournament. Especially all my followers & mutual who humored me with all the poll reblog stuff.

As promised the lore. (And I've been cooking this turkey for a while and it's ready to come out of the oven.)

Fair Warning contains spoilers... I will not be explaining all the details of what happening. This is incredibly vague & via musical... so I won't spoil that much (since this does take place during the final arc... Void Termina Saga). The events that are being shown do not happen exactly how they are portrayed, however the essence of what's happening is the same.

Morgan shall be singing "Last Midnight from Into the Woods,"

Spoiler warning, (More drawn content is contained below)

(OH NO WHAT'S HAPPENING TO KIRBY...Sorry, I can't explain it just yet... Nor why Meta Knight's mask is broken in half... maybe he got into a fight or something, hold the phone I thought Galacta was trapped in insanity... what happened... Sorry if I tell anything of that it'll spoil the good stuff)

Dame Morgan: It's the Last Midnight

So in summary: After they refuse to hand Kirby over, Morgan reveals there's a traitor in their midst... Fumu is the reason why Kirby is in the state he is in (Fumu is currently regretting her life choices). Leaving Meta & Gala shocked, and scared to death at Kirby's current state, while Kirby is sad, and betrayed again...~

And Morgan just having herself a time, living her best life~

In the KBASW series, she tricks three major characters:

Namely: Queen Ripple, Hyness, and Fumu/Tiff. (the most devastating one she tricks)

Dame Morgan is basically a mixture of: "The Witch" from Into the Woods, Morgan from (Merlin's 2008 TV series), Eris from Sinbad (she has the voice of Eris), and the Joker from Batman.

Morgan represents the opposite of Celestine... (via Morgan vs. Merlyn wizard rivalry) The Anti-Celestine so to speak~

The one person she hates more than Arthur is Merlyn/Celestine.

Celestine sees magic as a tool, not a solution or the answer to your problem... promoting true self-improvement comes from within. For there will always be...: another bridge to cross, another monster to slay, another woods to go into. The only way to ever truly be prepared in this world is to learn from each other... and to be kind to one another & share the experience. If you cheat your way throw life will just get harder and move with you... Being better and leading a good example will inspire others to be better along with you.

The change starts within, with us...

While Dame Morgan:

Life is unfair, you play by their rules, you follow the system, sacrifice everything to fit the mold, and yet you can still be cheated out of what you deserve...

And you're telling me I should just "hang in there," "hold on", "it's gonna be okay eventually keep smiling".... nah? Let's stop "pretending to be good", everybody is just in it for themselves so... if you do that you're just a fool waiting to be tricked.

Why not live just for yourself... why not cheat back... why not be the bad guy? That's why her theme is "Stella Jang(스텔라장) _ Villain(빌런)

Morgan represents the easy way out, a quick fix... to blame someone else...an escape. How did she obtain this dark magic... The Jamba Heart...Granting everyone's selfish desires... the reason why everyone falls for it is because she has the charisma to make the offer far too tempting and to pass it up, no.

And guess who was her first customer... Hyness~

The biggest change I probably did the to mix anime & game lore. (Kirby Star Allies) In KBASW AU... Morgan the one who convinced Hyness the Jamba Heart was what he needed to restore his clan. It's the reason she's able to stay hidden for a long while...Allowing the negative to naturally corrupt him and use him as a figurehead...

Despite giving him the Jamaba Heart... she did not tell him exactly how to break the seal on Termina... (Whoops she must have forgotten, how clumsy of her...) Purposely having him fail~

However, the secret to this lies with... FUMU!? Due to the reincarnation of the first ruler of Dreamland... she holds the key to unsealing & controlling Void Termina... She throws them to the wrong person. She's very much tricked into thinking she's helping "Kirby," but... yeah this happens instead.

And of course, there's always a price... though once you do realize you've been bamboozled, she'll remind you that she gave you a choice... Ultimately making you realize it's your own fault at the end of the day. Very much rubbing your head in the mess you've made for yourself. (which is exactly what she's doing to Tiff/Fumu right now.)

In summary, she pretty much invites you to be your worst self; she's the villain but deliciously so! :3

[bestworstcase]

Grimm behavior reassessment thought: y'know that sister training session called on account of Rather Tanky Ursa? Could Ruby & Yang have avoided that fight if they'd known to treat the big lug like careful hikers would an 'ordinary' bear encounter? There were a few 'pause & rear/roar' moments on its part which I guess *could* be read as 'hey stop that' or 'my turf, leave'.

yang’s character short has always interested me bc the ursa was there the whole time they were sparring.

like. yang throws a punch, ruby panic-flies into the bushes and then passes out:

on this screenshot i’ve marked ruby’s approximate path in red and circled the clump of bushes the ursa emerges from (using the logs laid around the perimeter as markers):

note the very dense foliage around the grimm; he’s completely hidden. yang gets concerned when ruby doesn’t respond, startles when she hears a twig snap in the area circled in yellow, this is what she sees:

and then he stands up:

which. ok. he’s a really big guy. there is no way he crept up on them and got that close before making a noticeable sound, and most grimm behave like pursuit predators besides—they wander around in the open and give chase when they come across prey. (although there are exceptions: the pack of apathy at brunswick drag the lamp around a corner and go dark to lie in wait, for example.)

the point is, he’s there, but yang can’t see him until his eyes illuminate because he’s lying down in the bushes. his markings are also ‘off’ and only begin to glow as he stands up.

we’ve seen grimm Do That a couple times:

and we’ve also seen in v8 that just because there don’t seem to be any grimm nearby doesn’t mean they aren’t there:

<- same thing happens in the mine. dozens of centinels pop out of the ground when the geist signals for them to screen his retreat deeper into the mine. which suggests that grimm may spend a lot of time… not hunting. unseen, hidden just under the surface or in the densest thickets, crevices, whatever. and no one knows because when grimm aren’t on the hunt they don’t attack unless provoked.

the big guy was just There! taking a nap! and he didn’t aggro until yang got spooked by ruby’s silence.

he also doesn’t seem to be all that interested in attacking after his initial charge and swipe; he knocks yang across the clearing and then turns away, until yang shoots him again:

i do think it’s really interesting that WOR: grimm implies that grimm are most strongly drawn by violence, not negativity per se: “what is perhaps even more unsettling is the basis of their attraction,” and the accompanying image is

a person killing another person with a rock.

i think—much more so than real animals—grimm are kind of emotional mirrors, in that they reflect the energy they’re shown. one thing that stands out to me about both salem and cinder is that while there is obviously an element of magic or kinship or both behind their influence over the grimm, from both of them we see these occasional moments of tenderness toward the grimm; cinder’s very gentle and soothing “shh, this is your home now” when she calms the wyvern, and the way salem softens when she caresses the goliath’s face in the v6 stinger:

and i wonder if there isn’t a meaningful correlation there. the two characters in the story who demonstrably have the ability to communicate and work with grimm are also the two characters who, in private moments when no one else is around to see, choose to be gentle with these creatures. is salem able to command grimm the way she does by magical compulsion or is she their leader, as raven put it, whom they follow because she’s kind to them and protects them.

[vanitythevantropist]

Mkay so it took me way too long but I have finally created new art :3 (I finished these a while ago and forgot to post them but SHHHHH)

Anyways, these characters are from my absolute favourite and most well developed story in the roster; Stones of Gold. The love I have for thus story and its characters cannot be put into words. They are my everything

Anyways, here they are :3

Characters featured (left-right): Zepsun and Casaraua

Cas is the main POV character of SoG and I love him to death, he’s one of my favourite characters in all of my stories😭 He was raised on a farm by his mom after his dad left her (he left because Cas is what is known as a Rune Shifter which I’ll explain later). He’s not the best with social interaction due to never having interacted much. He’s very shy and afraid of everything, even though he literally had super strength. He becomes the newest member of the main group behind the next guy

Zep, fun fact, is actually a minor antagonist in the beginning👀 He joins the main group last because of issues. Anyways, he was taken under some emperor’s wing after the guy saves him from slavery as a child which totally fucked with his psyche (as it should). Zep’s pretty closed off and tends to get defensive. He fears anyone who can beat him in a fight. He is also a rune shifter

They become very gay later on

Characters featured (left-right): Chryo and Cyruss

I fucking love Chryo to death, she’s just so fun. She is a TANK of a woman (and a Rune Shifter as well). I’d say she’s pretty motherly and sweet when interacting with people she likes but, when you threaten someone she loves, she’ll become your worst nightmare. She’s determined as fuck and very snarky, especially to her boyfriend. She was the first to join the group (AKA she created it LMAO)

Cyruss canonically has gigantism, making him very tall👀 He’s Chryo’s girlfriend and is definitely the more mellow of the two. He’s a musician (haven’t named or drawn the instrument yet but it’s kinda like a guitar/banjo hybrid Ig???) and enjoys his more gothic music n stuff like that (I imagine his music to sound like The Awakening or Miracle of Sound, or both) He’s a bit scary to many due to his quieter nature and darker colours, but he’s a very nice and chill guy with a lot of good advice to share. Like his girlfriend, he definitely knows how to fight :3 He joined the group second, though the last two basically joined with him so (The group as in the friend/rogue group, btw). Heis not a shifter

Characters featured (left-right): Drélan and Mitzen

Drélan is an ex knight who left due to disagreeing with his king. He had since become close friends with a viking, a gothic musician and an assassin (as well as a traumatised gay man and a farmer boy later on, obviously). He’s a very kind and selfless person who takes no bullshit from anyone every. This dude will literally stand between you and god. He sorta becomes a father figure to Cas in the story and they do strong man stuff together (like fix carts and talk about animals, obviously)

Mitzen is an ex assassin, leaving her guild for similar reasons to Drélan. They were once on opposing sides but became good and loyal friends once they both left their groups. She’s a ‘tough love’ kinda gal, shoving her friends into situations whether they like it or not. Like Zep, she’s pretty closed off but she’s definitely calmer and more composed than he is (due to being older and more mature)

They are the only characters in the group that aren’t in a romantic relationship with each other🤣 You can still ship them, tho :3

ANYWAYS, the ✨lore✨

Y’all are probably wondering what a Rune Shifter is, right? Yeah, I thought so👀 I’ll do my best to explain!

A Rune Shifter is a magical being with gem/rock/whatever material casings covering certain parts of their bodies (for reference, Zep, Cas and Chryo are Shifters). One-Runed Shifters are the most common, Two-Runed Shifters are rare, Three-Runes Shifters are VERY rare (90% of critters never see a single one in their lives) and Four-Runed Shifters are saved for myths n shit (no one knows if they’re even real) (Examples; Zep is a double shifter - meaning he had two magic types at once, making him a Two-Runed Shifter - Cas is a Three-Runed Shifter and Chryo is a One-Runed Shifter)

Shifters’ powers are element based (for example; Zep in an ice/water Shifter, Cas is a Sun Shifter and Chryo is a Moon Shifter (or Moon Rune and Cy likes to call her). There are quite a few of them and I haven’t written them all down yet, so🤣 Anyways, they all have different abilities (having more runes= more powers). More examples!! Ice Shifters can control ice, Water Shifters can control water, Sun Shifters are typically protective forces (with force field n super strength and all that), Moon Shifters can multiply and become invisible, etc. (It’s all still a wip so💀)

An ability all Shifters have is the ability to shift (duh) into Rune Beast forms. Rune Beast forms are like monster forms, they can take on any appearance but mostly take the appearance of different already existing animals (also a WIP). Many believe that the form you discover always means something

Now, for the ✨worldbuilding✨

Basically; Rune Shifters are powerful and scary so non-Rune Shifters hate them. Shifters are discriminated against and feared. Any mother to have a Shifter child and keep is also despised (basically Cas’ and his mother’s backstory lmao)

Omg this is a long ass post lmao-

But bro, I can’t help myself😭 I fucking live this story and the characters to DEATH and I hope y’all like em too💕

If you have any questions regarding the story, feel free to reblog or reply with said questions!

[rosynanapen26]

RAPHAEL X TIEFLING TAV

So again, don't think it is dubcon because Tav wants it but she is too ashamed to admit it. 😩

I NEED THIS DEVIL 🫠

You had finally set foot in Baldur's Gate, after all these weeks of fighting the cult of the Absolute and searching a cure for the tadpole in your head, your group was still at the starting point.

For now, you were visiting the city again. It changed a lot since the last time you were there, before been abducted on the nautiloid. You passed merchants, citizens and animals until a building catch your eyes. "Sharess's Caress?"

Something seemed to strangely pull you towards it. Wyll seemed to sense it. "A brothel? I think we should find a place to rest instead for now."

Astarion laughed dryly next to him. "You should learn to relax from time to time for a bit of fun."

"You and I know both well that we have a different kind of fun, Astarion." The warlock respond uncomfortably.

Karlach didn't respond anything yet but you knew she didn't look too fond of the idea of entering. You turn to them, persuasive. "It can't be that bad, can't it?"

Oh, how wrong you were.

You were immediately welcome by the owner of the brothel the second you pass the door. She suggests you a selection of people to have a good time with but you weren't interested.

"Are there anyone else?" You asked curiously, feeling your compagnions eyes behind you.

There was a pregnant pause as she gazed upstairs, then turn to you with a grin. "It seems that the devil's den is not occupied anymore. You would have a great time with him." The woman eyes you up and down and you feel naked despite wearing your armor. "He is truly a charming fellow. I am sure you would have a great time."

You thank her, wondering who the owner was talking about. You had a little idea and that made you even more drawn to find out. You walk upstairs, searching for the room she mentionned and opening the door, you were met with the githyanki general leaving the room in angry steps, then the devil's eyes on you.

"For fuck sake...Are you kidding me?" You could hear the other tiefling grunt.

You feel trapped when his eyes met yours. He was in his human form, knuckles under his chin in false thought as a smirk graced his lips. "My, my, the little mouse finally crawls to the cat claws, time and luck ran out. Have you finally lost all solutions after all this time?"

Did you? You know you tried. Nettie, the hag, Halsin...All of them couldn't help and although your vampiric friend decided with happiness to use the tadpole powers (for selfish reasons, you didn't judge) you weren't and Raphael was right, you were lost, but that wasn't the first thought on why you entered the devil's den.

You frown and your tail sway, knowning he could easily read you like a book. You turn to your compagnions with sweaty hands. "I'll join you guys later. I need to talk to him in private."

They all seem to disapprove beside Astarion. You knew how he would go for a deal with a devil than returning back to Cazador. The others however, Wyll and Karlach, weren't on the same side. "Don't you fucking dare sell your sould to that cambion!

You try to calm the stronger woman. "Karlach..."

You hear a clap. "Now, let's talk about the deal." The smell of sulfur passes your nose. Raphael had changed in his cambion form. He cracks his head and rolls his shoulders back.

"I never agreed to make a deal." You frown and cross your arms. "And even if I was, I still don't know what you want in return."

He walked closer with a grin. "There was something." The devil pauses, flamed eyes looking at you. "but changes happened." His vague response only makes your brows crease deeper and he laughs at your expression. "Don't look at me like that, little mouse." He snaps his fingers, transporting your friends elsewhere, probably outside the room. "I already found another way to retrieve it." You still didn't know what he was talking about. "As for you," Raphael places two fingers under your chin. "I have grown found of you—in my own devilish ways. I want you to serve me."

What? "Serve you? Don't you have damned souls to do so already?"

The cambion let out a devious chuckle. "Let me rephrased it." His grip turns rougher, claws slightly scratching your skin and his voice threatening. "You will serve me." His face returns neutral.

You stay immobile with wide eyes, your body getting warmer. You couldn't believe you were liking this in the bottom of your mind. Raphael seems to sense it, a smug smile on his face.

You sigh. Your compagnions will hate you forever if they know about this but you would lie to yourself if you say you weren't drawn to the devil since the first meeting. "On one condition." Raphael's listening, so you continue. "You give me the hammer to free Orpheus and let me save Baldur's Gate." You loved the city and you didn't want weeks of efforts to go in vain.

"Such autority." Raphael let go of your chin with a sneer. "You have a deal." A contract appeared in front of you, the fire illuminating the room. You read the infernal lines carefully before signing and the paper disappeared.

After it did, the devil didn't waste time. He snakes a hand in your curved horns and tug. You whine, eyes directly at him with a glare but he only looks nonchalantly at you. "On your knees."

"You could've asked—" You let out a moan involontary as Raphael tugs again on it, your face closer to his now.

"And where is the fun in that, little mouse? The cat is hunting for what he chased." His smile faded a moment as he says his next words. "On your knees."

You kneel while never breaking eyes contact with the devil. Raphael's glowing eyes looks down at you and a part feel natural, to be below him. A unholy dream that was coming true. One you never told anyone. To be at the devil's mercy was intoxicating. His hand caresses your hair, then your face and he hums. "Mortals are normally so boring but you? You are certainly not, little mouse." He snaps his fingers and you feel cold. The bastard undressed you.

"Seriously?" You watch him, embarrassed.

He tut when you try to hide your parts. "Do not hide yourself." You see him drink you up and down. "Seeing you like this is far more refreshing than with that poor excuse of an armor." Raphael swat his hand like he was talking of junk. The devil works his magic, his naked form now in front of your own kneeled one. Your body goes rigid as his cock appears in eyes level. You gaze at him.

Hells. How were you suppose to put it in your mouth? Astarion was big but it wasn't the same. Raphael's member was of a devil, red with veins and bumps. You're confused when he walks away to sit on the end of the bed. His legs are opened and he curls his fingers towards him. "Come."

You get up but stop in your tracks. "Oh no, pet.  On all four." You blush, flames pooling inside your lower regions and you crawl to Raphael's lap, between his legs. This was so humiliating, but so worth it.

You palm his erection and stroke it gently, then start to lick the tip while looking at Raphael. His eyes full of flames watch your ministrations with silence, a few groans there and there but he doesn't seems to be the vocal type. You wrap your mouth around his cock, chocking as it touches the back of your throat but hum, closing your eyes.

"Good....You know what you are doing after all." Raphael lets out a relieved sigh mixes with controlled pleasure. "Is it the vampire spawn? Or perharp another of your compagnion? Not that it matters. You are mine."

You don't respond, bobbing your head as you suck and roll your tongue around his shaft.  The devil grabs the back of your horns and move you to his own pace, your nose touching the hair. Raphael chuckles, trapping you in your position. He groans as cum slides down your throat. Even finished, he doesn't let go of you. His eyes glares at your form when he sees you are not drinking his cum. "Shallow." Tears appears in the corners of your eyes with the lack of air and you drink every drop, gasping to breathe when Raphael lets go of you, smirking.

Your body is trembling in arousal when the cambion orders you to lay on four on the bed. You look over your shoulder, your tail flicking back and forth. He walks closer to your form and grips your ass cheeks. You let out a whimper when his lips are close to your face, his voice lowering above a whisper. "What a naughty little mouse. To think you would do such a thing when your compagnions are outside." Raphael didn't feel sorry, that was for sure. "With a devil no less." There was a smack, your body moving forward with a cry.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

You nod, but he only smacks your ass harder with a glare. "Y-Yes, Raphael."

"Good girl." The devil spreads the skin, your pussy in view. "My, my."

You face the sheets, flustered and embarrassed. Gasps leave your lips however when you feel Raphael rubs your folds. You were already soaked and he barely touched you yet.

He hums, entering two inside. This earned a whimper from your part. "Too much already? How disappointing." Another finger came in, not bothering to know if you were truly enjoying yourself or you just couldn't take more.

"Can you—ah!" You stop mid-sentence as the devil pumps three fingers roughly. He relishes in your moans, looking at your helpless form under him, your clawed fingers grabbing the sheet while trying to not let sounds out. This made Raphael frowns. He wanted to hear you scream, beg, cry, anything but dead silence so the devil's fingers go their way deeper.

"Raphael!" You couldn't hold your voice, moaning his name for your friends to hear.

Your skin was shining with sweat, tail down in submission. The devil continues his assault on your plump walls, biting your ear. "Louder."

You scream his name louder, and even louder when he enters you with his cock. Your pants fill the devil's den and you didn't care anymore if your compagnions could hear you. You want to satisfy your craving for this immortal being. Raphael lifts your bottom higher, going deeper in your pussy. "Such a tight little mouse, mine to toy with now." His shaft rumbs each corner of your walls, making you see stars.

You were begging for release for what seems like hours when he came on your butt, slapping it soon after. You were exausted, head dizzy and heart pumping out of your chest. The matress squeaks under you, meaning the devil left the bed and you could see him in the corner of your eyes snapping his fingers, clothed once again.

"I enjoyed this little adventure between you and I." He turns with a smirk. "Not that it will be our last."

You get up with shaking legs. "So do I have to go to Hell with you now?"

Raphael laughs. "No, not now. You still have a mission to accomplish, do you not, little hero?" He approaches your naked form, grapping your face. "I'll come for you when time runs out." Then the devil disappeared.

The door behind you immediately burst opened with a furious Karlach and your two other compagnions.

"Fuck...."

[maxwell-grant]

This feels like the kind of ask someone should've gotten around to a million years ago, but it seems it falls to me: The Shadow vs. The Penguin. Is there anything there?

Anonymous asked: How would pulp heroes like the Shadow or Green Hornet respond to The Penguin. Characters like Joker or Ra’s I can see them gunning down but that feels weird to do with Oswald “Pengy For President” Cobblepot

(Penguin by Mike Mignola. The Shadow by Lela Dowling)

It's amazing, really, what you've built here. You had a vision and made it real. Every Batman in existence respects you for it, Oswald. In fact, I'll tell you a secret…people assume that Batman's last enemy on most worlds out there is Joker. Maybe Riddler, or Ra's…but it's you.

See, you grow this crime empire until he has to deal with you. - The Batman Who Laughs #3

What there is here is a bit of an impasse, because yes obviously this is brutally, comically one-sided against The Penguin. Pitting most if not all Batman villains against The Shadow is going to be already one-sided in The Shadow's favor. Pick a Batman villain, even the big ones that make Batman the underdog like Ra's and Bane, and you can name a similar threat that The Shadow already defeated. Even if you don't count superpowered cheating with whatever abilities The Shadow has this moment, he's already dealt with most of everything they can do, he's beaten these strategies and puzzles and countless death traps at their own game, and yeah there's the fact that he's known for the fact his villains don't tend to come back for round two even when they don't die facing him. Villains that he faces tend to die specifically because they try to kill him and he returns their fire (it's important to establish here that, unless his enemies have guns drawn on innocent people, The Shadow rarely shoots first - they always have a chance to lay down their arms and walk away, a chance that most obviously never take), and Penguin's known for his unwillingness to go down without a fight and for his signature move being a concealed sneak attack, which means his odds of dying are near dead certain.

In fact, The Shadow already fought a Penguin-esque guy as one of his few reocurring villains, via The Wasp, Gibson's latter day attempt to make another Voodoo Master/Shiwan Khan. The Wasp is a "Napoleon of crime" whose body and strange buzz voice and antics and operations are themed after his namesake animal/insects, who uses a concealed weapon part of said theme (an electric "sting" on his hand powered by batteries on his belt), who connects Cranston to The Shadow and was also the only villain to figure out that Kent Allard is The Shadow. He was cleverer and more resourceful and harder to defeat than most of the typical Shadow villains, and to his credit he did achieve a thing nobody else really achieved in the run, and it didn't really do him that much (learning the secret identity tends to be a death sentence for vigilantes, but for The Shadow it's really not that big a deal, given how easily he can make new ones) and he still went out like a chump, and he's only really remembered as the less impressive of the reocurring supervillains, lacking the outright superpowers of the others. It seems like a fairly closed case.

Problem is, the more comically one-sided the odds are against Oswald, the more likely he is to actually win or at least survive because of that. Going up against people who should have his goose cooked, getting away with things he absolutely shouldn't, slipping away to survive and put one over Johnny Law, that's his thing, it's been his thing from day one. He is no stranger to dealing with vigilantes or people much bigger and stronger and scarier than him, it wasn't that long ago he was walking off getting shot at point blank and later faking his death. Penguin is no common criminal, and he isn't just a guy who's unusually smart and competent at it enough to waddle among supervillains either. In his narrative domain, The Shadow is unbeatable, but in his narrative home, The Penguin is unkillable, and not just because he's a comic book villain who survives by editorial demand. He has protagonist survival clause now.

In his ups and downs over the years, he survived in large part by becoming a fixture of Gotham, someone impossible to uproot from the setting, with his ignanimous transformation into stool-pigeon and banal crimelord in part a consequence of said survival. After more or less retiring from villainy, the next step was to very gradually join the likes of Catwoman, Azrael, Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya in their careers as independent Gotham-adjacent protagonists, which is why he now gets to have his own tv series (the second one at that, because Gotham exists and if it achieved anything, it was proving that there's an audience for The Penguin Show - and yes it still is very much shitty, but also not remotely surprising, that the instant they made a version of Oswald thin, that guy became a critical and fandom darling overnight). The Penguin wormed his way into becoming irreplaceable and they tried, they tried very hard over the years to replace this guy, and he's taken some brutal lumps and fell off very hard from the Bat-villain totem pole, but even that just enabled him to ascend to a different pole and one that makes it he can't really be just another gangster or supervillain to be knocked around, and one that's almost specifically built to ensure his narrative survival. Someone who serves the story better by being alive.

Has The Shadow ever dealt with a guy like this? Yes, yes he has. The Shadow is no stranger to criminal protagonists, or the concept of nuance, or redemption. He is certainly no stranger to the gentleman of crime who is more than what he seems.

The man who entered was tall and well built. He had the manner of a gentleman. He was attired in a perfectly fitting dress suit, which he wore with the easy air of a man of the world - Kings of Crime

The gentleman of crime arose, picked up his hat and coat and reached for his cane. There, his form obscured, The Shadow stood close enough to overhear what Graham Wellerton was saying. The gentleman of crime was talking to members of his mob.

What was Graham Wellerton's purpose? How and why had the gentleman of crime parted from his men? Why was he no longer engaged in robbery? - Road of Crime

To all appearance, George Ellerby was a gentleman; and he was actually qualified to prove such a claim. But tonight, he was to be a gentleman of crime - Battle of Greed

"I wonder," said Sandersham, slowly, "just how much The Shadow can do, or intends to do. Who is he, Krengle? How powerful is he?"

"No one knows who The Shadow is," replied the lawyer. "But he is death on crooks, they say, and he considers crime to be much broader than its legal implications." - Battle of Greed

There's about 5 Shadow novels that specifically touch on the topic of redemption. There are others where it comes up, plenty of others where The Shadow goes the extra mile in giving criminals a chance, and stories that highlight the lines that The Shadow draws in deciding how to deal with criminals (“To murderers, The Shadow dealt death: to such schemes (robbery, fraud, etc), he dealt ridicule.” - The Third Shadow), but those 5 make a focus of it. In all of those 5, we meet characters that can be called a "gentleman of crime". They are cunning, respectable-looking young men who use their smarts for crime, largely because of social circumstances that force them into using criminal tactics for dealing with life-consuming problems that the law has failed them in, and The Shadow assists them in addressing and rectifying said problems and turning their lives around.

In Kings of Crime, blackmailer and swindler Hubert Carpenter. In Road of Crime, the protagonist Graham Wellerton, "bank robber deluxe". In The Broken Napoleons, engineer Curt Sturley. Battle of Greed opens with George Ellerby, although he's not really the protagonist and is stopped before he commits his first robbery, and that story has two other redemptions that pull more focus. And in House of Shadows, Kid Pell, whose tragic demise opens the story. With the exception of Carpenter, all of these young men are given understandable and even sympathetic reasons for having become criminals, as all of them became criminals specifically because the law failed them profoundly and allowed them to suffer horrible injustice and ruin upon their lives and families, while shielding those that inflicted it upon them and provided no other recourse for them, and The Shadow goes out of his way to directly or indirectly steer them away from the paths they're walking.

Out of these, only Hubert Carpenter had a body count: he is not a murderer outright, but his past deeds had pushed victims to suicide, and The Shadow fully intended to let him serve his sentence in full. It is through the involvement of innocent parties (he took a dive to get the money to his family, he was betrayed, and his wife fell ill, making him break out of jail and desperately try to get the money for her treatment by robbing an old man who turned out to be The Shadow in disguise) and Carpenter’s own serious efforts to reform himself and assist in the downfall of his far crueler former partners that he’s able to redeem himself and face a new life (The Shadow delivers a government pardon so that he serves a month instead of 10 years).

“Somehow, he knew that The Shadow would not see the innocent suffer for the guilty.” - Kings of Crime

Kid Pell, who had already shot at least 6 people and killed 2 before the story began, wasn't quite so lucky. Dying of blood loss after trying to shoot The Shadow, his last words are a plead for him to get the guy who pushed him into this path, and keep an eye on his brother Denry to stop him from going down his path (which ends up happening, but The Shadow is able to save Denry in time).

"They called me a public enemy," declared Pell. "What else could I be, after my first kill? You know what it is to be quick on the trigger. That's the way I am" - he hesitated, his smile dwindling - "or was."

"I tried crime," said the Kid. "It didn't pay. But I was in it - deep. So I stayed. I've got no excuses. I'm not even blaming the fellow that started me in it. What I did was on my own. Understand?"

"Do me a favor," muttered the dying man. "Let me be forgotten - as Kid Pell. I rigged this hideout, so I could close accounts. Let me go through with it the way I want."

The Shadow's whispered tone gave agreement. Pell's face relaxed. In the glow of the lantern, his features lost their forced hardness. It was easy to see why he had been nicknamed the Kid. His age couldn't have been more than twenty-two.

Even his surroundings spoke a pathetic story. The shelves of the trailer were provisioned for a long stay; and among the canned goods were a few jars of homemade jam; probably the very sort that he had swiped from his mother's pantry only a few years ago.

There were books, too, that dated back to boyhood. Even when he had embarked on his career as a public enemy, Kid Pell had taken these along. He was looking at them, eyes open, the jam jars and the books, and he was smiling again, Kid Pell was. But the dampness from his dying eyes was forming into little beads, like raindrops. Suddenly, the Kid's lips stiffened.

A hand was resting on the Kid's shoulder. He could feel the power of its grip: the hand of The Shadow, merciless to men of crime. To this dying youth, murderer though he was, the pressure of that hand had the warmth of friendship.

"Maybe, Shadow" - The Kid was choking the words - "I ought to have met you before. Maybe… if I had-"

The grip tightened. It brought an end to regrets that could not be remedied. It steeled the Kid for what lay ahead - House of Shadows

-the words that The Shadow delivered held Sandersham rigid. Never in his life had the millionaire listened to such pointed accusations; such words that jogged his memory, nor such tokens of prophecy. "Rupert Sandersham," came the voice, "you are a man condemned by your own avarice! You are a master, not of finance, but of greed!"

"While your wealth grows greater," resumed The Shadow's voice, "your life grows shorter. As your schemes expand, your soul shrivels. You have physical comforts, yes"—the tone was mocking—"but who knows how long you shall retain them?"

"Your power, Sandersham, is not equal to the strength of the law. There have been loopholes in your schemes, that certain eyes may discover before your attorneys plug them". - Battle of Greed

Is The Penguin sympathetic? In some ways, yes. Is The Penguin redeemable? Not a question I'm remotely interested in handing a firm "Yes/No" to, because it's kinda both and neither, redemption tends to be conditional and fickle like that, and also irrelevant to the matter here: We've established that The Shadow (again, speaking for the pulp version here, it's what I tend to do) does not go out of his way to execute criminals, but doesn't hesitate to kill them when they try to gun him or others down. Would The Shadow extend The Penguin an olive branch and spare his life in the hopes that he'd come around and use his impressive intellect and resources and drive for the better? No. It would be useless. The Shadow doesn't deal with that kind of "hope", and The Penguin would not be interested in doing so either.

There have been occasions where The Shadow was caught in a bad enough situation that he had to momentarily pause the pursuit of a criminal, but The Shadow does not compromise, nor does he ever really need to, and he knows a true villain when he sees it. He is not keeping Oswald around as a informant, because he doesn't play by Gotham City rules where that seems like a reasonable thing to do. The true villain of most Shadow stories is always the person who stands to profit the most from said calamity, and most of the time they operate beneath suspicion. There is 0% chance of him underestimating Oswald the way Oswald prefers to be underestimated.

There are two ways Oswald Cobblepot would walk away from meeting a quick death at the hands of The Shadow. The first would be if he never killed anyone, or did anything that led to anyone's death ever again. He'd have to commit to undoing the ruin he brought onto people's lives and give back as much to the city and his victims as he possibly could. Such was what The Shadow did in Battle of Greed to Rupert Sandersham, a millionaire who got a kick out of ruining others financially. He is not the villain, nor is he a murderer, but The Shadow manipulated and terrorized him into making amends and repaying all the people he destroyed. These would be the best, most impossibly nice terms The Shadow could offer Oswald, along with him serving time and spend his whole life looking over his shoulder when, and if, he gets out.

"Look at yourself, Sandersham! You are wearing stripes! In front of you are bars! Beyond you, the outside world. Regard it as an omen, and make your choice. Amend the past; rectify the wrongs that you have done—or face the future consequences that your present methods will bring you!"

Rupert Sandersham was staring downward. His startled eyes saw the stripes that The Shadow had mentioned: those alternate ribbons of dark and light, that came from the setting sun. They had turned his gray suit into a convict's garb! Could it be that he, Rupert Sandersham, might find himself within a prison cell?- Battle of Greed

And that is not happening. There is not a single version of The Penguin who would accept these terms or accept this as a thing he's going to do. Short of the most kid-friendly media and even then, much as I argue that he should have rules of conduct, I don't think there is a single version of the Penguin who'd balk at murder or who hasn't committed it with little to no remorse. Oswald Cobblepot may carry much bitterness and heartbreak, but The Penguin loves what he is too much to accept being anything else. He isn't scared of any of these terms and would find them deeply absurd, because who is this, trying to tell The Penguin he isn't allowed to rob this thing, or kill that guy getting on his nerves, or ruin that rich asshole over there. The audacity of this laughing clown! As if he didn't have one too many to deal with!

The other way he lives, at least for a while, is if he turns out to be right about the way Gotham City works, and it turns out that he really cannot be removed from his position without far worse things growing as a result. I don't think The Shadow would have issues with the Batman villains individually, but neither do Batman or most superheroes. It's Gotham City that's the real problem here, and it's a problem that Batman hasn't solved in nearly a hundred years, and neither has Superman or any of the billion superheroes in that universe, a problem that will never be solved so long as there's a profit to be made on Batman. The Shadow can and has cleaned cities of organized crime before, usually by manipulating it's players into destroying each other, but even he has limits and Gotham City is no mere gangster-ridden town, much like how the man who claimed it is no mere crimelord either.

So the final matter at play here is whether The Penguin is right, and if so, whether The Shadow can afford to kill The Penguin, when there are other more pressing matters. Because the biggest reason Penguin's able to position himself where he is, as a necessary evil in-universe and a reocurring side character/even protagonist out of it, is by never being the nastiest or most urgently threatening villain in the room, and therefore always being the one that the heroes have to compromise with or have to defeat quickly to get moving. He has weaponized a Kingpin-esque idea that he is a necessary deterrent, because Gotham can always get worse, and everyone else who can take power in Gotham from him is much worse than him, and therefore you save the most innocent lives by allowing him to do his thing under a leash. Refer that line above, about how The Shadow will not suffer the innocent for the guilty.

There has been at least one Shadow story where he's dealt with this dillemma, in Face of Doom, as I elaborate here. The Shadow defeated the Face through taking the long way around, disarming his individual lieutenants, luring them into traps and disguising himself as The Face and all kinds of strategies necessary to checkmate the guy, but in the process also giving The Face enough time to regroup and strategize and target his agent(s). A similar thing happened when he had to take down Benedict Stark, and had to considerably slow down the operations to rescue Rutledge Mann from kidnapping. Issuing any kind of harm or death to The Shadow's agents guarantees him unleashing carnage on you personally, refer to Gangdom's Doom where he obliterates organized crime in Chicago in response to the death of Claude Fellows, but The Penguin can play smart. He can refrain from doing that, and buy himself more time, as The Shadow goes after those that think they have what it takes.

I think The Shadow vs The Penguin would probably pull elements from all of these stories I'd mentioned. If The Penguin is right, The Shadow would have to defeat, or at minimum stall, crime in Gotham City in a way that could then remove The Penguin from the picture, which means The Shadow would have to go through the rest of Batman's Rogues Gallery. Difference being, he's not going to fight those guys forever, he might not even fight them at all.

For The Shadow, he's up against a particularly smart, resourceful and powerful "gentleman of crime". One with personal tragedies and codes of conduct, one who might have even been like the ones he'd been able to reform if life hadn't twisted him, but who at present poses an active danger to the lives of people of the city, and stopping that is the bigger concern. He's taking down not just one crime king, but an empire that the crime king holds at bay, and god knows how many crime kings in the way, and possibly others who would see the innocent suffer for the guilty and keep this stalemate forever. The Shadow doesn't do stalemates, and Oswald Cobblepot is going to repent for all he's done or die, and nothing in between.

For The Penguin? He might very well be in heaven. He's dealing with death itself arriving from nowhere to give him the greatest challenge of all: surviving. Which just so happens to be the thing he does best and takes the most pride in doing. It might even be the kind of thing that makes him feel alive again. Facing down someone every bit the implacable wall of terror the Bat is, but who is less about the martial arts brute showdowns and more about god knows how many other subtler espionage chessplay and psychological mind tricks, and zero hesitation in putting a bullet in his head.

And possibly taking it's sweet time wiping out all of the competition, going through the long list of wiping out all of Oswald's hated rivals and competitors for him, and possibly a few unfortunate friends. Years, decades of playing the long game, gathering his assets, putting pieces in place, keeping his head low, letting the Bats and the others walk over him and forget he's there, and he's rewarded with the game of a lifetime! To be the arch-criminal who took on The Shadow and won! You'd almost think he'd have planned for The Shadow to come after him, and getting very angry if Batman shows up to get on the case to stop this because huur I'm a big selfish brute who wants to hog all the fun, duuuh Oswald you can do better, we don't kill around these parts Shadow huurgh, god, Batman, *waugh* can you BE any more of a self-important killjoy?

Sure, if no divine intervention comes, he's absolutely going to die, he is not walking out of this confrontation alive even if The Shadow has to go through Gotham ten times to get to him. But, you know, the real problem with Icarus was that idiot drowned when he fell, because he forgot to pack a bathing suit.

And you know what penguins do best, right?

*WAUGH WAUGH WAUGH*

[epickiya722]

Happy holiday.... What do you think that made Yuuji is so likeable as a character? I've only been in the JJK fandom for a year, and I've seen a lot of other JJK characters' stan. But one thing in common, they all love Yuuji and mostly will include him in their top 5 fav JJK charas (including me :D)...

Okay, in general I don't know, but I will tell you why I find him likeable!

For one, it's his design. Yuji's design is actually one of my favorites in JJK. That pink hair + brown eyes combo? Love it. The touch of red on his uniform, I like that, too. Since when I got into JJK, I started with the anime and then the manga, I didn't know Yuji used to have blond hair.

Neither way, I like it! I find both colors fitting for him.

And it's not just his features, but also how he's animated/drawn. He has a range to him that I just love so much. It reminds me of how my other favorite, Izuku Midoriya from BNHA, has a range.

Yuji will literally look like this one minute!

And then look like this the next!

Of course, with everything he's been through, he's going to look different, but you get what I mean! 😆

Another reason is his overall personality. First episode/chapter alone with clock you on that he is a goofball with gets along with people, but he's not a pushover. He care about others and has a good heart. He's just so kind and energetic. His energy easily matches up with other hyper characters like Satoru and Kugisaki.

He's willing to sacrifice himself just to save someone and really, it's also a sad part of his character. He later on gives into the idea that he is just a cog in a system. He accepts death, deciding to help as many people as he can before his time is up. It leads to him going through so much as the story goes on to the point that he isn't exactly the same as he was before.

On a funnier note, he's just this strange kid to me. Like, Yuji finds a love story within a movie called Human Earthworm. Those dolls Yaga be making? Yeah, he calls one "creepy but cute" and even Satoru Gojo questions it "this thing is cute"? When Megumi tells him about Sukuna's finger and curses wanting it, wanna know what Yuji asks? "Why? Is it good?"

YUJI, IT IS A FINGER?!

He didn't even freak out when he saw Megumi's Demon Dogs.

Love his strangeness though. It's an endearing part of him to me.

Adding on, I adore about him is his overall skillset.

Yuji didn't even have cursed energy or any special techniques, but he was already capable of breaking records and outrunning cars. So much so that he gained a nickname like "Tiger of West Middle" and believed to be the reincarnation of Mirko Cro Cop, who is an actual person who is still alive.

His strength is so powerful that he was even given curses like Hanami and Choso a hard time fighting.

On top of that, it wasn't as if Yuji needed to go through a training session to learn basic fight skills. He was already beating ass before curses!!

Yuji is also a quick learner. Apparently, Black Flash is a move that is difficult to accomplish, yet Yuji was told about it for a couple of minutes and managed to delivered several Black Flashes within that same time frame. And if you count the amount of Black Flashes that has happened in the series so far, Yuji has executed the most at 8 - 10. Yuji is also able to adapt to the fighting style that whoever he is fighting alongside has. He has done it with Nobara, Aoi and Megumi. Three different styles, yet Yuji is able to work with each of them like nothing.

One more thing, is his relationships with other characters.

Again, Yuji is a sweet guy so it's easy for people to take to him and be his ally. It's not even just him being sweet, but there's also his other personality traits and skills. He was able to impress someone like Aoi Todo. There are not a lot of characters on the same wavelength as Satoru because of his personality, but Yuji is one that is. Even Megumi, one of the grumpiest characters, takes to him.

And while I do love the positive relationships he has, there's also the negative ones I like, too.

Out of all the characters, Yuji's clash with Sukuna is the most entertaining to me. That is not to say that the other relationships are boring.

It's just that with these two are so different. So very different, yet share a few things in common that makes my brain get to working and then I have thoughts I have to write down.

Really, that's all I have to say for now!

Yuji Itadori is a favorite of mine, the #1 on my list. I don't blame others for liking him, too, because to be for real... Yuji is a character I can't imagine anyone genuinely hating. Like... how can anyone, I don't know! Maybe not care for him? Not everyone has him as a favorite character, I'm sure.

I mean, I have seen people say they prefer Yuta or Satoru as the main character (makes no sense to me, I highly disagree, if either of them was the main character of the main storyline, then it would be a totally different story, HELLO, and I do like those two).

I have seen people call him "weak" and "useless" for losing to Choso as if Yuji didn't give Choso a hard time even after running around and fighting curses and curse users before then. "Yuji should stick to jumping". Yuji be doing 98% of the jumping, stop it now I'm exaggerating but you get it.

I'm just saying, Yuji could do almost all the crazy stuff a lot of other characters do without hesitation, but I doubt anyone else would be able to willingly, without thought, swallow a finger that looks like that like Yuji has. That kid is a menace, but an absolute sunshine and I adore him.

[multifan2022]

Golden Lies 5

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4

 In the tribute center, at the stations all the mentors are shocked. Never before had they seen someone who wasn't teamed up with someone do what you had just done. Mags had tears in her eyes as she watched her kids go through their bags. She had missed the small part where they showed you dumping the bags out. She didn't know what you put in which bag, but she knew watching her tributes that you had stacked the bags in their favor. The only person who you may have grabbed more for would be your friend. 

She looked up at Finnick who had his eyebrows drawn together. He was confused, why had you done that? Why not just end them right there? Why give them a chance to survive? He had been paying attention during the bloodbath where Mags normally looked away. He watched you make the first kill of the game. Watched you slit  the kid from 7s throat like it was nothing. 

Did you do it to be cruel? Did you want them to feel like they had a chance only for them to fail? Or were you incapable of killing them because of their age. Did you like River, the young girl he had just sent into the arena? Was it just too hard for you to kill such a kind girl? He didn't think so, but he had no clue what was going on as he watched you walk away. 

Haymitch had been watching too. Normally by now with both his tributes dead he would be upstairs drinking and waiting for Chaff. But not this year, this year he would be sober... mostly. Watching this girl he felt so deeply connected with. He even requested permission from the gamer maker to watch from your screen. If he could gain control of your screen, he could send in parachutes. He hadn't heard back yet, but he was hopeful. 

That day was spent walking, exploring what you could of the forest and trying to find somewhere relatively defensible to sleep. The entire day you could tell Hardin had something he wanted to say. Maybe multiple things as the lines in his forehead kept getting deeper. But he focused, watching the woods for anything besides your footsteps. 

When you found somewhere to sleep he listened as you detailed the things you two needed and started to help you gather. It wasn't until after you had found a squirrel you recognize from the ‘safe foods’ chart in the gym that he spoke. You had been slowly picking at it, watching to make sure that Hardin gets enough before you. Considering you had eaten this morning at breakfast and he hadn't you wanted to make sure he ate something. 

The furrow in his brows was starting to annoy you as the sun settled, “Ok.. Spit it out. What's the problem?” You said looking at him with that ‘dont bullshit me’ look, letting him know that you were not going to play around. He sighed, and dropped the bones from his animal into his lap pulling at its rib cage trying to get a bone off cleanly. 

“Why did you help those kids.. Don't give me some bullshit answer about giving them their best chance and whatever. You killed someone at the cornucopia no? Did you go deep into the fight to get weapons for them? Is it because of that guy, their mentor? Just tell me the truth.” 

You scoffed and stood up now annoyed that he was questioning you. “First off, I absolutely did not do it for Finnick. I helped them because I would rather spend a little time giving them some supplies than watch her get slaughtered next to me. I don't know why but I just identified with her. Maybe it was her innocence or something, but I just couldn't kill her..” 

Watching him look at you incredulously with his head tilted made you want to smack him. “Then why did you go so far into the horn..” He said standing up now too. He stomped the small fire out as he looked around to make sure no one was coming. You laughed humorlessly as you dug into your pocket. Tossing the bag across the space at him you didn't speak until after he caught it. 

“I had a feeling I needed to get that..” 

When he opened it, the first thing he saw was a note. ‘To give you a fair, fighting chance.’ When he dug further into the bag his fingers pulled out a pill. His pills, he dumped them out carefully into his hand and counted five. Five days that he could fight, five days he could protect you. Five days to get you home. He swallowed hard, having heard stories from his father about things like this. Tributes getting special gifts or sponsorships, and the price that came attached to them. “How did you get this?” 

“Ah it seems like the game makers were generous and gave the boy from 9 enough pills to last a few days! That will make the people happy, there was a lot of outrage last night after his interview.” Caesar says, clapping the table a few times. 

But all Finnick and Haymitch can see are the white roses on the bag. They know its not from the game makers, but from Snow himself. They have the same question that Hardin did. What did you do or promise to do to get that medication? And what would it cost you if you got out of the games. 

“Not important. What's important is you shutting your mouth and not picking fights with me. We can not be at odds right now over things that don't matter. Those kids from 4.. Not a threat to us, even with what I gave them. But we are a threat to each other if we are fighting.” You stepped around the small embers now glowing on the ground speaking again when you could grab one of his wrists. 

“We have to be on our top game, Hardin. Otherwise we will get ourselves and each other killed. I don't want to hear about this again. No Finnick, no questions about the meds. Just keeping each other alive.” He nodded, leaning down and pressing his forehead to yours. “I'm sorry. I wont get worked up again.” 

You patted his cheek as you pulled back, “Get those put away and somewhere on your body like a jean pocket. That way if a bag gets left or a coat gets pulled off you won't lose them. We need to move, in case someone saw some smoke. Then we can figure out rotations and get some rest.” 

That night, you walked until you heard the Panem anthem. You watched as the tribute's faces flashed through the sky. Both from 12, both from 11, the girl from 10, and the boys from 6, 7, and 5 and the girl from 8. “Nine down.” Hardin said as he unrolled the sleeping bag. “13 more to go.” You said softly looking over at him “You take the first rest, I'll be fine.” 

~~~~~~~

The next day and a half were completely uneventful for the two of you. More walking, you had looted one body though and found a freshwater stream. The body of the girl from 5, it seemed she got a decent amount of stuff. Sunscreen, some rations, gloves and some fishing line. 

So with the bone hook that Hardin had painstakingly made the first night during his watch, the two of you fished. Caught something that you hated the taste of, and you were very vocal about it. That night you had seen that only the 5 girl and the boy from 10 had died. You both knew things were going to ramp up if things got to boring. 

On the third day, things started to warm up. Water was being drunk a little faster, the fresh green grass was starting to turn into an unwatered brown. Sweat was starting to form from just walking as the sun stayed up longer. Your shirts were peeled off by the time the sun was high, you in just your jeans and a sports bra. 

You wanted to follow the stream and see if you found a larger body of water, but with how hot it was becoming, Hardin thought it would be better to be in the shade. He also pointed out that other tributes would be looking for water harder now too. So into the woods you went, trekking for what felt like hours. With the game makers controlling how long the days and nights really were, it was hard to tell how long it had actually been. 

“Do you see those marks on her back?” Caesar said squinting harder at his little screen just like his co host. “Hardin keeps looking over at them like they bother him.” 

Everyone in the training center turned from their own monitors which only watched their tributes to the main screen. Finnick felt his face heat up as he realized you had stripped off the top two layers of your outfit. But it was replaced quickly with curiosity over what Caesar had pointed out. 

They could all see the thin white lines that ran in miss match patterns across your back. Finnick looked down at Mags who was looking sadly up at the screen as well. “Scars..” was all she said before looking away to watch her tributes again. Finnick kept watching and listening to the main screen, hoping to hear an explanation. 

Haymitch, who had gotten permission just this morning on what was actually the fifth day to act as your off screen mentor, was watching from the district 9 tablet. Up close he could see just how many scars there were. His skin crawled at the thoughts that ran through his head as he wondered. His questions would soon be answered though as he heard Hardin's voice. 

“Do you remember the day we met?”

You paused for only half a step as you heard your friend's words. You knew he had been staring at your back, you could practically feel it. And had it not been for the heat, you would've put your t-shirt back on. Instead of ignoring him though, you played along thinking maybe the story would buy him some love in the Capitol. 

“Of course.. My father had beat me within an inch of my life, with a steer whip. I still don't know how he got his drunk hands on it. I can remember him screaming at me, about me not being his child and blah blah. Momma was a whore or whatever.” You rolled your eyes as you searched out for other tributes or beasts. 

“You were barely conscious when I found you in that alley. I dropped you twice trying to carry you home.” Hardin said as he remembered “My mom thought you were dead when I brought you in.” You nodded and went to carry on but swore you heard something. You raised your hand closing it into a fist that caused him to stop too. 

Your head turned towards the sound as you raised your spear, ready for battle. From just a few feet away, a person that wasn't supposed to be in the arena stepped out. Someone who wasn't even alive, walked from behind a tree with a blank dead look. The body turned limply and stared at you and Hardin, none of you moving as your heart rate spiked. 

“Ah yes.. It says here on our maker's sheet that part of this forest recreates your worst fear. Clearly our little Goddesses worst fear is this man. Gotta say he doesn't look like he's in the best shape.” 

All the mentors were watching the screen, Haymitch's screen beeping alerting him to your high heart rate. He watched the screen in worry, speaking lowly, but due to the quietness of the game and the room most people heard him. “Come on Sweetheart.. You can do this.” 

Both you and Hardin took a step back as your eyes stayed locked on your father. His skin gray and falling off in places, holes where it looked like something had eaten him were scattered across his body as well. He tilted his head and smiled at you as your breathing picked up audibly. 

“You're dead.. He's dead.. This isn't real.. This isn't real.” You whispered to yourself as you raised your spear. It left your hand and flew literally through his chest, leaving a gaping hole that didn't bleed or heal. A decaying hand came up and touched the hole, before he charged you. 

The sickle found your hand as his body slammed into yours. You could hear Hardin screaming, fighting off what looked like you. He was struggling clearly confused as to why you were attacking him. He didn't want to hurt you, even as you said things like ‘I will never love you.’ and ‘You're just holding me back’. 

The duplicates words angered you. You had always been good at compartmentalizing, so that's what you did. You shoved away the thoughts of killing what kind of looked like your father, and focused on saving Hardin. You fought his hands off your throat, which you had just realized were cutting off your air. 

“I wish your mother had killed you. It's your fault she's dead. I hate you!” The zombie dad screamed and you just rolled your eyes. You had not missed this, the emotional or physical abuse from the man. “Yeah yeah.. I'm a horrible kid.. Blah blah.. Let's get this over with.” 

You sliced out with the sickle, catching his arm as he raised it defensively. You watched as he held his hand out to the open air, it was empty, you were confused. Just as you raised the sickle to cut his hand off, you watched a whip materialize. You felt your heart shoot up again, sweat from the heat and your own trauma pouring down your body. 

You hadn't realized you long you had paused until the tip of the whip caught your face. You felt the skin split open straight down to your cheek bone. The force knocked your head back and caused you to stumble. “Yes.. This is your worst fear isn't it.. Me being back to whip you again..” His words didn't even register over the pain of the next hit, this time across your open chest. A scream ripped from your lungs as more skin split, nerves becoming exposed to the air as crack after crack screamed through the air. “Your screams are louder now that you're not a child.” 

“That's just horrible.. To think that her father whipped her as a child, how traumatic this must be for her. Our poor little goddess.” 

For the first time since becoming a mentor, Finnick turned away from the screen. But he could still hear the crack and your screams, so his feet forced him to leave the room. He was glad that he did, because he felt like he was going to throw up. How had a girl he talked to maybe three times affected him this much. He didnt even flinch when kids were brutally murdered at the blood bath. 

Without thinking, he made his way to the bar ordering himself a shot that he downed far too quickly. He felt someone walk up next to him so he turned his head sizing up the man who stood there. He was wearing a suit, all gold with butterflies outlined in black. His tie looked like it had textured butterfly's and his beard was weird and wavy. Had he really had that made between last night and this morning? 

“I would like to know how to sponsor the tributes from 9. Who can I speak with?” His voice was cool and almost calculating. When he turned back to look at a group of other men, Finnick followed his gaze. They all looked excited, like they were all in on this together. “Abernathy has taken up residence at their monitor. I'll go get him for you.” 

If Finnick had only known the door he was opening.. He wouldve told them to fuck off. He wouldve screamed, begged and bedded whoever he needed too, to save you from the life he basically just signed you too. He wouldve told Haymitch to never speak to this man. But he didnt know, he didnt know.. f

Hardin's scream pulled you from your own nightmare. When you turned your head, you saw him pinned to a tree with both the duplicates hands around his neck. The pain that you were in suddenly didn't matter, that same autopilot came on. The snap connects again, this time to your neck. The warm blood running down is a contrast to the cold sweat beading there. It should've been scary to you how natural it felt to kill when it took over. You felt like a completely different person just stepped into your skin. 

Everyone watching watching from the real world got to see something most hand never witnessed. The moment someone starts to slip. They watch your eyes as you watch your friend, they see the muscle just under your left eye twitch. They feel more than see the first nerve crack. The first feather on the camels back of your sanity. They all watch their goddess, take her first step down to hell.

Your hand raised seconds before the crack, the whip wrapped around your palm. Bones crushed when your fingers closed over the leather. Now it was just who was faster and stronger. When the zombie dad ripped his arm back, you ripped yours too. Effectively, since he was falling apart the motion pulled his arm clean from his body. Both the whip and the arm vanished from view. 

You didn't feel anything as your legs stood, the stinging in your chest, arms and face didn't matter. All that mattered was getting to Hardin. You had dropped your sickle somewhere, and knew the throwing knives you had shoved into random pants pockets wouldn't be any help. You knew nothing about these mutts, not how to kill them or how to make them go away. 

But you knew their body parts came off, and clearly didn't grow back. So if you could remove the things head, then you could get rid of it right? It seemed logical to you, so you assessed the area. If you could jump high enough there was a branch you could reach, maybe pull the thing off the ground? It was your best shot at this moment. 

“What do you think she's going to do? Our sources say that she needs to decapitate the mutation. But she doesn't have a weapon, and her partner is busy fighting his mutt. Weird that his worst fear is his best friend hating him. This must be very hard for the both of them.” Caesar said leaning so close to his screen that he was almost out of frame. The district 9 tributes were undoubtedly his favorite in a long time. 

“I don't know Caesar. I'm impressed that they have lasted this long or that she has been so ruthless. I mean she only scored a five! Do you think it was all an act or did something just click when she got to the arena?” His co-host said while tapping a pen on the desk. 

Pushing with everything you had, you ran. It caught the mutt off guard so when he stumbled back a step you were perfectly placed to get one foot on his leg and jump. Your hands wrapped around a sturdy branch at the same time your legs locked around his neck. One ankle tucked under the other thigh in a death drip. 

It took every ounce of core body strength you had to lift him up. Your arms were aching already as his dirty nails dug into your legs. Your body was shaking from adrenaline, pain, and exhaustion but you knew if you stopped two more cannons would be going off. You weren't sure how long it was before you felt the skin of his neck start to rip. 

The feeling had you almost gagging, as you held him just an inch or two from the ground. When his hands fell from your legs, and you felt the weight of his body leave you looked down. His head rolled from between your thigh and calf, a thud alerting you to both hitting the ground. You didn't give yourself a second to breathe as your feet hit the grass. 

You ran towards Hardin who was still trying to fight a paler version of you off. He had tears running down his face as he whispered to himself  ‘This isn't real. She's not real.’ A glint of metal caught your eye causing you to bend over as you ran. A sickle now in your hand as you reach your best friend. 

“Oh my god. She's going to kill a look a like of herself. This is amazing.”

Nothing about the scenario was processed as both hands wrapped around the handle of the sickle. It cut through the mutts neck like a warm knife through butter. The hands that were clawing into Hardin's neck now gone, as there was another thud and then smoke. Both bodies now disappear into nothing. 

Hardin stared at you, covered in whip marks and bleeding. Both your heart rates through the roof as you struggle to breath. You knew this had fucked you both up a little mentally. He could see that look, the one everyone else saw. It terrified him, but you couldn't stop to talk about it, you needed to keep moving. “There was too much noise from this.. We need to move. Now.” You didnt turn to see if he was following you, just grabbed your bag and looked for your spear. But it too had disappeared, you figured the game makers took it from you.

~

~

~

@avis15 @liballer @avoxrising

[bloom-ribbon22]

Bloom's Dinotrux HUMAN AU infodump: D-Bros + Skrap-itt

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I know I already posted them but I still wanna put em here + front facing D-Structs(unrelated note: don't usually do front faces much, I have tried it probably two times and it either ends up looking weird or just not right but I do like how it turned out this time! hmm maybe I should do more characters front facing).

anyways, I've always wanted to infodump share some bits of lore, facts, info, and other stuff of my human AU version of the Dinotrux and I kind of started with the D-bros + Skrap-itt, why? ngl they're one of the most interesting characters to me. soooooo here you go :)

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D-Stroy:

-when D-Structs was born, D-Stroy looked at his parents while pointing at his new baby sibling and asked "mom, dad.... why does he look so ugly?"

-a very mischievous kid back then. he was the ultimate pranker. he pranks a lotta people that he almost lost count of them but his favourite pranking victim is you guessed it! ya boi D-Structs! oh poor poor young, bratty, selfish D-Structs... always having silly stuff drawn on his face when he was asleep and almost getting scared to death everytime his brother just jumpscares him...I'd list more but this is getting way too long lol.

-hair is l o n g and messy af. you can probably store/hide items in there idk.

-has a high tolerance for spicy food and also enjoys eating it.

-even as a kid, he always gets into fights and still does which results to him always receiving new scars/injuries. almost never minds it because with all honesty he doesn't really give a shit what he looks like. even though he is incredibly strong, he knows his limits and also knows he isn't invincible or indestructible so he tries his best not to overestimate his strength and avoid battles if he knows he can't win it.

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D-Structs:

-was already a selfish guy when he was a bratty little kid and a bit of a snitch too. when he was five and D-Stroy would do something to him, even something that's completely harmless like slightly nudging his arm this left D-Structs no choice but to use a move that every older sibling fears "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

-heavily dislikes the taste of sweets. can't really handle it, the taste of sugar and the feeling of it melting into his tongue is just....sickening, maybe even irritating...in fact, it's unbearable....

-similarly to D-Stroy, he often gotten to a lotta fight even as a kid and still does which ends up getting himself new scars/injuries. most of these fights are pretty much his fault as most of the time he's the one that's starting/asking for it.

-"I'd rather live my life all alone until I die" that's what he thought to himself until Skrap-itt came to his life. story between them was kinda similar to the canon. it was so hard for him to tolerate this talkative and dumb lil pipsqueak but as time goes on he kind of started to get used to his company that it feels oddly weird whenever he's alone... sometimes...after all, Skrap-itt was the only one that gives a fuck about him...

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Skrap-itt:

-short king. you can kick him like he's a football or better yet, pick him up like he's some kind of cat and maybe even put him in a box, seal it shut, and deliver it to any random person. "your order is here"

-a cat person. he understands them, he knows they're not just annoying animals always whining for food 24/7, they are loving and caring too! they're not just, y'know, not that playful...at least..most of the time...he would adopt a cat but sadly D-Structs not really a big fan of pets in his home.

-was the weird lonely kid who often gets picked on a lot and many avoided him because, again, a weirdo and thus lived a pretty lonely life. Smash-itt, Break-itt and Lloyd are often the ones picking on him which would explain why Skrap-itt is so bitter to them when he meets them again, worse part is that D-Structs, though completely unaware of their history, """hired""" them.

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that's all for now, there will be plenty more(and I may add more stuff) and of course I'll make some for Ty and the gang :) fun but not needed fact: I started to type all of this with 11 percent battery and now it's 7 percent....dang

anyways I'm coming back to school at January 3 and I'm scared af sidbdiebsisbisbsisjd-

[wqintraining]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES: SEASON 3, EPISODE 11

We open at a political rally in Washington Square Park, which has drawn a massive crowd. The people in the crowd are volatile, and holding anti-Mutant signs. The press are also here, and a stage is set up. 

The microphone on the stage is tapped to test it as a man begins speaking, thanking everyone for coming, and asks them to please settle down. It’s revealed that he’s a briefly seen figure from earlier in the series: Graydon Creed. 

Creed thanks everyone for coming, and says that while he understands these people’s anger completely, they must be civil. They’re not animals - not like Mutants. Graydon speaks about the rising Mutant threat. Attacks on Paris, riots at the school that’s supposed to keep these freaks contained, why, he’s even heard from some friends in Washington that multiple government bases have been destroyed by Mutants over the last several months!

And yet, of the hundreds of bills moving through state legislatures to curtail these threats to all hard-working humans, those same friends in Washington are unwilling to take action nationally. And the good people of America deserve better. They deserve someone who will take action!

As he talks, men in suits pass out yellow armbands with “FOH” written on them to the crowd. 

GRAYDON: “For the past two years, I have proudly served as a Represenative for the state of New York. But no matter how great the odds may be against me, I can not sit back and tolerate this political disgrace any longer.” 

A hologram appears behind Graydon of his “FOH” logo. 

GRAYDON: “Ladies and gentleman, it is my honor to abandon the Republican party, and to welcome you all to the only political faction that can guaruntee mankind’s future. One that will find a solution to the Mutant problem once and for all! I proudly announced my candidacy for President of the these United States, and welcome you all…” BEAT. “To the Friends of Humanity!”

The crowd all eagerly slip on their armbands and cheer Graydon’s name. Graydon happily soaks up the worship. 

In a bakery, a red-headed woman in a casual yellow dress stands in line, cake in hand. As she nears the front of the line, she’s approached by a smug Pietro. 

PIETRO: “That doesn’t look too appetizing.” 

WOMAN, acting confused and annoyed: “Huh?” 

PIETRO: “That cake is from the fridge. How long ago do you think that was made?” 

WOMAN: “Do you normally go up to women and insult their confectionery purchases?” 

PIETRO: “Only when they’re as stunning and deserving of better as you.” 

WOMAN: “Ooooh, I see. You think you’re some kind of smooth talker. Some rich guy who thinks he can sweep me off my poor feet? I know your type.” 

PIETRO: “I’m sure you do. Interested?” 

The woman pushes Pietro back, getting out of line. 

WOMAN: “I have less than zero interest in getting with some self-absorbed pretty boy who thinks the world of himself. I prefer my men…down to Earth.” 

PIETRO, shrugging: “Just as well. I’m married. My wife would kill me if she saw this.” 

WOMAN, smirking: “Oh…I don’t know about that.” 

Pietro smirks back and the two kiss. The people behind the counter, as well as those in line, are a little befuddled. 

PIETRO: “I’ve missed you, Crystal.” 

A campaign ad for Graydon plays on a TV, narrated by him. It discusses how Mutants are not only the greatest threat to America, but the world, and no matter what differences they hold, all humans must stand together against them (he says over a clip of conventionally attractive non-white and queer people wearing FOH armbands). He mentions how he is the son of two of the most evil Mutants of all, Sabretooth and Mystique, which is why he knows how monstrous these creatures are by nature better than anyone. But it’s also why he knows how to fight them. And that’s what he’ll do as the next president of the United States. 

GRAYDON: “I’m Graydon Creed, and I approve this message.”

The tv in the headmasters’ office is turned off. 

SCOTT: “I liked him better when he was just trying to kill me with a spear.” 

Scott is seated at his desk, with Emma at his side, while Magneto stands on the other side of the desk, along with a well-dressed and well-presented thin black woman who looks just a little familiar. A binder sits on the desk. 

STEVIE HUNTER: “This starts airing in 48 hours. The notes there are what my people were able to scrounge up about his campaign.” 

EMMA, mockingly: “Your people?” 

STEVIE, not interested in banter: “Interns.” 

SCOTT, flipping through the notes, weirdly enthusiastic: “The kids did a good job organizing these.” 

STEVIE, genuine but amused: “I remembered how you liked your binders.” 

ERIK, in a huff: “Graydon timed this. He made the switch from would-be hunter to politician years ago. He’s only taking this step now because of our failures.” 

The metal in the room starts shaking, until Emma calm’s Erik’s mind. 

STEVIE: “Riiight, if you guys are gonna kill him, please do not make me an accessory.” 

SCOTT, standing up with a smile: “We’re not going to kill him.” Scott shakes her hand. “Thank you for this, Stevie.” 

STEVIE: “Anything for you guys. Never forget where you come from.” Looking straight at Emma for a little banter: “No matter how weird things get there.” 

Emma, trying to play it as cool as Stevie did, scoffs dismissively. 

ERIK, approaching Stevie: “I apologize for my outburst, Congresswoman Hunter. As always, you are a credit to your species.” 

STEVIE: “Thank you, Erik. I’ll remember you said that the next time you go crazy and try to kill us all.” Erik is left gagged. “Don’t be afraid to call my office, Scott.” 

SCOTT: “Of course.” 

As Stevie departs, Scott and Emma both laugh at Erik, Emma falling onto Scott’s lap. 

ERIK, trying to not be embarrassed: “Oh, please. She could have just as easily said something similar about you.” 

EMMA: “But she didn’t.” 

Erik grumbles, as Emma snickers. 

SCOTT, putting his arms around Emma: “Okay, okay. So. How do we kill Graydon?” 

At the grocery store, Sooraya is helping her mother do some shopping. Mirah and Sooraya are jubilant following Ramadan, feeling renewed and refreshed. And also very, very hungry as they’ve been fasting. 

The two speaking in Arabic, Mirah admits that while the last year for her has been one miracle after another, following years of pain, so much of it has been strange and foreign to her. This helped her get back in touch with what really matters. 

Sooraya smiles at her mom, happy to see her so happy. She then briefly flashes back to the end of the previous episode, and the voice speaking to her. 

SOORAYA, in the present, in Arabic: “I feel the same way. I love my friends, but…I had missed this.” 

Mirah hesitates to respond, which concerns Sooraya. Mirah tells her she didn’t want to do anything rash after the tragedy at the school, but she was wondering if, after this semester, Sooraya might not like to complete her final year of school somewhere else. Somewhere safer. 

Sooraya is upset and confused by this. Her mother was the one who told her that she had to say at the school, that it was where she was meant to be  with the gifts she was given. Mirah sighs and says she knows, but she knows her “Dust” is powerful enough to defeat any villain she faces. But her little girl deserves to be safe in her own bed. 

Soo understands her fears, but she and her friends are stronger together. She cannot abandon them. And “Dust” is still needed to defeat the enemies who have been tormenting them. 

At the checkout, Mirah notices Sooraya becoming solemn over the discussion. To lighten things up…

MIRAH: “You said that one of the “Horsemen” was a Crusader, didn’t you?” Soo nods. “Well then…we can delay this conversation until you have separated his skin from his flesh.” 

Sooraya giggles. That sounds fine. 

As the two exit the store, Sooraya says if her mother did wish to pull her out of the Jean Grey School, she would obey, but wonders if she could transfer to a school in Jersey. Mirah teases her, saying she thought she didn’t enjoy the date she set her up on. 

SOORAYA, amused: “It’s not that. It’s–” 

MIRAH: “If you’d like another date with that nice young man, you only have to–” 

Mirah stops talking part-way through her sentence, confusing Sooraya. 

SOORAYA: “Mother?” 

Mirah coughs up blood, as Sooraya’s eyes widen in horror; she’s been shot through the stomach. 

Mirah falls over onto the ground, as Sooraya screams. She immediately uses her powers to put pressure on the wound, calling desperately for someone to help. 

SOORAYA, tearing up: “No, no no.” BEAT. “Somebody! Please!” 

Back at the school, Cyclops, Emma, and Magneto are working out their plan to take out Creed. They quickly agree on two things.

 First, this stays between them. This is not an X-Men mission, nor will the X-Men ever be used to carry out assasinations. Creed just has too much potential to spread chaos in this climate, and has to be neurtralized, so they’ll bear the splatter of his blood themselves. 

CYCLOPS: “Of course Magik wouldn’t mind helping, but I don’t want to encourage her.” 

The second point is that this has to be quiet. Obviously all of them could physically kill Creed, but if it got out that they did so, that’s it, they’re done, humanity’s war on Mutants stops being cold. Even if he didn’t have mental defenses, something as easy to disguise as Emma’s telepathy could still be tracked back to them. 

MAGNETO: “With civilian casualties out of the question, a large-scale “accident” cannot be initiated either.” 

EMMA: “It doesn’t leave us with very many options.” Emma gets off of Scott. ‘Don’t say anything else. He’s deep in thought.” 

ERIK: “Would you care to fill me in?”

EMMA: “I’m not in his head. That’s just his planning brow.” 

ERIK: “You can actually tell when he’s–?”  

SCOTT: “I’ve got it.” Emma gestures to him proudly. “The last time the X-Men fought Graydon, neither of you was much better than him. “He never worked directly with either of you, but he did team up with some of our other enemies. Human and Mutant alike.” 

EMMA: “Where are you going with this?” 

Scott smirks. 

SCOTT: “If we can’t assasinate Creed using our powers, then we do it the way baselines do. One of us needs to get close enough to poison him, and make it look like any one of the other people he has bad blood with are responsible. Creed would never let his guard down around, “Magneto, Master of Magnet”--” 

ERIK, embarrassed, but threatening: “I called myself that one time, Summers.” 

SCOTT: “And we’re all still laughing. Point is, he’d never trust you.”  

EMMA, seeing where this is going: “But The White Queen who helped fund the second generation of Sentinels….” 

Scott nods. If Emma doesn’t like the plan, they can think of something else. 

SCOTT: “But I know how you enjoy outplaying small men.” 

Emma takes a moment to think it over. 

Emma sighs. 

EMMA: “Let me go make some calls and put on some gloves. I refuse to greet that cretin bare-handed.” 

At a hospital, Mirah is rushed inside from an ambulence, with Sooraya running along with the  medical workers, tearfully calling out to her mother, until she’s told she can’t go any further, and she has to let the doctors work. 

Sooraya, extremely emotional, nearly snaps at the nurse telling her this, her hands turning to sand, but…

“Sooraya!” 

Soo solidifies and is calmed down by the arrival of her friends, save Laura. Cessily runs right up to her and tightly hugs her. 

CESSILY: “She’s going to be okay. After everything she’s been through, this isn’t gonna be the end, alright?” 

Sooraya weakly nods as she hugs her friend back. 

Nori questions what even happened, all Soo having said in her message was that her mother was shot. As Dust pulls back, she tells her she wishes she knew, but she doesn’t have any idea. 

DUST: “I understand that there are many who would like to hurt women like us. But this was no act of random violence.” 

Julian promises her they’re gonna figure this out, and they’ll make whoever did this wish they were never born. Roxy comes in from a softer angle, asking her if there’s anything she needs right now. 

Sooraya wipes her tears and asks the two speedsters if they could get her some of her things from her room. The EMTs weren’t sure how long she’d be in surgery. She definitely needs her prayer rug. And some snacks. 

JULIAN: “One dried fruit and nut bowl coming right up.” 

NORIKO: “We’ve got you.” 

Soo weakly smiles as thanks her friends, before the two speed off. 

Sofia steps forward. 

SOFIA, emotional: “Sooraya, I…I am so sorry you have to go through this. I have thought for years that there is nothing worse than the pain of losing a parent. But the fear you must feel must be even worse.” 

Sooraya sniffles, but shakes her head. She will be okay. They both will. Allah would not have brought them back together, just to separate them again. Sofia tells her to hold onto that hope tightly. 

SOFIA: “I can’t move as fast as Surge and Hellion, but if you’d like, I CAN try and listen for any updates from the operating room.” 

Sooraya would appreciate that, so Sofia gives her a hug and tells her she’ll get right on it. As Sofia walks away, Cessily and Roxy help Soo to find seats in the waiting area. 

Once she’s out of sight from her friends, Sofia’s face hardens. 

In Clan Akkaba’s headquarters, Akihiro is continuing to train Laura. He’s still largely kicking her around, but they’ve become much more of an even match. 

AKIHIRO, stomping down on her on the ground: “Better. Much better. But you’re still fighting like the X-Men taught you. If you’re gonna keep calling yourself a weapon, you should at least fight like one.” 

Death tells her to go again as he takes his boot off of her, before his phone rings. He tells Laura to grab some water while he takes this. 

AKI, answering the phone: “My lady.” 

SOFIA, in voice over: “Tell me this wasn’t us.” 

AKIHIRO, unsure what she’s talking about: “Only operation we have planned for today is Quicksilver. Did something else happen?” 

Without the conversation being heard, Akihiro reacts as he’s told what happened, and given orders, confirming that he understands. Death hangs up. 

AKIHIRO: “Class for today is over, “Sis”. That was the boss. I’ve got someone to find. And you’ve got somewhere you need to be.” 

Laura is confused and worried. 

In central park, Pietro has a picnic with Crystal, wine and the store bought cake included. They romantically feed each other bites of the cake, using purple prose to describe its adequacy. Pietro thinks they could use something a bit more refined to wash it down and moves up to pop open the wine. Crystal tells him to be careful he doesn’t spray them, which Pietro, moving too quickly, proceeds to do. 

Crystal screeches, which makes Pietro laugh, before he apologizes and waves his hands to dry them both off. 

CRYSTAL: “Idiot.” 

PIETRO: “Perhaps, but you married me. So what does that make you?” 

CRYSTAL: “At the time? 22.” 

Crystal sighs happily and lays her head down on Pietro’s lap as he pours them each a glass of wine. 

CRYSTAL: “I wish he could do this every day.” 

PIETRO: “The price we pay living world’s apart. How are things on the blue side of the moon?” 

CRYSTAL: “I’m the wrong girl to ask. I try to spend as little time in Attilan as I can.” 

PIETRO, teasing as he hands Crystal her wine: “I’m sure the king and queen just love that.” 

CRYSTAL: “My sister and brother-in-law should be grateful. If it wasn’t for everything they had to offer Luna, they wouldn’t even have their princess to show off on special occasions.” 

Pietro’s expression becomes more sincere as he holds Crystal’s hand. 

PIETRO: “May I see her?” 

CRYSTAL: “Of course.” 

Pietro grabs Crystal’s phone and turns on it, revealing her lockscreen: a nine-month old baby girl. Pietro’s heart melts as Crystal sits up and puts her arms around him from behind. 

PiETRO: “She’s beautiful.” 

CRYSTAL: “She is. I wish you could have been there when she was born. I’ll never forgive Medusa.” 

PIETRO: “Can…can I meet her?” 

CRYSTAL: “I’ve got a little apartment in Brooklyn. She’s there with a sitter right now.” 

Pietro’s eyes widen with excitement. Before anything else can be said however, as a powerful wind blows away their picnic, and a blast of green energy knocks down a tree. As everyone else in the park flees, Pietro and Crystal leap to their feet. 

MALICE, flying down: “We honestly didn’t mean to time it like this, but frankly, Pietro? Keeping you from ever seeing your daughter sounds delicious.” 

CRYSTAL: “Lorna?” 

PIETRO, enraged, changing into his costume at super speed: “No. Not even close.” 

In an office building floor, the Friends of Humanity are already hard at work, with dozens of employees making cold calls for the organization, designing merchandise, or completing other assignments. 

Graydon works in his corner office, until his secretary informs him that “the mutant” is here. Graydon tells him not to be so dismissive of this one. 

GRAYDON: “Ms. Frost is one of the good ones. At least, she used to be.” 

Emma enters the office, much to the disgust of the people working there, where she’s greeted by Graydon, wearing a perfect politician’s smile. 

GRAYDON: “Emma, I am so happy you called.” 

EMMA: “I’m glad you were able to meet so quickly.” 

The two shake hands, Emma indeed having put on gloves. 

GRAYDON: “I haven’t been in politics long, but you never give a potential donor like you time to change her mind.” 

EMMA: “I highly doubt you have any donors like me.” A man walks up with a power-inhibiting collar.  “What is this?” 

GRAYDON: “I can understand with how utterly your people have been losing lately wanting to come back to the winning team. It’s not like you ever gave a damn before you made the mistake of growing a heart. But I hope you’ll understand that, given you are still an X-Man, I feel the need to take precautions. Do you?” 

Emma is perturbed, and we see in part why, as she’s psychically patched in to Scott and Erik, who are back in their office. Scott tells her to go ahead and do it. He’ll have one of the kids from her telepathy class to patch them back in. He’ll have them leave once they’re sure Emma is secure and before she does anything. 

EMMA, putting on her own political smile: “Of course.” 

Emma tries to not be embarrassed as she collars herself for Graydon. 

GRAYDON: “Perfect. Now we can talk on more equal footing. Right this way.” 

Graydon leads Emma toward his office, but swears as two kids run past them both, a young boy with dark black hair and a little blonde girl in a frilly dress chasing after him, with the boy screaming at her to not give him cooties. 

EMMA: “Are you running a political campaign or a daycare service?” 

GRAYDON, recomposing himself: “I apologize. They’re Carlton Kilgore and Lenore Kensington’s brats. Apparently they were just dying to see what their daddy and mommy were getting involved with. One of my staff was meant to be watching them. Penelope!” 

“I’m sorry, sir!” 

Emma’s practiced smile falters as she hears a familiar voice, and sees an even more familiar face, as Monet comes around a corner, saying she’ll get the kids back in order right away. 

GRAYDON, sighing: “It can wait. Penelope Enduque, meet Emma Frost.” 

MONET, offering her hand: “It’s an honor, ma’am. I’m a big fan of your old work.” 

EMMA, hesitant, shaking her hand: “Charmed.” 

In their office, Scott and Erik smack their faces. In his office on the other side of the world, Roberto smacks his own face. 

 In the hospital, Mirah is in surgery, with several doctors sweating as they work on her. Out in the waiting room, Julian and Noriko have returned and are noshing on snacks they brought over, while Cessily joins Sooraya in prayer on the floor. 

Laura burts into the waiting room in a panic, looking for Sooraya. 

LAURA: “Soo!” 

Dust notices her and, without a word, shifts into sand to fly over to her best friend and hug her. 

NORIKO, under her breath: “Took her long enough.” 

Roxy and Julian each punch one of her arms. 

LAURA: “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.” 

SOORAYA: “I am just glad to have you here now. Will you join Cessily and I in prayer?” 

Laura nods without question. 

Nearby, Sofia is on the phone again. 

AKIHIRO, in voice over: “I’ve got your assassin.” 

SOFIA: “Already?” 

AKIHIRO: “You gave me the location where the target was hit. Of course I was able to track them from there.” 

SOFIA: “I didn’t realize you possessed Warpath’s skills.” 

AKIHIRO: “Yeah, well…I may have also asked Exodus for help.” 

Sofia is mildly amused. Aki asks her if his lady wants all the heads of the people responsible for this, but Lady Akabba tells him to stand down. 

SOFIA: “We can use this.” 

As Sofia re-enters the waiting room, Sooraya, back on her mat, cringes. 

The same soothing voice from the end of the last episode speaks her name in her head. 

Sooraya’s eyes fill with rage as she stands up. 

CESSILY: “Everything alright, Soo?” 

SOORAYA, quietly furious: “They will be soon. My prayers have been answered. I know who shot my mother.” BEAT. “And I’m going to kill her.” 

Everyone else looks at Sooraya with concern. 

In Central Park, Pestilence taunts Quicksilver as she touches down on the ground, asking if he hasn’t told his wife about her. 

MALICE: “Becuase I know all about you, Princess Crystalia Amaquelin.” 

Crystal demands to know what’s going on, with a pissed Pietro explaining at super speed. 

CYRSTAL: “And you didn’t tell me about this, why?” 

QUICKSILVER: “Sorry, I’ve–” 

MALICE: “It’s because he’s got more in common with dear old dad than he’d ever like to admit. Including poor time management. Lorna understands that well.” 

QUICKSILVER: “Enough! Your tricks were enough to work once, but not again. Return my sisters to me, and you may survive the day.” 

MALICE: “Return them? There’s Magneto’s possesiveness. How do you put up with this, Crystal?” 

Quicksilver howls in rage as he rushes Malice, but he collides with her magnetic field and is sent flying. 

CRYSTAL: “Pietro!” She turns with fury to Pestillence. “You say you know who I am. If that’s true, and you still made the choice to come for my family…” Crystal’s eyes glow yellow as the earth shakes, a powerful wind blows through the park and lifts her above the ground, fire materalizes and spins around her, and water is ripped out of the grass to do the same. “You must have a death wish.” 

The two stare each other down as Pietro speeds back over, the fight about to start. 

Back at the hospital, Cessily asks Sooraya what she’s talking about as everyone gathers around, Laura holding Sofia’s hand, showing that Sofia still hasn’t broken up with her. 

Dust explains to her friends that, recently, Allah has been speaking to her directly during prayer. She’s known for some time that she was directly chosen by him, but this has been a wondrous, holy experience for her. 

DUST, glaring at Nori and Julian: “And I can see from your expressions that you believe I’m being tricked. I promise, I know that this is real.” 

SOFIA: “And he told you who shot your mother?” 

Sooraya casts her head down. 

SOORAYA: “Leper Queen.” 

JULIAN: “What?!” 

NORI: “Are you serious?!” 

Hellion and Surge recall taking Leper Queen down when she attacked the school last year on Parents Day, and question how she could have gotten out of SHIELD’s prison. 

Roxy facepalms, being the first to put it together. 

ROXY: “Those Akabba creeps we fought were also from SHIELD’s prisons. She must have escaped while Exodus was doing his recruitment drive.” 

Sofia’s eyes panic at the realization she IS indirectly responsible for this. Laura squeezes her hand to comfort her. 

JULIAN: “Don’t suppose Allah was able to tell you what her problem is and why she shot her.” 

SOORAYA: “He did not. But I will find out.” 

CESSILY: “Right, so, I totally get wanting to do this yourself. If Julian and Nori beat her once, we can all do it together no problem.” Her face shifts with concern. “But you’re not a murderer.” 

SOORAYA, without hesitation: “I have killed before.” 

 LAURA, letting go of Sofia and approaching Sooraya: “When you had no choice. You still have nightmares about it.” 

SOORAYA: “And now my nightmares will be filled with my mother bleeding out on the ground.” 

SOFIA: “Laura is right, Soo. Whether or not she deserves death, this is exactly what led Quentin down the path he went.” 

Laura turns back to Sofia for a moment with confusion, unsure why her brainwashed friend would be taking her side on this.

Julian and Nori toss in their support with Sofia and Laura, calling back to their experiences at the start of the season 

There’s a moment of silence as Sooraya thinks, staring at each of her friends. 

DUST: “If you will not help me…then I must do this alone.” 

Sooraya burts into millions of sand particles to fly away. Hellion tries to stop her by telekinetically grabbing all of them, but while he catches most, he misses just a few specs of dust, which is all Soo needs to make it outside before reforming her body and flying away. 

ROXY: “Oh, this is bad. What do we –?” 

Laura, without taking a moment to consult with the others, races out of the hospital. 

NORI: “That. We do that. We go after her, and we stop her. Hellion and I will at least. Mercury, Bling!, start calling X-Men, and get everyone you can to come help us. Wind Dancer, I–”

SOFIA: “I will stay here and keep listening for updates on Mirah’s condition. Her survival is more likely to calm Sooraya’s rage than anything else.” 

NORI: “Yeah, that works.” 

JULIAN: “Alright, let’s get out of…here.”

Cessily wrapps her arms around Julian. 

CESSILY: “Please don’t let her do this.” 

JULIAN, hugging her back with one arm: “Don’t worry. We’re not losing anyone else.” 

Julian shoots a smile at Sofia, who smiles back. 

Surge and Hellion race off. 

In Graydon’s office, he and Emma sit down to talk business, with Emma knowing all the pretty little words she needs to use to handle him. Her real attention is on Monet, standing behind Graydon, who reaches out to her telepathically. 

MONET: “What do you think you’re doing here?” 

EMMA: “I imagine the same thing as you, “Penelope”. Shouldn’t you be in school?” 

MONET: “I dropped out.” 

EMMA, angry and disappointed: “What?!” 

MONET: “I’m still completing the work to obtain my degrees, but university itself was a waste of my time.” Still wearing a phony smile, she looks right into Emma’s eyes. “Just like high school now that I think about it.” 

EMMA, frustrated: “Whatever resentments you hold toward me, you shouldn’t allow them to affect your education.” 

MONET: “My resentments? I do not resent you for getting Everett and Angelo killed, Ms. Frost.” Emma’s fake smile falters just a little. “Or for what you did afterward. You just…mean nothing to me.” 

Emma holds back her feelings about this as she returns her attention to Graydon, who wants to know what she’s expecting in exchange for becoming the largest donator to the Friends of Humanity. 

GRAYDON: “Obviously you won’t be purged like the rest of your kind, but I know enough about you to understand you want more.” 

Emma confirms his assumption. She wants to be involved with the Friends of Humanity directly, as well as leniency for a handful of her students, an assurance that her bank accounts won’t be touched, and a segregated space, similar to Genosha but without the madman in charge…

Erik rolls his eyes as Emma spins her story. 

…for any surviving Mutants, including herself, to occupy. 

EMMA: “Living among humanity won’t be a good fit for anyone, and you can trust me to keep them in line.” 

Graydon hardens his face as he thinks over this carefully. He isn’t given the chance to come to a conclusion on his own. 

MONET: “Sir, if I may speak?” Graydon turns to her with a “This better be good” look. “I wouldn’t believe a word out of this Mutant’s mouth.” Emma’s eyes turn livid at M going this far to spite her. “You remember our poker evening with Sunspot last year, don’t you? We’ve both been tricked before.” Monet smiles at Emma. “I really do hope you’ve returned to your senses, Ms. Frost, I looked up to you as a mature role-model when I was very, very young, but the stakes of what we’re attempting here are simply too high to put to chance.” 

Before Graydon can speak, Emma jumps in. 

EMMA: “Mr. Creed, do you typically allow your nannies to speak for you?” Monet now narrows her eyes at Emma. “However much Ms. Enduque is donating to be a part of this endeavor, I can’t imagine it’s worth being undermined in such disprectul fashion.” 

BEAT

Graydon sighs. He didn’t realize these two were so similar (this comment upsetting both Emma and Monet). He’s going to make some calls from people who’s judgement he trusts, requesting Penelope to show Emma around in the meantime. 

MONET, smile back on: “Of course.” 

Emma and Monet shoot smug glares at each other. 

In Central Park, Quicksilver and Crystal’s battle against Pestillence has commenced. Malice blasts at Crystal, but can’t hit her as Pietro is holding her and moving them both around at super speed. Crystal attempts to burn Malice with a wave of fire, but Pestillence protects herself with a shield. Malice attempts to use the metal in the Earth’s surface to swallow Crystal and Quicksilver up, but while it initially works, Crystal’s superior command over the elements frees them with ease. 

 Seeing that her attacks can’t penetrate Pestillence’s shield, Crystal controls the air molecules around Malice, within her shield, and crushes her with them. Malice screams in agony, prompting her shield to drop, allowing Pietro to leap right in her face and snap his fingers at super speed. The ensuing bang sends Malice flying across the city. 

CRYSTAL: “Is there a plan here? Or do we just keep hitting her until she gives in?” 

PIETRO: “The Horseman were each gifted an additional Mutation by Apocalypse. That’s what she used to poison Wanda. If we beat her, she loses the artificial X-gene. Apocalypse’s “survival of the fittest” nonsense and all. That may cure her.” 

CRYSTAL: “Couldn’t it also leave the effects permanent?” 

Pietro, streessed, seethes. Yes, that is possible. But they couldn’t force her to do anything for them without beating her. 

CRYSTAL: “We could attempt negotiations. She has to want something, right?” 

PIETRO: “What she wants is the extinction of humanity.” We cut away from Pietro and see Malice, where she landed, at an industrial sight. “She’s a monster.” 

As Pestillence aches, struggling to stand, she flashes back. 

Several years ago in Yorkshire, a fifteen year-old Alice MacAllister, dressed in a school uniform, with several facial and body piercings and punkish accessories, attends a protest against a law being put into effect prohibiting Mutants with visible Mutants from showing themselves in public. 

Alice holds a sign, and joins in with the rest of the crowd’s chants. An older man with a slight facial Mutation tells her he’s not about to complain about anyone joining in to help the cause, but questions based on her outfit if she shouldn’t be somewhere else right now. 

ALICE: “It’s fine, sir. School is nothing but state propaganda designed to control us. If it were actually meant to teach us anything, we wouldn’t waste so much time on fluff we’ll never need to know. It’s indoctrination, plain and simple. This? This is what’s real. This is where I can learn.” 

MUTANT, putting his hands up: “Intense, but okay. Your life. Hope you don’t get in any trouble.” 

ALICE: “Pssh. It’ll be fine.” 

We hard cut to Alice being slapped by her mother later that evening as she’s berated for skipping school. 

MOM: “You’ve made clear you don’t care about yourself with how you’ve mutilated your body, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about your future!” 

ALICE: “The only way I have a future is if things change! If your generation keeps destroying the climate and building death robots to hunt innocent people–” 

MOM, dismissively: “My generation?” 

ALICE: “Yes! Literally yes!” 

Alice’s mom sighs. She gets it. This is how all teenagers are. But one day, she’s going to wake up and think just like her. The fire will die out, she’s going to become “boring”, and when she does, she’ll have wished she worked hard enough to have achieved a comfortable life. 

MOM: “I want better for you than I have, dear.” 

ALICE: “So I’m just supposed to turn a blind eye? How can I study maths when people are being genocided?” 

MOM: “Do not use that language. That is not what’s happening. Besides…” She places a hand on her daughter’s face. “They’re just Mutants.” 

“What’s this about Mutants?” 

Alice and her mother are both taken aback by the sound of a gravelly voice slurring its words. 

MOM: “Go to your room. I’ll handle your father.” 

Alice breaths and weakly smiles. 

ALICE: “Thank you, Mum.” 

MOM: “This conversation isn’t finished.” 

ALICE, face falling: “Yeah. I know.” 

Alice stomps off to her room, bitter. 

In the present, we pan across a forest. Men can be heard loudly grunting in unison. Underneath the forest is a bunker, where muscular men in military fatigues, some with actual military tattoos, are running combat drills. 

As we pan across the bunker, we see other men undergoing intense workouts and marksmanship training. Still others are studying poisons and traps. And then there are those who are allowing themselves to be slashed by metal claws, blasted with ray guns, and electrocuted. 

One man is sparring with an unseen opponent, before said opponent stabs him through the chest with a knife. He falls over. 

The camera pans up to reveal Leper Queen. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Walk if off. Mutants will do far worse.”  

SOLDIER: “Y…yes, ma’am.” 

As Leper Queen herself walks away and grabs a towel, a man in uniform approaches her. 

OFFICER: “General, we have a problem?” 

LEPER QUEEN, unworried, toweling off her sweat: “Did the beast not take the bait?” 

OFFICER: “No, ma’am. Just as you calculated, shooting the mother of X-23’s closest friend is drawing her out, and measures are in place to lure her here.” 

LEPER: “Then what’s the problem?” 

OFFICER: “The daughter.” 

In the forest, Dust travels through the thick trees furiously in sand form, inadvertently breaking off bark and knocking down branches. 

OFFICER, in voice over: “She’s coming too.” 

LAURA: “DUST!” 

Sooraya doesn’t stop moving. Laura races across treetops until she can leap down and get in front of her. 

LAURA: “I’m not going to stop you.” 

Before Dust can collide with Laura, she stops and reforms her body. 

DUST: “Then you are going to help me? 

Laura nods. 

LAURA: “You’ve always understood better than the others. You’re the only one who could. You know what death tastes like.” Laura approaches Soo. “The blood on me is too thick to ever come off. But I can keep you clean.” Laura bares her claws. “I’ll take Leper Queen out, myself.” 

Soo needs a moment to think this over, not overly fond of the idea, but she accepts it. 

DUST: “Thank you, Laura.” BEAT. “When I look at you, I do not see any blood.” 

Laura isn’t sure what to say to that. Nor does she get the chance to figure it out. Laura shoves Sooraya to the ground as a turret fire of tranquelizers into shot into her. 

DUST: “Wolverine!” 

Dust begins transforming, but she’s hit by and trapped in an electric net. She briefly screams, before passing out. 

Back in the city, Monet continues to put on her act touring Emma around the Friends of Humanity’s facilities. As she does so, she telepathically communicates with someone else. 

BETO: “So would you like to give me the full story here?” 

MONET: “No.” 

BETO, getting a manicure in his office: “You mean because telepathic communication at this distance is difficult for you?”

MONET: “Shut up.” 

BETO: “Come on, be honest with your boyfriend.” 

MONET: “I do not recall giving you permission to use that term.” 

BETO: “And I don’t recall asking for it.” 

Monet sighs internally, and gives a brief overview. She never liked Emma. From the day she joined Generation X, she hated her. She hated how Emma clearly thought they were alike, and, more than that, she hated every time Emma was proven right. 

MONET: “I refused to end up like her.” 

BETO: “Not that I’m her biggest fan, but why?” Monet wrinkles her face, being this open extremely difficult. “You know keeping things all bottled up is a very “Emma” move”. 

MONET: “Hate you.” 

Beto makes kissie noises. 

Monet sighs and continues. She went through a lot in the process of joining Generation X (flashes are shown to a fully red, spiky girl in all black running around with Jubilee, Chamber, Husk, Skin and Synch, and fighting against Emplate). And one thing she could never shake was how much pain she was always in, and how constantly angry she was at herself. 

And then there were Everett and Angelo’s deaths (a flash is shown to Monet undigging Synch’s corpse out of rubble, crying as she holds it, Jubilee crying at her side, and Chamber beside her hugging Skin’s body tight), and what Emma did afterward (a flash is shown to the four remaining Generation X members watching as Emma vegtablizes Adrian and kills her men, horiffying them). 

MONET: “I refuse to spend my life loathing myself as she does. I refuse to fail like her. And I will never do anything less than to practice what I preach.” 

Beto exhales as his manicure is finished and he gives a large tip to his manicurist on her way out. As far he’s concerned, she doesn’t need to worry about any of that; he’d expect nothing less from her. 

BETO: “But I do understand. My relationship with Magneto has had similar…bumps. Only if you’d like to, we can discuss this more later. For now, let’s stay focused on keeping Emma from ruining our plans.” BEAT. “M? Monet?” 

MONET, outloud: *Something that needs to be censored* 

In the office, Emma and Monet have been surrounded by guards and put at gunpoint. 

In the past, Alice wakes up in her bed. Only, as she rubs her eyes, her spirit leaves her body. It takes Alice a moment to notice what’s happened as she floats over to her mirror, making her scream. 

Alice calls out for help from her mom, but there’s no answer. She hyperventilates as she tries to go back in her body, but she can’t. 

ALICE: “This can’t be happening.” She stares at herself in the mirror. “What am I?” 

Alice calls out for her mom again, rushing for her door. When she can’t touch the doorknob, she whimpers and tries phasing through the door, which she succeeds at. She comes down to the kitchen in tears, her mother cooking and her father reading the news (specifically an unsubtle pastiche of The Daily Mail), and begs for their help, but neither can see or hear her, Alice’s mother just calling out for Alice to come downstairs. 

Alice becomes completely hysterical as she drops to her knees, falling through the floor. 

In the present, Malice forces herself to stand up as Quicksilver and Crystal arrive at the industrial sight. 

QUICKSILVER: “Last chance.” 

The injured Malice stares intensely at the two heroes, who glare right back. It seems like she may be nervous, but then she smirks. 

MALICE: “Bad luck I landed here.” 

Malice surrounds herself back in her forcefield as she flies up, while simultaneously throwing all the metal beams and heavy machinery in the area at the duo. Pietro picks Crystal back up in his arms, and with difficulty and some intricate flips, dodges everything thrown at them. 

As a pissed and fearful Malice attempts to throw it all again, Crystal flies out of Quicksilver’s arms to attack Malice head on. Malice keeps Pietro busy, focusing her magnetic assault entirely on him, while growing red eyes on each of her palms to engage Crystal with the power of Pestillence. 

Both moving at lightning-fast speeds, Crystal attempts to strike Malice with either her fists, her flames, or her water, while Malice blocks, dodge, and attempts to hit the princess with one of her arrows. 

MALICE: “Lord Apocalypse was right about you Inhuman Royals. You’re much stronger than the last few X-Men I’ve fought.” 

CRYSTAL: “Tell me something I don’t know.” 

MALICE: “Well, okay. But only cause you asked, love” 

Malice and Crystal both fall to the ground as their eyes glow, and the metal in the area ceases to charge Quicksilver. He’s confused, before noticing what’s happened to the two women. He speeds over them, unsure of what to do, panic written all over his face. 

In her bunker, Leper Queen confidently paces back and forth in front of prison cells. She stops walking in front of one of the cells. 

LEPER QUEEN: “I was hoping you would wake up first…” Laura is shown, leaning against a wall, chained and collared. “X-23.” 

Laura glares back at Leper Queen silently. 

LEPER QUEEN: “What? No reaction? Not even going to ask who I am or what I want?” 

BEAT

LAURA: “I have been an X-Man for over a year. No answers you give will make me understand the things humans do.” 

Leper Queen assumes Laura is insinuating she’s like those zealots the Purifers, or those absolute fools, the U-Men. She wants to make clear that’s not what this is. 

LEPER QUEEN: “If scientists and doctors could hurry up on manufacturing an effective cure for your increasinlgy common disease, the world wouldn’t need a Leper Queen. But since a cure remains out of reach, it falls to me to purge this disease from the Earth.” 

Laura rolls her eyes at Leper Queen’s monologuing, and her seeing herself as any different from the others. LQ narrows her eyes. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Mock me if you wish. I have the support of our soon to be president. And with him in office, and my Sapien League enacting a purge, Mutantkind’s days are numbered.” 

LAURA: “Okay. And how does shooting an innocent, baseline woman help you?” 

Leper Queen steps toward the bars of Laura’s cell as she explains that shooting Mirah Qadir was a necessary evil. 

LEPER QUEEN: “It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best I could do…with your bitch of a mother already dead.” 

Laura growls as she leaps toward the bars, but is restrained by her chains. 

Leper Queen laughs as she bangs her fist on the bars. Her face then falls. 

LEPER QUEEN: “My daughter was only three years old when she was infected with a Mutation. Burned our house down, and took my face off. But I was still naive enough to believe it was just an unfortunate accident. An isolated incident.” She chokes up. “Then one day I come home. And I find her dead. Body mutilated. Covered in claw marks.” 

Laura’s eyes widen in horror as she realizes what this is about. 

LEPER QUEEN: “I won’t say her name. You wouldn’t remember. You were just the government’s attack dog after all. The lives you took didn’t mean anything.” BEAT. “You Mutants aren’t just threats to humanity. You’re threats to each other. And then there’s you, specifically, X-23. What I fear most. A corrupt government using your kind as weapons.” 

LAURA: “I–”

LEPER QUEEN: “I wanted to make you feel the pain of losing a mother. The only thing that could compare to the pain of losing a daughter. But I had to settle for the mother of your friend. I’m sure she’s in surgery right now, but I promise you, she will not survive.” 

Laura is overwhelmed with emotions. Rage, guilt, sadness, helplessness, and more she can’t even describe. 

Dust can be heard groaning in the next cell over. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Oh good. She’s awake. Let’s tell her who’s fault this all this. Before I make you watch me torture her.” 

Laura has no idea what to do as, once again, a friend’s life is in danger because of her. 

Back at the hospital waiting room, with Sofia now alone, she’s flipping through her phone, smiling sadly at selfies she forced Apocalypse to take with her, each one with her doing a different face and pose, while he wears the same annoyed expression in every photo. 

A nurse enters the waiting room, looking for Sooraya. Sofia approaches her and tells her she’s Sofia’s friend. Sooraya had to go take care of an emergency, and she asked her to give her updates. 

SOFIA: “Is Mirah okay?” 

The nurse thinks about how to respond. 

NURSE: “She’s out of surgery and she’s stable. Any other information I can only give to family. I’m sorry.” 

SOFIA, passionately: “I am her family.” 

NURSE, looking Sofia up and down, sarcastically: “By marriage I’m guessing?” 

Sofia squints her eyes, unamused by the nurse’s joke. 

We hard cut to Sofia wandering through the recovery room, looking for Mirah, with the fate of the nurse left up to the audience’s imagination. 

Upon finding Mirah, Sofia pulls a piece of Celestial tech out of her pocket, and uses it to scan her. 

SOFIA, pissed: “The bullet was poisoned. With something not found in any known database.” 

Sofia’s expression softens as she sits down next to the comatose Mirah and takes her hand, as the heart monitor weakly beeps. 

SOFIA: “Look at you. So weak and frail. So pathetic.” Sofia rolls her thumb around Mirah’s hand, bones heard cracking as she does so. “I could break you without even thinking about it.” BEAT. “And yet, even with the Hell I endured to become who I am, I do not know that I could stand as tall as you, that I could be a caretaker, after all that you have been through.” 

Sofia takes her hand off of her.

SOFIA:  “My father and I do not agree on everything. I believe that more humans are fit than he does. I know that my mother was. You, Mirah Qadir, live and you thrive, and you love and support your daughter, even after your years of torment. And rather than fear Dust’s strength, you encourage it. This proves to me that you are fit as well. My world will need humans like you.”

Sofia reaches into her pocket again, pulling out a different piece of Celstial tech. 

SOFIA: “And even if you were weak, you mean everything to Sooraya. Pain can make you stronger, but too much at once can shatter anyone.” She looks up. “Conquest and domination are the only ways I can protect the people that are important to me. And that means my friends.” 

Sofia places the device on Mirah’s forehead, with it melting into her skin. 

Sofia smiles, before getting a text from Akihiro reading, “We have SEVERAL problems.” The look on Sofia’s face turns intense as she gets up and wishes Mirah a swift recovery. As Sofia races off, Mirah’s heartrate increases. 

In Graydon’s offices, Emma and Monet are surrounded by armed security guards, as well as a smug Creed. 

Trying to stay in character as Penelope, Monet asks Creed what he’s doing, with Emma echoing her confusion. 

GRAYDON, folding his hands in front of him: “What is it about women born with silver spoons in their mouths and thinking they’re smarter than everyone else? Although I suppose in your case, Monet St. Croix, I can’t argue that you aren’t.”

MONET, squinting: “I got you the first time.” 

GRAYDON: “Sunspot made for an obnoxiously obvious distraction.” Emma’s eyes widen as she becomes livid over this being how she learns who Sunspot’s partner is. “That was well played.” 

EMMA, chanelling her real anger into an act: “Sunspot? You’re a Mutant?!” 

GRAYDON: “Save it, Ms. Frost. That collar on you is also a remote heart monitor. We’ve got every lie you’ve told here recorded.” 

Emma drops her act and glares, questioning what he intends to do with them. She doesn’t doubt his staff has been stacked with filth who wouldn’t flinch as their murders, but assures him that if they’re killed, the X-Men won’t care about the political repurcussions of what comes next. 

GRAYDON: “Which is precisely why neither of you will be dying today. I’ve fought Cyclops before. So long as he has hope, he won’t make a move.” “Which is why you two will be taken to a nice little bunker I've set up downstairs. I apologize in advance about the smell. The last Mutant I had taken down there still hasn’t been cleaned up.” 

BEAT

MONET: “You clearly think yourself an intelligent man yourself, Mr. Creed. And yet you neglected something simple.” 

GRAYDON: “Oh. What’s that?” 

MONET: “Me.” 

Monet attempts to rush Graydon at super speed, but finds herself moving slowly, tripping over her feet, and getting gut punched and back-handed back into Emma’s arms. Monet immediately pushes Emma away. 

GRAYDON: “Just to be safe, I had your water spiked with some Mutation dampening nanites, courtesy of Kilgore Arms. Get them out of here.” 

The security guards march the pissed Emma and Monet away. 

As they step down the hall, Monet nervously fidgets with her fingers, rubbing the tips together. This gives Emma an idea. 

Emma begins tapping her leg with her finger randomly. With all the footsteps, none of the guards hear it. But Monet notices. And once Emma sees she has her attention, the taps become less random and more deliberate. 

Monet laughs as quietly as she can. 

MONET, tapping her own leg in Morse code: “I bet you’re going to take credit for teaching me Morse code.” 

EMMA, in Morse code: “I taught it to all of you.” 

MONET: “I already knew the basics. This is your fault. I had things under control.” 

EMMA: “You only began drinking water here after I arrived?” Monet pouts in embarrassment. “Now, would you like to hear my plan, or would you prefer to continue to express my worthlessness as a teacher?” 

DRAMATIC BEAT

MONET: “Can I not do both?” 

Emma rolls her eyes. 

Back at the industrial sight, Pietro shakes, unsure of what he should do as Pestillence assaults Crystal’s mind. Malice has left herself completely open to attack, but what if attacking her now causes something to happen to Crystal or Lorna? She wouldn’t have left herself this vulnerable if there wasn’t a trap, right?

Sweat drips down Pietro’s face as he decides he has to take the risk. He has to act! 

Pietro vibrates his fist at super speed ready to strike Malice…but he doesn’t. 

PIETRO: “But then…” 

He flashes back to his impsule attack on Malice in their first encounter that enabled Wanda to get hit. 

PIETRO: “Striking first is what cost me before.” 

With Quicksilver completely in his own head, he’s caught off guard as Malice slips back into Lorna’s body, and blasts him and Crystal away. Crystal hits her head on a metal beam, knocking her out, but Pietro is able to barely get back up. 

MALICE: “Such a dark and twisted mind she has! Do you actually know who you’re married to, hero?” 

Quicksilver growls and screams with rage as he attacks, but even at super speed, he isn’t fast enough to hit her before she invades his mind. 

We transition directly back into another of Alice’s flashbacks. A woman is in a coffee shop, getting her order, when, as she reaches her arm out to take her drink, her arm falls off. Everyone around her screams in horror. But she has a different response. 

ALICE: “Dammit. Not already.” 

Alice’s spirit abandons the body in tears, with it crumbling to dust as she leaves it behind. 

Alice cries as she flies out into the night sky, as we see she’s wound up in New York. This city is filled with those who don’t wish to deal with the hardships of life anymore and are eager for a painless solution, but the bodies just keep burning up faster and faster!

As she curls up into a ball, and listens to the pain and distress of all those beneath her, a single, powerful mind stands out. One that makes Alice stop crying, and instead pant with hunger. 

 Alice flies as fast as she can, until reaching the horribly messy apartment of Lorna Dane. She finds Lorna curled up in a ball on her couch, surrounded by half-eaten food and finished bottles of alcohol, and countless tissues. 

ALICE: “Why are your screams so much louder? And why do you look familiar?” 

Her legs shaking, Alice invades Lorna’s mind. And she gets a slideshow of what she’s been through, including battling against her own father,Magneto, fighting alongside the X-Men, the genocide and destruction of Genosha. 

ALICE: “Oh” Alice puts her hand to her heart. “Wow.”

Alice is punched in the back of the head in the white void she’s floating in by a pissed Lorna, who tells whoever this is that messing with her right now is only going to end one way for her. 

ALICE: “You have it all wrong! I don’t want to hurt you. I want to help us. Both.” 

LORNA, not buying it: “That so?” 

Alice explains how her powers work. How she can take over willing bodies, and in doing so, puts their minds to rest and at ease, without killing them. She’s been doing this for a while now since she lost her own body. 

ALICE: “But the bodies never last. They always burn out. But yours? You’re strong. Stronger than almost anyone! You’re the bloody daughter of Magneto! If anyone could keep me stable, it’s you.” 

Lorna sighs as Alice looks at her with pleading eyes. 

LORNA: “How old are you?”

ALICE: “17. 18 soon. Not that it matters much. I don’t think I actually age anymore.” 

LORNA, rubbing her forehead: “Right. Okay. Sweetie, I’m gonna give you the address of a nice school that takes care of Mutants, and then you’re gonna leave me the Hell alone. They’ll know how to help you. Kapeesh?” 

ALICE, flying up to her: “No! No one can help me, but me. Especially not some posh bloke running a school out of a mansion who’d probably tell me this curse makes me special.” 

LORNA: “So you’ve already taken a tour for yourself.”

ALICE: “More than once.” 

Alice pleads with Lorna. She can feel just how miserable and angry Lorna is. She knows she doesn’t want to go on. And she doesn’t have to!

ALICE: “I know that I’d been through what you…a whole life of fighting and confusion and pain, only to have to live with the guilt of failing to protect 16 million people from dying horrible deaths…” Alice’s intentionally specific word choice gets to Lorna. “..., and then left all alone, I definitely wouldn’t be able to take it. It’s how I know you’re so strong. I wouldn’t even still be here!”

LORNA, unable to keep up the tough act: “I…”

ALICE: “I promise, Lorna, you’ll be happier! And even if I won’t join the X-Men, I’ll still do what you did, and are clearly in no condition to return to: fighting for Mutants, and keeping them safe. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I can even bum around your family if you want. Be a better daughter and sister than you were. Please.” 

Lorna cracks completely under the weight of her depression and Alice’s manipulations. She shuts her eyes as tears stream down her face. We directly fade into Pietro crying, as he’s shown all of this. 

We cut from Pietro’s tears to Sooraya’s screams, as Leper Queen electrocutes her. This time, Laura doesn’t both with desperate pleas. She just calls out to Soo to hang in there. She’s going to save her, and she’s going to kill this monster, just as she promised. 

LEPER QUEEN, pausing the torture: “Heh. Do you think that’s going to happen, Dust?” 

SOORAYA, struggling to speak, in Arabic: “I will tear your flesh from your–” 

Leper Queen cuts her off via electrocution. 

LEPER QUEEN: “English, Mutant. This is America.” 

Sooraya can’t respond as she writhes in pain on the ground. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Okay then. Here’s what happens next. We keep at this until I get bored. Then...you get a choice.” 

LAURA, not having been monologued to about any choice: “What? Dust, do not listen to a word she says.” 

LEPER QUEEN: “Oh I think she’ll want to hear this.” She electrocutes Dust again, prompting more screams from Soo, and a flailing Laura to try and fail to break her chains. “I received word from one of my spies. It seems like your mother is going to make it after all.” Soo’s eyes light up. She can’t smile, but it’s a relief. “You may be heathens, but I have chosen to take this as a sign. Killing you to punish X-23 may not be necessary. The torture may suffice.” BEAT. “Provided you are willing to kill her yourself.” 

Dust’s expression is difficult to read as she pushes herself to sit up, struggling through the pain. Laura’s thoughts on the matter, however, are quite clear. 

LAURA: “Take it! Take the deal!” 

That catches Leper Queen off guard. She wants her to kill her? 

LAURA, crying: “I am just a weapon. One who does not want to hurt any more innocent people. But also one that cannot protect anyone.” Laura uncomfortably smiles at Leper Queen. “A thousand of me aren’t worth one of her.” 

BEAT

Leper Queen laughs in surprise. She can’t disagree with that, but it’s nice to really see just how much X-23’s clearly already been broken before this point. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Not mindless enough to just kill who you’re told. Not strong enough to stop me. And still just dangerous enough to put everyone around you in harm’s way. What do you say, Dust?” 

There’s a moment of tension. 

SOORAYA: “You idiot.” 

LEPER QUEEN: “What did you say?!” 

SOORAYA, at the top of her lungs: “I am not speaking to you!” Leper Queen is confused, while Laura just looks more hurt. “This is why you ran away. This is what Kimura put in your head at the Facility. Well…maybe she is right. You do put us in danger. And you are not as strong as you seemed when we were all new. You cannot protect us.” Laura hangs her head in shame. “But there is something you are missing.” 

Laura isn’t sure what she could possibly mean 

SOORAYA: “None of us care! You think we fear you? Living in that school is a sign of a death wish, but we all do it anyway! Because we can help others. And because we care about each other. We all love you, Laura. There is nothing else to it. Maybe we once needed you to protect us, but we are not just children anymore. We can protect ourselves. And you.” 

Laura is choked up, unsure of what to say to Dust’s words of undeserved kindness. 

Before she can figure it out, Leper Queen puts a gun to Sooraya’s head. 

LEPER QUEEN: “Go ahead then. Since you aren’t in the mood to put down an animal. Protect yourself.” She cocks her gun. “Sooraya shuts her eyes and starts speeding through a prayer. “Oh, please.” 

Leper Queen is about to shoot, when an explosion is heard, and the lights flicker. 

LEPER QUEEN: “The Hell?” 

OFFICER, over coms: “Ma’am, we have an intruder! We cannot identify them, but they’re–”

They’re cut off as they let out a final deathly wail. 

Leper Queen curses the bad timing and holsters her gun, before connecting with the rest of her men, and telling them to prepare. One of the X-Men must have found them, but this is what they’ve trained for. They’re prepared for any of them. 

In a dark hallway, soldiers are positioned with assault rifles, grenades, and other weapons and tools to dispatch whichever X-Man they’ve studied. 

The elevator doors open, and it isn’t an X-Man that steps out. Instead, the heavy metal boots of Lady Akabba bang against the floor. 

They stare each other down. 

OFFICER: “Take them out!” 

The second they start moving to attack, Sofia unleashes a wave of flames to fill the hallway, immolating all of them. 

As she continues to make her way through the complex, Sofia doesn’t even draw her sword. Nor does she move swiftly. All of these humans can be easily dispatched by burning them, or by using the air to slice their throats, as she casually makes her way down the bunker. 

Panicking, Leper Queen orders all soldiers to move to her position. They will get their prey here!

Laura and Sooraya have no idea what’s going on. 

When Lady Akabba reaches the floor of the cells, she finds that Leper Queen’s remaining men are in power suits, seemingly made from old sentinel tech. 

WAR, in her modulated voice: “Likely resistant to Mutant abilities.” She finally draws her sword. ‘Very well.” 

They all try to blast energy at her or strike her head on, but it’s no use. Sofia cuts through all of them like butter, even bisecting one man, as she belittlies them. They’ve trained and they’ve armed themselves. And even though she is using no powers and just a blade…

SOFIA, grabbing Leper Queen by the throat: “Your inferiority cannot be changed.” 

Laura and Sooraya now have another reason to be angry and terrified, as they recognize their other enemy, and see her toss Leper Queen through a wall, knocking her out. 

Then, she turns to the prisoners, staring down at them. She raises her sword…but only to cut through the bars, and to break their chains. 

As Laura and Sooraya continue to just grow more confused, a sigh of relief can just barely be heard under Lady Akabba’s helmet. 

WAR: “Are you both okay?” 

It takes a moment to break through the confusion, but Dust speaks up first. 

SOORAYA: “You…you came to rescue us?” 

WAR: “Protecting Mutants is my duty and my mission.” Neither Laura nor Sooraya seem satisfied with the answer. “But more importantly…” War reaches her hands behind her head, and undoes the clasps of her helmet, pulling it off, shaking her glossy brown hair out, and revealing her blue face to a mortified Laura and Sooraya with a flawless smile. “You are my best friends.” 

In the basement of Graydon’s building, Creed’s guards lead Emma and Monet into a dark and filthy chamber. Both women are repulsed, but Monet forces herself to grit and hide her disgust when she notices Emma making the same expression. 

GUARD: “Muties like you don’t deserve ivory towers. This is much more your level.” 

Some of the other guards laugh with him. 

Emma and Monet exchange annoyed glances. 

MONET, shoving Emma against the guards: “I wish I had never met you!” 

The guards shove Emma back, but as she does so, she grabs and yanks Monet’s wrists, shoving her against the guards. 

EMMA: “How ungrateful can you be? You would still be a spiny little hedgehog without me.” 

The guards are confused, but still shove Monet away. They are amused at seeing the two fighting though. 

MONET: “The only man I ever loved is loved dead because of you, and now I am going to share his fate.” 

EMMA: “It must be so easy to blame your problems on others. It’s far less tiresome than taking responsibility for your own actions, isn’t it? For less difficult than making the most of what you’re left with.” 

MONET: “I hate you!” 

EMMA: “And you think that makes you unique?” 

Monet tackles Emma to the ground. One of the guards chuckles, and another man lightly punches his shoulder. 

GUARD: “Much as we’d all love to watch them kill each other, I don’t think we want Magneto coming down on us.” 

The others agree, and separate Emma and Monet, grabbing them. This is the opening the two were waiting for, as they flip their assaulters. The well-trained guards are quick to act and shoot, but they just end up putting bullets in their co-workers. 

Emma and Monet grin  as they use this opening to engage the guards. While the two may be far from master martial arts, they’re experienced. With Emma utilizing more direct strikes, while Monet fights with Aikido, they knock out their enemies. 

Emma sighs and dusts her hands off. 

EMMA: “It was quite silly of Graydon to believe we’d need our powers to best the likes of them.” 

MONET: “I grew up around politicians. I don’t expect much from any of their minds.”  

EMMA: “Too true. Impressive moves.” 

MONET: “Those I will reluctantly give you credit for.” 

Emma tells Monet that Graydon couldn’t figure out that she was still in contact with the school via one of their students. Cyclops says Magik and Kitty should be finding them any moment, and Danger will clear any video evidence of them ever being here, and she can wipe the minds of the riff-rff later. 

Monet compliments her for a well-thought out extraction strategy. Just then, an earthquake shakes New York City, with the fire alarm and sprinklers going off shortly after. 

MONET, smirking: “I have my own.” She starts walking away. “The X-Men are supposed to be superheroes, aren’t they? Leave finishing things with Graydon to us. Ciao.” 

Emma beams with pride while Monet’s back is turned to her, before dropping the expression as she calls out to her. Monet turns her head. 

EMMA: “I know that I failed you all. Don’t think I do not understand that. I was still learning, myself. And I am trying to do better for my new students.” Monet doesn’t seem to care. “But whether you like it or not, we are the same. Us both being here is no coincidence. You can embrace that, or you can attempt to shed who you are and change…which will still make you like me. Regardless of what you choose, if you ever need anything, if you would ever just like to talk, I am here for you. But only if you wish me to be.” 

Monet’s expression softens, touched on some level, but she quickly reverts to being cold and hard. 

MONET: “Save it for Jubilee. She may be stupid enough to trust you again.” 

Monet leaves, with Emma smiling, not having missed the brief change. 

We cut to Pietro in tears, his mindscape shifting to the graveyard of Genosha. 

MALICE, looking like Alice: “It didn’t matter where she went. What she did. What she took. This is all Lorna could see. It was almost too easy to get her to give me this hot bod.” 

Quicksilver punches her at super speed, but he can’t hurt her here. 

MALICE: “If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at yourself. With how negligent you all were, she’d still be suffering now without me. I did exactly as I said. I gave her peace, and I’m helping her people. Young, at-risk Mutants especially.” 

QUICKSILVER: “Do you actually believe “young, at-risk Mutants” would support what you're doing?” 

MALICE: “I was one when I joined up, and it sounded good to me. Self-care.” Pietro scowls at her, and she grins back. “Lorna tried self-care. It wasn’t enough.” 

PIETRO: “I did my best. Crystal and Luna, the entire world…they needed me. I would have been there for her if I could have, but I didn’t know what she was going through!” 

MALICE, taking the form of Magneto: “How familiar.” 

Pietro dashes back, panic in his eyes. 

MALICE, keeping Magneto’s form: “But were you really too busy? Or were you scared?” 

PIETRO, trembling: “I am not scared of anything.” 

MALICE: “Not even of being as poor a father as your own? Were you thinking more about your wife or him when Luna was born?”

PIETRO: “Do not analyze me. Get out!” 

MALICE: “All that worry, all that desire to be there for her, and you still haven’t met the girl. Shameful.” Pietro, knowing his attacks won’t do anything, still punches Malice millions of times in a rage. “It obviously isn’t all your fault. Magneto was a failure. It is only natural you’d be just as pathetic.” Pietro ceases his attack, panting. Malice shifts into the form of Lorna. “But may I’m wrong. Maybe you were just struggling with your grief in your own way. Genosha burning was your fault too after all. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re afraid your new father is just like your old one.” For just a moment, she takes on the form of King Blackagar Boltagon. She then shifts into Wanda. “He is just as ashamed of you.” 

PIETRO: “Take…take her face off.” 

MALICE, holding back laughter: “Brother…” She hugs him. Pietro doesn’t struggle. “Have the X-Men even told you we already killed her?” 

Pietro’s rage bubbles over, and his psychic defenses are finally able to remove Malice from his mind and, back in reality, he doesn’t hesitate to race forward and attack. 

PIETRO: “Guh…”

Pietro lunges himself right onto Muramasa, Death having arrived, moved Malice’s body, and positioned himself right in front of Pietro.

Quicksilver can barely breathe as he looks down and sees how he’s been skewered. Death grins as he pulls his blade out, and Pietro collapses, unconscious. 

PESTILLENCE: “That was more difficult than it should have been. Sorry about that.” 

DEATH, sheathing his blade: “No need to apologize. The houses of M and Amaquelian are strong. Exodus didn’t think you’d pull it off.” 

PESTILLENCE: “He’s old, he thinks a lot of dumb things.” Akihiro picks up Pietro and throws him over his shoulder. “Mind if I kill the princess?” 

DEATH: “Don’t be stupid. We’re in no position for a war with the Inhumans. Not yet anyway.” 

PESTILLENCE: “Aww. Lame.” 

Malice flies the three of them off, leaving the unconscious Crystal behind. 

In the Sapien League’s bunker, Laura and Sooraya are too frozen to speak. Until…

SOORAYA: “You’re lying.” Dust turns her hands to sand, ready to attack. “This is a trick!” 

SOFIA, remaining calm: “No. No more tricks. It is time for you to know the truth. When I was lost and broken, Apocalypse found and rebuilt me. He became the father I never had. Since his defeat, everything I have done has been to bring about his vision for the world. Not only for us, but for you.” 

SOORAYA: “For us?! You have been attacking us for months! Brian and Sophie are dead because of you.” 

SOFIA, hanging her head: “I have had to tell countless lies since returning to the school. My entire life has been an act.” She looks back at Soo with genuine sadness. “But my mourning was real. I did not want them to die. They were my friends too. Using Quentin was a mistake. I should have–” 

LAURA, cutting her off and drawing her claws: “You should have done a lot, but you couldn’t! They’re controlling you.” 

Sofia looks to Laura with wry amusement, glad she’s speaking up. She was being even quieter than usual. 

SOFIA: “I assure you, Laura. I am not under anyone’s control. I stand above all.” 

LAURA: “Telepathy, possession, and pheremones. Any of them could be doing it, and you wouldn’t know.” 

BEAT 

SOFIA: “Do you think I didn’t know that is what you have been thinking?” Laura is startled, as Sofia turns back to Dust. “Soo, did you know that Laura has been training with Death for the past several weeks?” 

Sooraya is quickly outraged, but Laura explains quickly and bluntly. She went undercover among the Horsemen because she knew the Horsemen had gotten to Sofia.

LAURA: “I just didn’t know what they had made her into.” 

SOFIA: “And I allowed you to follow your suspicion for the same reason as much of what I have done. To make you strong.” Sofia stares her friends down, before walking away. “You aren’t going to fight me. You would have attacked by now if you were going to be impulsive, and you know you cannot beat me.”

Sofia walks through the hole she put Leper Queen through, picks her up, and throws her at Dust’s feet. 

SOFIA: “This is humanity. Hating us for our superiority, while blaming us for their own society. Laura, you did not kill her daughter. Humans did. The same cruel humans who abused you so horribly. Who hurt Cessily and Roxy. You should be happy to know I had Akihiro burn The Facility down.” Laura doesn’t look happy. “They do not deserve this world. Their rule took my mother’s life. They are responsible for what happened to you and your mother, Sooraya. Just as she is responsible for attempting to take your mother from you forever.” PAUSE. “Within one month, I will be the queen of a better world. And I would like you both among my ladies.” 

While Dust’s eyes are filled with hate as she glares down at Leper Queen, she’s stalwart that she could never join her. However noble…even understandable…her motivations may be, she knows that her mother survived. She will not let Sofia hurt her. 

SOFIA: “Hurt her? Soo, who do you think saved her?” Dust’s eyes widen. “Human medical science. Yet another area where they fall short.” Sofia holds Sooraya’s arms. “I still miss my mother everyday. Do not think for a second I intend to harm yours.” 

Laura, realizing where this is going, jumps in to tell Dust not to listen to a word she says. She’s manipulating her. This isn’t Sofia! 

SOFIA: “Oh, Laura. You poor, lovesick dog.” BEAT. Laura is thrown up against the ceiling by the wind, and is forced to remain there. Sofia looks up at her. “I offered you a place as a lady for a reason. Because at my side will not be a queen, but a king.” It's like a knife through Laura’s heart. “We are done.” 

Laura can’t even speak up enough to scream. She can only seethe through her teeth. 

SOFIA, looking back at Sooraya: “Take her worthless life, Dust. This is the mission God gave you. To protect your people. Whatever you think of me, is keeping her alive what he would want?” 

The speed of sand flowing out of Sooraya’s sleeves increases. Laura is able to find her voice just enough to beg Dust not to do this. She pleads with her. 

LAURA: “Don’t become like me.” 

Soo looks at each of her friends, and then back at Leper Queen. She’s hesitant, but then the warm, soothing whispers of “Allah” pass through her mind. 

Soo shuts her eyes. Before opening them, and unleashing her power, disintegrating every trace of Leper Queen. Laura shuts her eyes, unable to watch. 

Dust is shocked and horrified at what she’s done, but before she can think about it too much, Lady Akabba hugs her. 

SOFIA: “I know that was not easy. I am proud of you.” 

Sofia lets go, and Sooraya is able to compose herself, before kneeling. 

SOORAYA: “Thank you, Lady Akabba.” 

Sofia is pleased, but, looking up at Laura, she doesn’t think she’s quite ready to join them yet. She drops Laura from the ceiling and kicks her in the face, knocking her out. 

Sooraya cringes. 

SOFIA: “Do not worry. Soon, you will never have to worry about one of our friends being hurt again. Are you ready to leave this awful place?” 

Soo nods. Sofia tells her she’ll get her teleporter right here. 

SOFIA: “I really am so happy you can see things as they are. I knew you would.” 

DUST, quietly: “Thank you.” 

Lila Cheyney pops in and Sofia introduces her to her court’s very own musician. She will get time to know everyone later though. 

Before they can leave, however, there’s an explosion. 

HELLION: “Wolverine! Dust!”

SURGE: “Are you here?!” 

Julian and Noriko burst in, having finally caught up with the others. Their faces both fall, and they’re both left speechless, as they see Sofia in the Lady Akabba armor, with the same sword she used against them. 

JULIAN, barely audible: “no.” 

SOFIA, more annoyed than anything: “Oh. This is not how I wanted this to go. I apologize for this.” 

Sofia throws her two closest friends against the walls, head first, and with Julian too shocked to put up forcefields in time, they’re both knocked out. 

Back at the school, Cyclops, Emma, and Magneto sit in their office. 

MAGNETO: “While it is nice that it sounds like you and your old student were able to bond, Creed continues to live.” 

EMMA: “But with the measures we took to cover our tracks, there is nothing he can try to pin on us. We are back at square one, but not any worse off. And election day remains a long way off.” 

MANGETO: “That does not mitigate the harm him spreading his rhetoric through his campaign will cause.” 

EMMA: “And we will still deal with him eventually.” 

Emma continues to speak in voice over as we pan across Graydon’s office, lights off, where everyone has gone home for the night. 

EMMA, as the camera reveals Graydon at his desk, dead, with his lifeless face in a puddle of cold coffee: “Better than if we had compromised ourselves by squishing the worm more openly.” 

In the office, Magneto questions whether they should even continue this mission themselves, or if they should entrust it to Monet and her “friends”. 

Emma and Erik both look to Scott, who’s been deep in thought. He presses on his com. 

SCOTT: “Sunspot, you can come in now.” 

Roberto enters, with his usual confidence in his step, greets the headmasters, hoping everything is going well, even if he will be mildly annoyed they called him away from his work without needing him. 

The three stare at him, unamused. 

SCOTT: “We know about M, Sunspot.”

EMMA: “She’s the smartest woman I know, but not the best with her words.” 

MAGNETO: “We imagine she’s also the silent partner you chose to not inform us of.” 

ROBERTO, pissed, but not dropping his fake smile: “Ah. That…well that sucks.” He laughs. 

Beto apologizes for not coordinating better with them, but, given Monet’s history with Emma, she didn’t want her to know she was involved. 

CYCLOPS: “Right. And did Rictor make a similar request?” Beto’s smile curls. “There aren’t too many Mutants who can make earthquakes, and you spent years with one of them.” 

EMMA: “What is it that you’re keeping from us? A new X-Force? If we dig a little further, will we be finding Domino or Boom Boom?” 

MAGNETO: “Does Samuel know?” 

Beto drops his act entirely, continuing to stand tall, but firmly instead of playfully. 

BETO: “Sam doesn’t know about anything. And there is no X-Force active, I promise.” 

MAGNETO: “Then what are you doing?” 

Beto cringes. Erik floats over to him, and tells him they’re trying here, but this game has gone on long enough. He needs to be honest with them. Now. 

Beto, thinking fast, rolls his tongue around anxiously. 

BETO: “I am doing what I have to to protect Mutantkind. Because that job cannot be entrusted to you three.” 

Scott and Emma glare at him, already displeased. Beto doesn’t think they have any reason to blame him though. 

BETO: “Day after day, you three continue to fail. Mutants die, the schools fall apart, the world decays. Things keep getting worse, and yet you hold onto your entitlement that you are the only ones who can lead us. How often do you question where things would stand right now if you had been the ones to leave, and Storm was leading us?” 

SCOTT: “Everyday.” 

BETO: “I’m sure. Just as you’re sure that without her around, you’re the only ones who can do this job. Why? Kitty and I are just as capable of leading this team, and we’re far more likely to appeal to the masses. Is it because you’re the ones strong enough to put down Apocalypse? Because that sounds like his logic. Not to mention we had Iceman for that, before you allowed him to slip away.” 

Emma is irritated by Beto’s self-righteousness. They have failed, yes. But they also do their best. They are here. Always. 

EMMA: “Which is far more than can be said for you.” 

ERIK: “When last we discussed this, you said that you still trusted me. That was a lie?” 

BETO: “That was before you didn’t make any difference.” 

Sunspot assures them that he is not doing anything supervllanous, he isn’t being like his father.He’s just building a shield to protect Mutantkind for when they fail, and the world comes crashing down on them. 

SCOTT: “And you know best because you’re so much smarter than us.” 

BETO, cheeky: “And in the meantime, I remain happy to work alongside you in the capacity you see fit.” 

BEAT

ERIK: “I understand.” Beto boyishly smiles with relief. “But if this is how you see us, as risks more than anything else, then you cannot stay here.” 

BETO: “What?! Headmaster, no. You cannot fire me.” 

SCOTT: “No one is firing you, Roberto. Not in the middle of our current mess.”

EMMA: “But the onus of opening of and being a team player is on you. If you cannot do this, you should extend your next trip indefinitely.” 

BETO, cringing and struggling to compose himself: “Understood.” 

Beto walks away, turning his head before he leaves to Magneto, who turns his face away. Pained, Beto exits. 

The episode ends in Clan Akabba’s headquarters, as Sofia delivers a speech to her cultists and her small army of Mutants in her throneroom, Exodus, Akihiro, Malice, and a guilty-looking Dust at her side. 

She speaks of how three months ago, the world should have been theirs. Lord Apocalypse should have conquered the Earth. He failed. But they carry on his will! 

Lady Akabba tells her followers that the X-Men are in shambles, as we see not just Julian, Noriko, and Laura in chains, but Cessily and Roxy as well (the two taken off-screen), as well as Sunspot ordering a drink in a bar, Magneto alone in his office regretting everything about how the day played out, and the largely empty hallways of the school. 

She tells them that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are their prisoners, and with them, their path to ultimate victory is clear. And with how fierce the hate toward them is right now from humanity, all of their brothers and sisters will soon be joining them. 

SOFIA: “Lord Apocalypse will be restored! Mutantkind will dominate the Earth! Humanity will worship at our feet! And the world will become strong!”

We close out as all of Lady Akabba’s followers cheer her name, Sofia grinning like her father underneath her helmet. 

[kerubimcrepin]

Episode 31 - The Break

It will be so refreshing to liveblog an episode that isn't heavy on characterization or analysis, oh god, I am tired of typing words.

He is so sad and for no reason... I just want to wrap him in a heated blanket.

World's most serious case of Sads, finished off with an evil little glare.

I can imagine adult Joris doing the same thing to Kerubim even by Wakfu times. Just a cunty, unamused little gaze. I can see it so clearly. This will happen in season 4, mark my words.

Also, inside me are two wolves. One of them wants to say "perhaps it's unusual for Joris to not go hook line and sinker for whatever ideas Keke proposes", and the other wants to say "Joris and Kerubim having psychic vibe battles moment #5"

He is so unserious.

Joris loses this round in the game of mutual psychological manipulations.

(Guy who notices landmarks in this show voice) (Also, guy who, for some reason, has developed a parasocial relationship with this setpiece in a kids show voice) THE TOWER. THE FUCKING TOWER

I've already spoken on this topic, but Kerubim already being known to sell stuff and have strong opinions on the ethics of museums makes me so unwell. Especially with implications of the Crepin family being salespeople.

I am not going to elaborate. You've read my other posts. Just... yeah.

Can I get some love for non-Cra archers in this universe? The degree of unemployment must be hellish.

Also Lou has two swords, and Nella has two quivers. They are so normal.

Some may think that Kerubim is out of shape, but I will argue that this is his Farm Boy shape. His "not constantly on the road and fighting monsters while worrying about travelling supplies" shape.

He's still muscular, because Herding Animals is Serious Business, but he's got a bit of a gut going on, because there's no food insecurity, and the food he has is mostly meat and milk.

Considering old Kerubim also has the gut, — and is, notably, still very agile, — I think that this is just, like, Kerubim's natural shape when he's eating well and living like a normal person.

Sorry for overanalysing his body. I just wanted to talk about my "adventuring should be deconstructed as a concept and examined more closely, considering the multiple characters who had been ready to die "to become legends" about it. Like is all the trauma, food insecurity, and violence worth it, when the only way for people to truly respect you in this career, is to die in a cool way?" agenda.

The resemblance between young Keke in this episode and his older self is actually scary.

Say NO to alcohol, say YES to being a calcium-based lifeform.

I've never mentioned this before on this blog, but it's very likely that Kerubim is kind-of-sort-of accidentally implied to have an underbite.

It varies, whether he has his teeth in a normal bite, or an underbite, — and it is an art style choice, it happens to some other characters, albeit nowhere near as often as it does to Kerubim, — but, once you see it, and know what I'm talking about, you can't unsee it. Hell, it's on half the screenshots in this episode already!

Underbites are something that goes in families, which fits really well.

Because, like... yeah. That sure does seem like a family thing.

Together with the "pale-ish brown pigmentation around an eye or both eyes" thing, and the triangle-ish shape of their heads and snouts, Keke and Atch are the Bouba and Kiki of siblinghood.

Anyway, for transparency's sake, despite the underbite being one of Atcham's very notable character features, he is also sometimes drawn with a normal bite. Which might point towards Kerubim's underbite also being a genuine part of his character design, — instead of it being a case of animators liking the look of it a lot.

Personally, I like to think that both of them had been trying to fix his underbite his whole life by simply willing it away, and it's Not working.

If they actually realized they care about one another, and could be chill about it instead of immediately starting a Doomed Toxic Cottagecore Farm, Pangaea would reform.

Oh? You like Kerubim and Lou? Well, then, do you think Lou and Kerubim efficiently utilized girl power when they, Bontarians, went to their oh-so-hated Sidimote Moors and Brakmar, to conduct what they call a "slaughter-safari"?

This is not a Divorce Theory I usually subscribe to, but my funny crack theory is that she left him to go adventure around the world because he wanted to settle down and adopt a kid or whatever.

Truly, the possibilities of kerulou divorce theories are endless.

If they formed a polycule, Pangaea would explode.

I like to think that whatever Julith has going on is a cloak with a similar, but more complex enchantment.

This item is real, but I can't really find the sword mentioned by Lou moments prior.

I need to inject this image inside, intravenously.

...Anyway, you will never guess what my newest addition to the desktop wallpaper rotation is.

[pacifymebby]

Can I request the peaky blinders with a s/o who was previously in a relationship and there ex popping back up to start back over with them💜

Aw thank you for this message lovely!! Its so nice to know people like my stuff, especially since im quite new to writing peaky boys stuff. So its good to know people are enjoying it haha.

Hope you like these love, some of them are a bit long because i guess i got carried away haha

Tommy

🌿He can tell there's something different about you, something dangerous, a different kind of higher class, the second he sees you..

🌿And when he learns who you are - a mafia princess - his mind is set.

🌿He has to have you... Not just once, but for keeps.

🌿It wouldn't just be startegically a perfect move, ot would also bolster his ego. This is a man who wants the whole world and to wed mafia royalty... That would be a pretty big chunk of the world.

🌿But it would be scandalous in many ways... Hes a politician, a sitting MP... And its no secret the corruption, violence and murderous tendencies of your infamous family. There would be no feigning innocence anymore.

🌿If he's going to be with you he'll have to do it with his whole chest, openly admit to his own corruption and wrong doing, he'd have to be the bad guy in the open...

🌿 And he'd have to play his cards right, he couldn't be playing games with you... He's fairly certain playing games will end with one of your bullets in his brain.

🌿 You're already used to the finer things in life so his wining and dining and usual tactics won't work on you. "Is all this supposed to impress me Mr Shelby?"

🌿Your family probably have tigers roaming the villa grounds you grew up in. You probably grew up alongside wild animals...

🌿 And youre supposed to be impressed by a country estate and race horses...

🌿 Actually the things that really attract you to tommy are these:

🌿🌿He's troubled, he fought in a war, one which your family watched and ignored... You secretly don't believe that the men in your family, know what its really like to be a man, fighting to protect the family... Though they tell you that's what they're doing all the time.

🌿🌿His roots, theres somrthing mysterious about it, the fact that he talks to his horses, the fact you've heard theres a gypsy curse on his head. It's more interesting to you than anything you've heard back in New York

🌿🌿 The fact that there was a time in his life when he had nothing, he actually clawed his way out of poverty...you were born into your riches, you've never really had to work for anything in your life, so youre in awe of the things hes won for himself.

🌿🌿 You also love the way he takes whatever he wants from the world, just snatches it up regardless of whether he deserves it or not. Youre hoping thats what he'll do to you. Steal you away from your family. Claim you as his own.

🌿But you wont admit any of these things to him, you play the princess personality up for all its worth because you like the idea of being the one thing tommy shelby can't have

🌿Tommys brothers think hes daft for even trying... They've seen you, heard rumours about you, they think hes way out of his depth... But tommy is determined

🌿 And one day when you finally give into the charm youd been resisting, you become the most feared couple... The mafia are secretly scared of your gypsy husband, they dont trust that he wont put a curse on them... And tommys family are terrified of you, the unpredictable, spoilt princess who will not hesitate to shoot someone dead just for looking at her funny.

🌿He can't tame you though and it concerns him, you probably make more trouble than its worth... You don't have the manners of the english and you refuse to learn them. Not even Tommy can teach you.

🌿 Calls you princess to patronise you, enjoys talking down to you and trying to put you in your place even if it hardly ever works. Showers you with gifts, and when he realises how drawn to his gypsy roots you are, he starts showering you with gypsy gifts, little trinkets hes carved for you himself, jewels with fine tales behind them, mysterious histories which capture your imagination.

🌿He likes to take you out on horseback to the middle of nowhere, lie down with you under the shade of a tree or on the bank if a river and tell you as many stories as he can, either from his childhood or gypsy tales you tell little children. Its his only way of getting you to calm down or behave yourself, of getting you to stop putting on that "fearless and fearsome mafia wife" personality.

Alfie

🐻Can't imagine you'd get on very well at first... If he realised his attraction to you he'd be angry with himself for thinking that way about a "wop"

🐻 He'd definitely try to ignore it... Which would be difficult because every time you were in a room with him you'd be little miss provocative, trying to get under his skin.

🐻 Youre not sure if thats because youre so used to all men falling at your feet that youre actively pissed off that this man wont... Or if its because you can see that he is attracted to you, but isnt acting on it (which would piss you off even more than the former) OR (and this is unlikely right, you would never!) perhaps you find him attractive. This slightly mad, older man who behaves as close to any mafia man youve ever met only rougher, not so well groomed. Hes a little gruff, theres something a little dirty about him...

🐻 Also youre a mafia woman... Youve been spoilt rotten your whole life by your father and brothers but youve never really felt the love of any of them... Youve only ever been treated like a possession by them... Which is a sure fire recipe for DaddyIssues™️

🐻 This gruff and slightly insane older man then, might be the only person who could ever be everything you ever needed...

🐻 But that discovery probably pisses you off even more, so its likely that in the moment went you realise what you really want from him, you raise your gun to his head, make him look down the end of it.

🐻 He's probably the only one of the peaky men who isn't actually scared of you, not because he doesnt think youre unpredictable and dangerous, but because hes not scared of death, hes looked it in the eyes one too many times to be scared of a "little girl" with a gun.

🐻 "Alright alright so youve got yourself a gun and youre not afraid to use it... You've come in here... To my humble bakery what i built up from absolutely fuck all... And you're waving that thing in my face like its fuckin christmas day and you just plucked it out of Santas fuckin sack..." "Did you get it for Christmas y/n? Did santa make it for you in the North fucken Pole?"

🐻 "You can pretend to be a mad old man all you like Mr Solomons but I'm not scared of old men..."

🐻 "Ohh well, thats alright then, thats good very good actually, cause see somet you might not know about me right? Im not afraid of little girls... Yeah?"

🐻 The remark would shock you a little, not much but enough to make you hesitate, and in that second of hesitation he could disarm you. Not that you'll ever make the same mistake again.

🐻 But this time he disarms you and pushes you back down onto his desk, takes your chin between his thumb and index finger so that you have to look him in the eyes. He can see how angry you are but he isnt deterred because he has control now and he knows he won't get that opportunity again for awhile...

🐻 "Looks like your daddy didn't teach you how to properly handle your weapons... Wouldnt make that mistake me... No, i, would, not." "And anyway, right... Somethin else i wanna know yeah... What kind of father yeah, what kind of fuckin father sends his little girl to the arse end of Camden Town to deal with his fuckin problems?" "You want my advice little girl, if i were you I'd stay right here, with thid here mad old man... Cause i reckon he would know how to take care of you properly..."

🐻 So you have a choice, give into the feelings and desires which have been plaguing you since you first met him, or spit in his face and tell him you'd rather die... And this is a man who just might offer you deal or death, thats how much he's his heart and mind set on you.

🐻 "Oh and Tommy, Tommy my old friend mate, did i tell you,just a little warning yeah, and i know you wouldnt ever think about crossing your dear old friend right but... If that thought ever does come flittering and fluttering into your whimsical gypsy boy brain... Just remember, ive got Mafia connections these days right... So i wouldnt if i were you... "

Arthur

🍂 Shits himself when he sees you pull a gun on a man in one of the Shelby bars in London.

🍂 Arthurs been sent to keep control of them and here you are, a fucking woman... With your gun raised to the eyes of one of his patrons.

🍂 When he steps in "alright alright is someone gonna tell me what the fuck is going on here?" and you answer him cold and simple "This english pig called me a very unpleasant slur and that... Mr Shelby, i won't tolerate..."

🍂 You shoot the man in the head right there in front of everyone. Screaming errupts and chaos and panic set in but you just stand there, strong arm still outstretched. Finger still on the trigger.

🍂 Arthur just gapes at you in shock, hes never seen a woman shoot someone, the fact that youre so glamourous looking too... From afar hed have mistaken you for one of the toffee nosed london elites who usually come to dance and drink in his bars because theyve heard they are dangerous and riddled with gangsters.

🍂 But now it seems, he recognises that accent of yours, turns out youre the gangster.

🍂 "Sorry about the mess Mr Shelby," you give him a quick smile and knock the body on the floor with your foot and turn to leave.

🍂 "Well, hang on a minute love hang on a minute you can't just..." "let me stop you there Mr Shelby..." hes not heard that slanted italian american accent on a woman before but he likes it, "i ain't your love... And i can actually... The evidence is soaking blood into your beautifully varnished floor..."

🍂 He gets into a lot of trouble with Tommy for letting you slip off unpunished, for letting the whole thing happen in the first place...but arthur doesnt see how he could have done anything different.

🍂"You weren't fuckin there Tommy, you didnt fuckin see her..."

🍂 He spends a lot of time tormented with daydreams of you, wants to see you again because hes got it bad for you... Even has a particularly steamy dream about fucking you whilst you hold your gun to his head.

🍂 So when you come back to his bar not a week later with a little white flag you made yourself, hes stunned and speechless and he doesnt know what to say. You say youve come to offer him a peace offering, just between you and him.

Its a little white flag and a little vile of white powder which is his on the condition that he shares it with you.

🍂 So you end up getting high together and fucking, and recreating that hot and heavy dream of his.

John

🌼 Deeply suspicious of you, doesn't trust the italians. You aren't pleasant to eachother to begin with at all.

🌼 You refuse to call eachother by name, hes a "pikey" you're a "wop" and thats that. You resent eachother.

🌼 Which is a shame because Tommy only introduced you before the wedding as an act of mercy to his little brother...

🌼 When you walk down the aisle dressed in white, veil covering your scowl John feels his heart freeze.

🌼 Of course he can't be too unhappy, you are fucking stunning... Your olive skin, your long dark hair, theres something almost virgin Mary about you, especially when youre all in white and pure...

🌼 And you would be lying if you tried to pretend you didnt find the gypsy boy to be good looking. His freckles are cute. He's strong, bulkier than any of those italian boys that have been sucking up to your father hoping for your hand all these years. John looks like a man who might be able to handle you

🌼 But hes still a pikey and youre still a wop and you refuse to say a word to him the whole day of your wedding. You fucking hate your father and you fucking hate tommy shelby

🌼 And in the end thats what draws you and John together. Mutual resentment for the men who forced you together.

🌼 Consumating the marriage is intense... When youre alone together youre both pretty much pretending you don't want it, spitting insults at eachother, hate in your eyes as he backs you up against the wall and you tell him youd sooner die than let a fucking pikey get his hands on you.

🌼 Pisses him off "That can be arranged love don't you fuckin worry," the two of you reaching for your guns at the same time. Challenging eachother, neither one of you backing down, eyes locked, fingers on triggers.

🌼Until something overwhelms you both at once and you can't resist anymore. When you come together its violent and explosive. John enjoys the thought hes tarnishing you, taking your purity, vandalising your virginal self... And you enjoy being fucked against the wall, your hands squeezing his throat, choking him.

🌼 After this the dust begins to settle on your hatred for one another... Youre more united against Tommy and your father than you are against eachother. But you like to keep up the pretence. Its like a fun game you have, pretending to hate eachother then having intense the most intense sex when youre alone. Youre always trying to push the boundaries, testing eachother.

🌼 You still affectionately refer to eachother by your respective slurs but see if anyone else ever tried it... If anyone ever called you a wop, john would put a bullet in them quicker than lightnight, and if anyone ever insulted him for his blood, youd be the one firing your gun.

🌼 John enjoys the way people fear you, he likes having a dangerous wife by his side.

🌼 You like having a dangerous man by your side, one who isn't so sleezy and american and preocupied with their looks... You think hes a real man.

Bonnie

🍀 Poor sweet innocent boy has no idea who you are when he first meets you... And thats partly your fault because you do lie to him.

🍀Youre actually sick of people being so scared of you, you dont think they are really scared of you, you think they are scared of your father... Which isnt fair... Its making it impossible to find a man and pretty soon youre certain your fathers going to arrange your marriage to some sleeze in another mafia family for the good of the lineage anyway

🍀 When you meet Bonnie Gold after one of his fights which Ada Shelby snuck you into, he has no idea about your family, but you know everything about his... And you see one thing in him...

🍀 Escape. You don't want to be a mafia princess anymore. Like Ada you want to shed your family name and be your own person.

🍀 So when you're introduced after the fight you beg him to take you away, to help you dissappear. And him being naive and you being very fucking pretty, he's more than happy to oblige.

🍀 After his fight the two of you disappear together for several weeks, hes no idea of the trouble hes getting himself into, and youre naively trying to pretend this can last forever

🍀You love the nomadic life style, the not knowing where you'll be tomorrow or a week from now, the knowing that nobody can find you, that no one you meet knows a single thing about you. And you like the simplicity too...

🍀Bonnie can tell that youre hiding something from him but he isnt sure what and he trusts that youll tell him eventually... For you to be friends with Ada Shelby, for you to have been so desperate to get away from London... He knows that you have a darkness inside you... But like i said he trusts you... And he's seen a soft and innocent side to you.

🍀Over the weeks you spend travelling together you grow closer and closer. At night you sleep under the stars, wrapped up together in his big coat with a blanket over you both. In the morning you awake with the birds and he teaches you to hunt and to cook wild rabbit. You fall for eachother slowly. When you share your first kiss you feel guilty, you almost cry and he can tell youre upset.

🍀 "Don't be sad little dove, i know you're keeping secrets, i don't mind... You can tell me all your secrets when you're ready,"

🍀 When you return he takes you to meet his father, to tell him you want to be married, that youre in love which makes Aberama laugh. He thinks it hilarious because he can tell that his son still has no idea who you are.

🍀"Well miss youve certainly caused a lot of trouble without trying haven't you..." it turns out your father didnt take kindly to your disappearence.. The italians have been threatening the whole country trying to find you...

🍀 Bonnie is surprised, but quietly pleased... Not just with himself for having a mafia princess fall in love with him, but also because hes in awe of your defiance, this trick youve played on everyone including him... He thought you were sweet and innocent but here you are, a mafia princess whos brought the whole underground crime scene in britain to a grinding halt.

🍀 "Do you hate me Bon? I lied to you... Could get you fuckin killed? I understand if you never want to..." "Don't finish that sentence little dove," him hushing you, hand holding your cheek, thumb to your lips, "Don't need to finish that sentence," kissing you softly is the only answer you need.

🍀The first time he sees you pull a gun on anyone the man in question is your own father. Hes come to bring you home but you wont go... Bonnie is there as a peaky boy, standing with Michael and Isaiah watching and keeping his mouth shut. He knows hes dead if anyone clocks who he is. Your father threatens to kill every gypsy boy he meets until he finds the one whose stolen you... But you stand your ground.

🍀 "i wont lose my daughter to a fucking pikey..." "Then tell people I'm dead," you turn the gun on yourself your eyes locked with your father, your burning with defiance, a truly formidable lass, "I'd sooner blow my own brains out than continue to call you my fucking father..."

🍀 And its the fact he cant tell if youre bluffing that makes him back down. He gives in but tells you that theres no backing out, he'll tell the whole world youre dead, but you are dead, to him, theres no coming back. But you don't back down.

🍀"Your girls a fuckin terror Bonnie lad, hope youre going to tame her," Isaiah laughing eith Michael after the whole affair. "I fucken won't," Bonnies pretty much stubborn about that, he loves your defiance and hes proud cause he knows Isaiah and Michael are secretly terrified of you. Women who don't fear death are the most formidable creatures.

🍀 "You're incredible dove, that was incredible..." "but... You promise me now, you'll never point one of these things at that pretty little head of yours ever again..."

Isaiah

🐀Definitely bitten off more than he can chew. He's in love with you before he even realises whats happened to him.

🐀Doesn't know what to do with himself because for all his arrogance and confidence, he knows a girl of mafia blood is so far out of his league.

🐀Youre in London because your father has business with Tommy Shelby, and your father refuses to travel to the shithole which is Birmigham

🐀You came along for the legal drinking, the shopping and to see what all the fuss about "English" men was...

🐀And you don't think much of any of them at first... Most have them are a little ugly, badly dressed, dirty, with funny accents... And Isaiah has a funny accent but, he's good looking, and he has the cocky nature of any american boy youve ever met.

🐀He gets tasked with chaperoning you much to your delight... Less to your delight you know that one of your fathers men is trailing you too, just to make sure nothing bad happens, that this Peaky Boy doesnt try anything funny with you.

🐀You find it all bitterly amusing, youre a woman, not a mouse. If this Peaky Boy wants to try anything funny with you, just let him try, its you who will see to it he doesn't get very far...

🐀Although the idea of getting up to no good with an english gangster, one your father hates... Well its appealing to say the least. You're a bit of a brat, used to getting your own way, used to doing as you please and facing little consequences later...

🐀So you suggest to your new peaky boy that you both lose your dads man, you ask him to take you through the back streets until your fathers men can't find you... And isaiah knows he shouldnt but hes sensed the mood youre in and he cant pass up the opportunity to go too far with you. He wants to get into trouble with you... He has a feeling that Mafia girls fuck harder, more dangerously.

🐀"You wanna get into trouble Peaky Boy? My father will kill you for this? Aren't you scared?" "Not fuckin scared of anyone me sweetheart," "Fine, do your worst Peaky Boy..."

🐀It doesnt last too long because you don't have much time but its hot and heavy and rough... And its the best you've ever had, maybe thats just the adrenaline of knowing youre up to know good, the adrenaline of risking someone elses life for your own pleasure...

🐀And you do get caught, you suppose if you were being honest with yourself then you'd always known you would be.

🐀You get caught with Isaiahs cock still inside you, he's fucking you against the wall and youre not even being that quiet about it... your fathers man goes to shoot at Isaiah but you get there first, your shot killing your fathers man in a second...

🐀Isaiah is stunned, almost drops you but he doesnt want to dissapoint you so he tightens his grip, hes scared too, youre in so much fucking trouble and if anyone finds out what just happened Tommy will kill him before your father does...

🐀"Don't go soft on me Peaky Boy I'm only just getting started..." you practically growl, grinding your hips into his, and Isaiah isnt about to let you go, so he channels is fear and his amazement into fucking you twice as hard, growling to you about how much trouble youre going to get him into.

🐀But obviously its fucking worth it.

🐀You make him take you shopping afterwards and you return to your father with so many pretty dresses and shoes. A new red lipstick too.

🐀He obviously wants to know what happened, why his man hasn't returned with you and you speak before Isaiah can...

🐀"oh did you have someone following me daddy? We didn't notice anyone? Did you Isaiah?" the boy cant believe what hes hearing right now, youre asking him to lie not just to your father, but his own boss too... Still he does, after that day hes sure hed do anything you asked him to.

🐀You also make up a little story of your own, about how you were threatened by a man, someone tried to disresepct your dignity, you tell him Isaiah took his eyes for the insult and your father is quite satisfied that Tommys boy can keep you safe... So next time you want to go out, your father makes the condition that Isaiah has to go with you.

🐀Which you're quite happy with.

🐀"Youre gonna be the death of me love,"

🐀 So much of the time youre the one causing problems, getting yourself into scraps, because youre used to being a mafia princess, no one back home would dare say a word to you but over here so many of the men don't understand who you are... You wont stand for their shit

🐀So Isaiah does end up taking peoples eyes for you... Most of the time however its you that does the killing. Youre a real violent little brat it doesnt take much for you to decide to pull that trigger...

🐀Isaiah hasnt told any of his mates about what the two of you get up to when you get eachother alone... Its difficult for him to keep this to himself, usually he'd be bragging to high heaven about laying a woman like you... But he's keeping quiet because he knows it'll be you who kills him if he speaks.

Michael

☘️Meets you in America when hes been sent away by tommy... Hes harbouring that bitterness towards his cousin when he finds himself in dealings with the mafia on his brothers behalf.

☘️His life in America is good... He might not be there of his own free will, he might not be allowed to come back, but hes making it work, hes a feared gangster, a powerful and dangerous man

☘️And hes starting to get ideas above his station... Hes met you several times, youre always in his speakeasies drinking, getting snowed up and demanding Shelby gin on the house, your name affords you everything you want after all

☘️And he thinks you're another one of those pretty, espensive things he'd like to add to his collection.

☘️Youd be a real status changer for him, he could use you to win his feud with Tommy, finally be more powerful than his cousin...

☘️ And you're attracted to the brooding English man who runs this part of the city... He does dealings with your father so you know hes a real player in this game, hes dangerous too... And perhaps the only man arrogant enough not to fear the barrel of your fathers gun.

☘️Youve been going to Michaels bars and acting out, getting too drunk and causing fights because you want to get his attention. Its a childish way to attract a man but you know men like Michael Gray, you know that what they want is a possession, something they can tame, put in its place. Teach to be obedient. They like the challenge and secretly they like it when a woman threatens their ego and misbehaves.

☘️And you're right, youve read him like a book... He approaches you one evening at the bar and well, hes stern, hes aggressive, hes almost... Almost fucking rude to you...

☘️ "Miss y/l/n I'd like a word..." "Take your pick Mr Gray, how about two, fuck... Off..." "Don't test me love... You're going to come back to my office with me now, youre going to come quietly and then we're going to talk... And we can talk nicely or you can keep up with whatever this childish little act is alright? But you're going to come with me and we're going to have a little chat alright about the kind of behaviour which is and isnt acceptable in my establishment... "

☘️"Who the fuck do you think you are Mr Gray... Do you have any idea who i am?" "I know youre a little mafia brat with no manners... Anything else?"

☘️ Drags you by the wrist into his office where he practically pushes you down into a chair.

☘️ Stands before you and actually lectures you about your behaviour... About how he isnt going to stand for it anymore...

☘️" So whatre you going to do about it Mr Gray?" youre so cheeky, a real brat, but youre being provocative too... You know what you want from him and as you speak you open your legs just enough to catch his attention.

☘️ "So youre a whore as well as a brat are you?" this actually shocks you, you flush a little but youre idignant and you hold your ground. "Is that what you'd like me to be Mr Gray?"

☘️ He's going to teach you to behave, one way or another... And the only way he manages to is by fucking you into submission... Thats the only way he can get you to behave yourself for him, the only way he can make you beg his forgiveness...

☘️ Outside of the bedroom though youre still a spoilt brat and he doesnt help the fact, he buys you gifts, courts you properly, makes all the right moves on both you and your father

☘️Until eventually your father is convincrd that marrying you off to Michael Gray is the best business move he could possibly make.

☘️ So youre handed over to him on a silver fucking platter and though you pretend to remain defiant "Dont think this means I'm going to behabe myself Mr Gray..." secretly youre thrilled, this is exactly what you wanted.

☘️You want him to take you back to england with him, you want to meet the infamous Tommy Shelby... And when he finally takes you "home" dont be surprised hes showing you off like a pretty piece of jewellery...

☘️And should he really be surprised when Tommy catches your eye, when you realise that there are men more rich, more powerful and more dangerous than Michael Gray for you to persue.

☘️Threatens you, "you fuckin touch my cousin you little brat, I'll kill you..." but this jealousy, this new passion in him turns you on and so you find yourself caught trying to balance two men. Youre being selfish, youre taking everything you want, no matter who gets hurt.

[kaleidoscope1967eyes]

how do you think luke would be with pets?

Thanks for the ask, anon! I don't know if any canon or legends material really touches on this, which is such a shame because I think he would be so good with animals!

Luke has always been a fan of all sorts of creatures. As a little boy on Tatooine, he loved playing with and riding his friend Windy's dewback. He did have a pet of his own growing up: the Lars family owned a spotted sandhound named, you guessed it, Sandy. Even though she was an old girl, Luke would always run around the farm with her and try to teach her tricks, and she'd always do her best to keep up with him.

Sandy was extremely protective of him, to the point where it cost her life; when he was around thirteen years old, a group of womp rats ambushed him while he was tending to some moisture vaporators, and she immediately rushed in to take all the fatal blows. It was absolutely devastating, but in a rare moment of vulnerability, Owen used the situation to teach Luke about the inevitability of loss and the importance of appreciating those you love in the moment--a skill that would ultimately be very relevant to his jedi training.

On the topic of jedi training, animals are naturally drawn to him due to his strong presence in the force. Sometimes this means an entire flock of jubba birds will land on him and all start singing, other times it means large, predatory creatures will locate him very easily and try to eat him. Luke absolutely hates fighting or attacking animals. He is forever haunted by the time he literally disarmed a wampa--he was only trying to scare it away, he didn't mean for it to actually make contact with his lightsaber. You remind him that even though he didn't have a choice, he still did the right thing by giving it a chance to live.

I know I've talked about this before, but Luke would be a total horse girl (boy). He's great with dewbacks and he's great with tauntauns, so he would definitely also be great with equinoids like pulgas, orbaks, and guarlaras. Even though horses are usually extra skittish around men, they're perfectly fine around him because they can sense just how kind and gentle he is. They especially appreciate that he's intuitive and empathetic enough to know never to raise his voice or make sudden movements around them.

After noticing Luke's knack for critters, you decide to get him a pet of his own. You end up getting him a rescue tooka cat you found in a shelter at Mos Espa: it's a playful, snuggly orange tabby that's missing its right paw. What a strange coincidence, you thought, gently picking it up. Luke deserves to know he's not alone.

When Luke came back to your shared quarters on Home One and saw a kitty on his bed, he was ecstatic. He literally started crying--thankfully, you had R2 there to record his reaction. Because you found it on Tatooine, Luke decided to call it "Lars" in honor of his family. They end up doing everything together: he goes to briefings with Lars stretched out on his shoulders, they go on joyrides in his x-wing together, etc. People get a huge kick out of how close they are--"guy who blew up the Death Star crying over a cat" ends up becoming a huge meme in the Rebellion.

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