#i got so many draft comics all the time holy shit
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stump-not-found · 1 month ago
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silly guy
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Hi, random comment but Holy shit your half-transformed Monster Tom with the mouth in his chest is so fucking cool! Also, monsterfucker Tord is so real! Can only imagine Tord's reaction when he saw Tom like half-transformed for the first time.
THANK YOU! im like. super happy with how i draw tom, monster form ABSOLUTELY included. i put like. way too much thought into it lmao but ive always been a fan of unique creature designs so what else is new.
RRRAAH RAMBLINGS UNDER THE CUT
so ive been obsessed with the concept since i figured out what exactly happened during PowerEdd, ~2015. tom was kind of already my favorite but i only got more obsessed now that i could draw him with claws and fangs now.
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(lmao old art^ lets all point and laugh)
when i finally got back into eddsworld this most recent time and started thinking about how i'd draw the guys i already knew i wanted tom to be trans, so when i started sketching i drew him with top surgery scars... which kind of looked like teeth... and the canon monster design already has a mouth on its chest/head... it just worked!!
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...
ok tangent time- i dont like the canon design very much (the combined head/torso is Very limiting for poses. F!!!) but i also have never really liked the popular fanon of just making monster tom a wolf with horns and a single eye. it always feels so reductive!! do you KNOW how many monsters there are out there who are just "big dog/cat plus one fantastical feature"???? MANY!! so i was pretty determined to find a design i liked (one that was both flexible and fairly unique) before putting it in anything.
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...and the partial transformation cliche of just putting accessories on a character is SUPER boring to me. so i wanted something that would be an actual halfway point to a fucked up freaky creature that is only barely humanoid.
ok back on track it took me like fuckin forever to finally get the final ~50% design together. i tried mimicking the merged torsohead of the canon monster and it just left me disappointed. :/
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the single blank eye instead of the rest of the face was a god damn GENIUS move i am so proud of it im pretty sure the first time i drew the design was the actual draft sketch for the comic. because fuck making reference sheets!! the design's in your mind, right???
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oh! as for the second half of your ask, the first time Tord saw Tom half transformed was right here^^!!
then a couple weeks after that i managed to find a 100% design i liked that still looked like a reasonable end point. at which point i actually made a little ref sheet! BEFORE i used the design in a comic!! it hasnt gotten much use but i still like it :)
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i took a much more wyrm-like horizontal approach as opposed to the vertical design of the original, but the arms (connected to top of spine, directly behind head) and legs (close to the bottom, optional) allow it to still match the original's body plan, especially from the front view. then extra legs, big spiky scales, even larger mouth... because who wants just a dog with horns am i right!!
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ahaha so basically im incredibly proud of how the design turned out so thank u for liking it :))
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thebearchives · 2 years ago
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lonely nights in monaco | PG10
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PAIRING: pierre gasly x single mom!reader
REQUESTED: [X] yes [] no
this is the second part of slow days in monaco, read the first part here.
WORD COUNT: 3.0k
SYNOPSIS: after meeting you and thomas, all pierre could think about was you. to escape his thoughts, pierre decides to go to club, only to you to show up in the same club, all alone after you got stood up on a date.
WARNINGS: the fluffiest fluff ever, pierre being an absolute mess in the beginning, mentions of thomas but no thomas x pierre content (sorry), french + translations, pierre calls reader every nickname under the sun because he is stupid and keeps forgetting to ask you for your name.
A/N: 100 followers!! sdim part 2!! who cheered??? thank you to everyone who interacted with slow days in monaco and asked for a second part!! i honestly had so much fun writing this part, literally having to pause so many times bc i couldn't handle how cute reader and pierre were lmao
as always, don't be a ghost reader!
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the drawing done by thomas was put on display on charles’ fridge the second the pair of drivers had gotten home.
it was an endearing sight, and maybe a bit comical, with the colourful (and mostly coherent) mess of crayon scribbles standing out against polaroids of charles’ friends and family, and the slightly less coherent mess of chicken scratch that was charles’ grocery list. 
the number on the back of the drawing now found a new home in pierre’s list of contacts, under the name of thomas’ maman, after realizing he had never caught your name.
charles had laughed at him, telling him he could have read your nametag, and when asked by pierre, nodded to indicate that yes, he did in fact read it and yes, he did know your name. he refused to share it though, “you brought this onto yourself, mate. c’est la vie.” that’s life.
he’d contemplated sending you a text all day, going as far as opening a chat with you and drafting several different messages. each time he would erase it, slide up and clear the app. 
god, was it too early? should he wait for a couple of days before he sent you something? should he text you at all? after all, it wasn’t you who gave him your number, it was your son. 
pierre’s thoughts revolved around you and thomas for the entirety of his day, so consumed with his questions that he had waved off charles’ offer to go to the club with him and his girlfriend. 
your son, pierre had thought to himself, a kid who probably has a dad at home. his eyes widened at the sudden thought, holy shit, pierre, what the fuck are you thinking?
before pierre could freak out, another part of his mind had reminded him that the boy had given you his mother’s number for a reason. 
maybe because you’re a famous driver and he wants to talk to you, fuckface. 
but there was no father in the picture he had drawn. just you and himself, surrounded by the two drivers and their cars. that had to mean something.
pierre groaned into a cushion. even if that were the case and you were single, what were his intentions with you? 
he was sure you weren’t a short fling kind of woman, you had a kid to think about. a kid who had pierre wrapped around his finger without him even realizing it. hell, he had bought the kid a cookie before he even knew him. 
what a fucking idiot, pierre rested his head in his hands, what if he had been allergic to something in the cookie?
it was strange, really, to see pierre so distraught over a woman he had barely spoken to. to see him question his intentions for a woman he didn’t even consider a romantic interest. where were these feelings coming from? 
pierre abruptly sat up from his spot on charles’ couch. he needed a drink. he eyed the extra housekey that charles had given him after moving into his new place. what was the name of that club charles had mentioned?
about thirty minutes later, pierre found himself nursing his second drink of the night, sitting at the bar alone. he had arrived to the club just as charles had walked out, hand in hand with his girlfriend, who looked more than just a little tipsy. 
after a surprised smile and an explanation that he was going to take her home, charles was off, and pierre was once again alone with his thoughts.
he was only about halfway through his drink when a person sat down two seats down from him. a woman. 
his eyes dragged themselves up her body. first, her small black heels. then, her legs, that shined under the neon lights of the club. his eyes followed up the smooth silky material of her dress, fitting her like a glove, and yet still loose enough to be considered rather modest.
he’d choked, however, when his eyes reached her face. 
your face. 
he turned his head away from you, trying to hide his coughs, though his body gave away his struggle as it shook with every muffled hack. he could feel eyes on him, his ears heating up in embarrassment at the possibility that it was your eyes.
who would have thought, that of all the places he could have gone to, just to avoid thinking of you, you would show up at the same one? 
pierre pulled himself upright, the last of his coughing fit escaping him as he pretended to brush lint off of his pants. casual, yup, acting like he didn’t just cough up a lung at the sight of you.
“pierre?” even with the music booming over the speakers, he could hear your voice clearly.
the frenchman faked a surprised look when he made eye contact with you, “no way.”
‘no way’? are you fucking kidding me? of all words, ‘no way’, pierre wanted to punch himself, he had never been this bad at talking to girls before.
“way,” a small chuckle left your mouth. great, he thought, a laugh of pity.
you pointed to the barstool next to him, “is this seat taken?”
oh, fuck.
“no, not at all.” pierre willed his heart to stop beating so fast, hand gesturing to the seat next to him as if presenting it as yours to take.
you slotted yourself next to him, thanking the bartender as he passed you your drink of choice. 
“no thomas, huh?” yeah, no shit, pierre.
you let out a giggle, “no, no. i’m afraid he wouldn’t quite make it past the bouncers up front.”
after a sip from your drink you continued, “he’s with his grandparents tonight,” you held up your phone, the lack of notifications showcased your lockscreen clearly: a mirror selfie of thomas and yourself with matching tiger sheet masks, “and i haven’t gotten any calls from my mom yet, so i’m hoping that means he’s fast asleep in his bed.”
pierre wanted to ask about his father but refrained. he’d fucked up enough already, he didn’t need to make it worse. instead, he smiled, “cute lockscreen.”
your face instantly brightened and pierre felt like he was staring right at the sun, “isn’t it? thomas had seen them at a department store and begged for me to buy them for us so we could be ‘les tigres les plus cool du monde entier’.” 'the coolest tigers in the whole world.'
pierre and you made small talk about thomas for a few more minutes before pierre decided to bite the bullet and ask the one question on his mind, “so, what are you doing here? all alone, that is.”
“i could ask you the same,” you tipped your glass in his direction, a sly smirk painted on your lips.
“touché,” pierre started, “charles invited me to join him and his girlfriend, but i got here too late and now he’s tending to a drunk girlfriend and i’m here.”
you nodded at his explanation, “i got stood up.”
pierre spluttered for the second time in the same night, “you? stood up?”
you felt yourself experiencing deja vu from earlier in the day, handing pierre a napkin like you had done with charles, “you’re making it sound like that’s not believable.”
“because it is not, ma chérie.” neither of you batted an eye at the petname, “whoever stood you up is a fool.”
“well, you’d be surprised at how many men are fools, then,” you hid your slight frown behind your glass, “but it comes with being a mother, i suppose. no one wants you when you’ve got baggage in the form of a child.”
you quickly stuck your hand out, “not that i think of thomas as baggage. mon dieu, no. thomas is the best thing to have happened to me.”
pierre placed a hand on your back, thumb rubbing a small circle against the fabric of your dress. an act to show his understanding.
an idea came to his head, and on impulse, he stood up, telling the bartender to put your drinks on his tab and close it. his fingers tapped against your back, head beckoning for you to get up and follow him.
your questions fell to deaf ears as he tugged you out into the cool night air of monaco. unlike the club, the streets of monaco were rather quiet this night. 
before you could ask him once more, pierre answered your first, and arguably most important question, “we, belle fille, are going on a date.” pretty girl,
your cheeks darkened, “a date?”
pierre nodded, “you being a mother does not make you any less worthy of going out on dates and enjoying yourself. and i’ll prove it to you right now by taking you on the best date you’ve ever had.”
under the street lights, pierre could see the red that coloured your cheeks. a sense of pride bloomed in his chest. he was the reason you were blushing, and he liked it. a lot.
you hesitated for a second, before sticking your hand out, “consider the rest of my night yours, gasly.”
pierre smiled, hand slotting into yours perfectly, “prépare-toi à être étonné, mon amour.” prepare to be amazed, my love.
and amazed you were. from the moment your impromptu date with pierre begin, to the moment he walked you home.
the first thing he had done was take you to a diner entirely out of your budget. catching sight of your apprehensive look, pierre had squeezed your hand.
“you deserve to be spoiled, amour,” he had said. and he did, ordering the most expensive dishes and bottle of champagne, all while he explained to you how he had discovered such restaurant.
the two of you chatted about your personal lives, starting shallow and only delving deeper. 
you told pierre about your favourite colour, “originally, i was going to say that i don’t have one, but the shade of your eyes, well, it’s absolutely beautiful.”
pierre had blushed, averting his eyes from your face as he took a second to recover, “mon amour, i thought we had decided that tonight was my night to woo you. not the other way around.”
you had shrugged, a playful smile making its way to your face, “just being honest, is all.”
it was crazy to you, the way your world had turned a whole 180 in just one day. here you were, in a diner where waitresses probably made your rent’s worth of money in one shift, flirting with a famous formula one driver, the very driver you used to fawn over to your friends. 
when your food arrived, pierre had been chattering about his family and the plans they had made for the rest of his summer break. 
said frenchman had blushed profusely when you groaned in delight after your first bite. you, however, failed to notice, too focused on how the chefs were able to cook such delicious pasta.
at one point, pierre had noticed the splash of red that peaked out from the side of your mouth, thumb coming up to wipe it off for you as you rambled about the time you had burnt your pasta because two-month-old thomas had woken up and started crying.
you’d froze at the feeling of his warm thumb brushing against the side of your lip, your grip on your fork nearly faltering. pierre’s thumb had pulled away from your skin, the pasta sauce now gone from your face, but the rest of his curled fingers that grazed against the nip of your chin stayed. 
that had been the first instance of the night where pierre found himself staring at your lips, wanting nothing more than to place his own against them. 
instead, he wiped his thumb on his napkin, asking you how you had managed to get thomas to stop crying, acting as if nothing had happened. 
when time came for dessert, you had begged pierre to not order from the restaurant’s menu, 10 euros for a single scoop of ice cream had seemed entirely unreasonable.
“it’s gourmet!” pierre had argued.
“it’s bullshit,” you’d retorted, flagging down a waiter to ask for the bill.
the two of you had moved your date to the nearest mcdonald’s, a sundae placed in the middle of the table you sat at, a spoon placed on either side of the dessert.
the mcdonald’s had also been the second place where pierre found himself entranced by your lips. he had simply been admiring your features, eyes travelling down the bridge of your nose and to the cupid’s bow above your lips when your tongue had poked out, licking your bottom lip clean of the sweet ice cream.
in that moment, pierre found himself shifting in his seat, head filled with the most unholy thoughts as you continued to blabber about how you had learned in high school that humans had the ability to gain a lactose intolerance if they avoided all dairy products in their diet for a while, clueless to how the cheeks of the man across from you began to darken to a deep red.
pierre had proposed a late-night walk along the pier, something you had giggled about, watching his eyes roll in mock annoyance, before agreeing.
hands intertwined once again, the two of you walked down the harbour. pierre shared stories about the times he and charles had taken the yacht out and the absolute havoc they’d wreak. you shared stories of when you had been young, pointing to the biggest boats and telling your father that one day, it would be yours.
pierre had stopped you then, asking you to point to the boat you wanted the most right now.
“no, i know what you’re doing,” your arms were crossed and your eyes were narrowed, “a yacht is not something you can just buy.”
“chérie, it quite literally is.” he had laughed loudly at the way you rolled your eyes, heart warming when you’d shrugged his hand off your shoulder with a slight pout on your lips.
“you, mr. gasly, need to be brought back down to earth,” you had reached up and flicked his ear.
instead of cradle his stinging ear, pierre found himself reaching for your hand again, “then hold my hand and never let go.”
your next destination had been your last, and it had been a park. 
pierre tugged you to the open field, letting go of your hand to shrug off his jacket and lay it against the flat ground. he’d reached for you hand again after that, pulling you down to lay on his jacket while he laid his own body next to you, back against the dry grass.
“pierre, your shirt is white,” you sat up, “it’s going to get stained if you lay on the grass. take the jacket instead.”
pierre caught your wrist before you could pull the jacket from under you, “it’s okay, it’s not mine.”
his wide smile had caused a smile to grow on your face as well, allowing the frenchman to slide you back down next to him.
“i’ve always wanted to do this,” he had started, eyes playing connect the dots with the stars that shined above your heads.
“lay on the grass in charles’ shirt?” you had giggled when pierre let out a sound resembling a snort.
“stargaze with the most beautiful girl in the world.”
pierre’s heart stuttered when he watched you cover your face with your hands, propping his body on one elbow as he tried to pull your hands away.
“no, go away.” you had rolled over to escape his hands.
“mon amour, let me see your face.”
“no” your voice was muffled, words disappearing into pierre’s jacket and the earth beneath you.
“why not?” pierre’s hand found its way to your hair, fingers combing through the strands.
a quiet mumble escaped your lips, in absolute bliss from pierre’s ministrations.
“coeur, i cannot understand you when you’re talking to my jacket instead of me.”
heart. you felt your chest squeeze at the new petname, head turning slightly so your lips weren’t flat against the frenchman’s jacket, “i don’t want you to see how red you make me. c'est embarrassant, i feel like a school girl with a crush.” it’s embarrassing,
“then live out your teenage fantasies with me,” pierre placed his hand on your shoulder and you allowed yourself to be turned onto your back, eyes meeting pierre’s.
“okay.”
pierre’s eyes had found their home on your lips again, but instead of stare, he had closed his eyes, leaning forward. your eyes followed suite, the blissful feeling never leaving you even for a second.
his lips met your forehead, a quiet murmur being spoken against your skin, “tu me rends fou depuis que j'ai posé mes yeux sur toi ce matin.” you've been driving me crazy since I laid eyes on you this morning.
“imagine ce que j'ai ressenti en te regardant sur le grand écran pendant des années.” imagine how i felt watching you on the big screen for years.
the rest of your night had been spent cuddled in each other’s arms, fingers pointing at random shapes in the starry sky. 
you didn’t know when you had fallen asleep, wrapped up in pierre’s arms, feeling the safest you had in a long time. pierre, himself, had hated to wake you up, but it was late and he wanted to get you home safely.
hands connected for the last time that night, pierre took you home. smiling softly when you wiped your eyes only to snap your eyes open when you realized you had smudged your mascara. 
pierre’s thumb wiped under your eye lightly before resting on your temple. the rest of his fingers uncurled, wrapping around your head to pull it closer once more. 
his lips met your forehead again, this time longer than the last. he replaced his lips with his own forehead, eyes connected to yours.
“bonne nuit, mon étoile.” goodnight, my star.
it was safe to say that pierre had done more than just prove you were worthy of going out on dates and enjoying yourself. 
pierre had made you feel loved.
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whencartoonsruletheworld · 4 years ago
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The Thrilling Saga of Connie paying real life money for the Worst Sonic TV Show
Let’s begin with the simple fact that me and my sister, @birdsareblooming​ “Cori”, have both been hyperfixating on Sonic the Hedgehog since last March. During this hyperfixation, I was on Sonic Wiki to copy-paste song lyrics onto my stolen mp3s, and I called my sister in and pointed at the template at the bottom. 
“What is this Sonic Underground thing?” I asked. “It has one shit billion songs.” 
So we clicked on the page to read about it, and each sentence we read was a punch in the gut and this quickly became the funniest thing we’d ever read. Highlights include:
It looks like this:
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“Sonic[...] is known to be a prince” 
Sonic has two siblings who actually have good characterization but their names are literally just Sonia and Manic. Like. Sonic split into two names. jesus christ 
Also Sonic and his siblings all share a voice actor. honestly Jaleel White does his best with it but 
“The three siblings possess enchanted medallions that transform not only into musical instruments, but also into weapons.”
“Some fans consider Sonia to be a clone of Amy Rose, minus the attraction Amy feels for Sonic.” YEAH I SURE HOPE IT DOES
“Manic is the most often captured of the siblings” himbo king 
Knuckles shows up, and for the first, like, two sentences his description is very similar to the game, and then you get immediately pulverized by “He has a pet Dinosaur called Chomps.”
Literally so many sentences on Sonic Wiki are lowkey salty about this show. The page features lines such as “Sonic Underground bears little relation to the often complex Sonic universe (including previous animated series, as well as Sonic comics and games), and shares only three established characters” and “many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in Sonic the Hedgehog are completely left out (including Tails).”
“The show met with mostly negative reviews.”
*checks air dates* It only lasted two goddamn months
So after seeing this we thought it was the funniest thing and we showed our older sister, @patema-introverted​ “North.” To our surprise, our at the time “knew nothing about this sonic bullshit” sister recognized the show. Turns out she’d seen trailers for it as a child and that was her sole exposure to Sonic canon. 
We were in quarantine at the time, so we ended up finding it on YouTube and binge-watching it all together as a sibling bonding activity. It was just as hilarious as we thought it would be- some stuff was legitimately good, like the sibling dialogue for instance, but good lord were the character designs ugly, the plot all over the place, and pretty much every song, um, not great. Also there was one episode that we skipped because it got, um, I think “stereotypical” is the nicest word I can use here. 
But the point is, we had a jolly good time watching it, and afterwards we binged all the other Sonic shows and bonded as a family. 
After quarantine, North and I go back to college. My roommate gets groceries at Walmart, while I get them elsewhere, so while she and North collect food I wander the DVD aisle to look at the cool movies and also dumpster-dive in the bargain bin for Cats (2019). I am also short as fuck, so the top shelf of movies I cannot see, I can only read the labels. 
So one day I was browsing the DVDs, and glancing over at the labels for the top shelf. I read over the final one before the shelves end. 
And then I stop, do a double take, and have a heart attack, because there is a label that reads “SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74″
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I immediately climb the shelf but there aren’t any DVDs atop the shelf. However, the label is still there. I excitedly tell my sister and roommates, freak out with them a bit, and then give myself a mission statement:
I will buy the $4 Sonic Underground DVD from Walmart
I did not want it as a gift, I did not want to find it online. I wanted to walk into a store, pick up the Worst Sonic Show on DVD, walk it straight to the checkout, and in front of the cashier and God, pay for it with my own money. I did not care if it was the whole series or two episodes; I needed to do this for my own serotonin.
We would go to Walmart about once a week. Every time, I would go to the DVD aisle, and go right to the end of the shelves. I would stare at the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74 and empty space above it and wonder who the fuck was buying this other than me. I would occasionally ask employees if they had any copies in storage. I would build a shrine to Manic in my room. Okay, no I didn’t, but only because my RA would have murdered me. 
Christmas break comes, and we have to go home. We have a nice Christmas, and Cori and I infodump at each other about how we would make Sonic Underground a good show (note: we’re both galaxy braining) and also play Bendy and the Ink Machine. Fun times. 
When we finally get back to College, it’s late January- long story short we have a very long winter break. My roommate who gets food at Walmart got food without us the first week cause she showed up first, so we take her out to Walmart the first time in the year of our lord 2021 on January 29. 
I wander the Valentine’s aisle, immediately grabbing a sequin puppy. I go to the DVDs and see Animaniacs Season One, also grab that. 
And then.
There it is.
The Holy Grail. 
Above the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74, is one DVD left. 
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Already I am losing my mind. It’s roughly seven hours of episodes- I couldn’t find an episode list, but I think that’s half the show, for $4! And the cover is amazing. 
That’s a png of Sonic from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) with a medallion badly photoshopped over it. The medallion is too small. 
Manic is shoved into the corner. He doesn’t have his medallion at all. 
Sonia isn’t even pictured on the front cover, probably because they realized she was the worst designed of the bunch. I’m not ragging on her though, because she’s still one of the better designed characters of the show. Those background characters make me cry 
So you bet your ass I finally paid my hard-earned $4 for this shit. Upon getting home, I discovered that there was even wilder shit with this DVD than I thought. 
For starters: the bonus features listed are as follows:
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Original Concept Art - did not expect that these character designs were the final draft
Storyboard-to-screen - did not expect they bothered to storyboard this 
Music Video Jukebox - that’s cute, they thought we liked the music 
Interviews with original screenwriter & executive producer - I fully expect the only questions to be “why.” 
On the left of this list are screenshots from the show, where people can finally see Sonia, who we Know™ is a girl because she is pink and has hair and also an actual body shape instead of just circles like her brothers. 
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But wait... what’s that in the lefthand corner? 
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That looks like some kind of robot. But it’s not a robot from Sonic Underground! That didn’t appear once. Why is it here? 
The mystery continues upon opening the DVD case: inside are advertisements for other collections, including other Sonic DVDs: two volumes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) and the final episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog “SatAM” (1993)
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First of all, the first volume of AOSTH has the exact same PNG of Sonic as the Underground Volume 1. Not even trying to hide it. But second... the second volume of AOSTH also has this robot on its cover. 
And THIS ROBOT IS ALSO DECORATING THE THIRD DISC IN THE SET?
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So you may be asking, who is this robot? Is it from AOSTH or Underground?
IT’S FROM FUCKING SATAM. The one show that doesn’t have it decorating the DVD covers.
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Also, not only is it from SatAM, it only appears in one fucking episode. Not a major character! AND IT HAS A DIFFERENT DESIGN ON THE PROMO ART, WITH HAIR AND FANGS.
Why is it showing up everywhere? What is going on? 
I have not yet had the opportunity to watch this glorious piece of animation, but I am so glad at the confusion I have felt upon receiving it. 
But before I go, I must share with you the best part of this DVD purchase. And it was flipping to the back, scanning the details, and discovering the exact runtime of the episode collection. 
Guys, gals, and enby pals, friends and enemies, Nintendo and Sega, the first Volume of Sonic Underground has a runtime of...
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420 MINUTES.
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Maybe I’m wrong and this IS the best Sonic show. 
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solcheeky · 4 years ago
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our secret
summary: fratboy!donghyuck turns paperboy! when he needs some extra money for college stuff like textbooks. he thinks delivering way outside of campus will save face from being a measly paperboy, but little does he know, the front yard light he hits (and breaks) belongs to his significantly well off classmate... (3k)
warnings: strong language here and there genre: enemies to ..friends? a/n: I’ve merged these two requests together! meaning I have and haven’t included aspects of each, hope that’s okay! (2021 edit: hi I found this in my drafts from last year and idk why I never posted it so yeah, here we go)
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“You’re late.” Your professor calls out as Donghyuck fails to sneak into lecture hall unnoticed
You sigh, you’d think he’d at least look ashamed to step foot into class at such a late time
You suppose with Lee Donghyuck, things were always different
The boy winces comically, inhaling between his teeth brazenly, and students stifle their laughter
Then with a simple raise of his hand, he gestures a flimsy ‘my bad’ and a ‘continue, continue’ before charmingly wiping the sweat off his brow and sitting in the empty seat saved by his friends
The professor frowns, “you’re late.” He repeats as if to encourage the young rebel to at least say something
“I’m Haechan,” the rebel says under his breath, flopping his backpack onto the desk, “not ‘late’” a sarcastic smile stretching his lips as his friends snicker at his dumb joke
You roll your eyes, he was unbelievable.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough.” The professor claps his hands. “And Mr. Late,” he emphasizes, “don’t think you’re getting away with anything.”
So he drops it on him like a bomb: “For the rest of this week, meet me in the office an hour before classes start.”
The grin on Donghyuck’s face immediately wipes off his face and his heart drops to his stomach
“Prof!” He whines back
Karma, you think. That’s what he gets for being so up his own ass
It wouldn’t kill him to wake up a little bit earlier. He relied so much on his ‘so loveable’ personality and popularity, you couldn’t stand it
If you even attempted to do half the things he got away with, you’d be expelled by now
You drop your pen and lean back into your seat with a sigh, you had no choice but to sit back and watch him waste valuable lesson time over this insolence
“You can’t do that!” Seriously, Donghyuck would do anything else other than doing extra hours in the morning
“And you can’t be late to my lectures all the time. What are you not getting here Mr. Late?”
“But I can’t.” Donghyuck immediately regrets saying that out loud like that; the vulnerability in his voice a little too close to home
“And, why not?” Your professor bounces back thankfully brushing past the genuine desperation in his students voice
The reason why not was something ‘Lee Haechan’ couldn’t say out loud. If he did, he’d lose everything
So instead, he sticks with his usual tongue-in-cheek mannerism, “because I don’t want to.”—A sneaky beat around the bush on his part because, little did everyone know, Lee Haechan, the star player and everyone’s favorite goofball, was a measly paperboy
Why?
Because he was dumb broke.
It was a job that required him waking up extra early to race around neighborhoods on his bike, something he had to do regardless rain or sun just tossing as many papers onto people's front porches,
Something he already was finding so much of a difficulty doing: racing to class and acting as if his muscles weren’t burning or the fabric under is backpack wasn’t drenched in sweat
But now this ‘meet me in the office an hour earlier than classes start’ bullshit
That would mean he’d have to wake up even earlier than he already did!
“Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to, you’re going to.” Is the last thing your professor says on that topic before swiftly moving on.
Oh to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, is what he always thinks as he cycles his rounds in the wealthy neighborhood
If there was one thing he didn’t have, it was this. 
He looks at the blaringly affluent homes that surrounded him and heaves another sigh, the same road he rides every morning (and now this extra early morning) effortlessly reminding him of how absolutely poor his ass was
Grumbling under his breath in a tantrum about his professor in his head, he angrily hurls newspapers onto doorsteps
It was the fact that he had to deal with this at ungodly hours in the morning—as if this job wasn’t already enough
Donghyuck frustratedly hurls another newspaper, but this time around, it shoots straight into someone's front garden post light, knocking it over and completely disrupting the perfect order in which the other trail of foot lights were set in
What the heck?
Immediately, he hits the breaks, his tires screeching loudly in the quietness of the early morning
Profanities frantically leave his lips as he hurriedly drops his bike onto the sidewalk in a clatter, and runs ahead to see the damage he’s made
The lamp was perfectly struck to its side.
Well, that’s just great—he can’t afford college textbooks let alone the broken path lamp on some rich persons lawn
So, his first thoughts are to pull it back into the place, completely irrational, but it’s the only thing that runs through his mind when he’s on a time crunch to get off private property
Except, the damn thing is stuck; literally cemented into this lopsided tilt
Man, Donghyuck swears he could tug all day and it wouldn’t get back into place
It was like the universe was having fun being against him
You, on the other hand, were watching this boy struggle to fix your light back into place from the comfort of your window.
He looked ridiculously cute trying to tug that lamp back into place, curled almost into a ball in the middle of your lawn, his eyebrows sewn into a line of frustration and lips pursed
You knew he was your paperboy from the start of his laborious cycling trips, but did Donghyuck know he was delivering papers to his very own classmate every morning?
You guess not.
...Until now
You knock three times from behind the glass, successfully capturing the boy's attention before mouthing, “what are you doing?”
The agitation on his features drops and immediately his eyes widen at your familiar face
Except, he isn’t given much time to reply before the lamp between his fingers gives in to his weight and recoils back smacking him right in the nose
“Holy shit!” You forget you’re only in socks when you open your front door and race towards him
Donghyuck automatically drops the (now broken) piece of your lawn to cup his bruising face
“Ah- Fucking shit- Ow!” He bends forwards on his knees into the grass, forehead pressing into your lawn before he rocks back up again to scrunch a deep frown up towards the sky. “Jesus-”
“Are you okay?!” Dropping to your knees, you place a cautious hand to his back
“Yes.” He groans into his palms, rocking back down towards the grass again
He definitely wasn’t.
But he needed to get out of there quick; there’s no way he’d let you recognize him
Yeah, you weren’t that stupid.
“Let me see,” you carefully bring him up by his shoulders, your head leaning down towards his to see the damage
“No- Ow! Crap-”
“You’re bleeding!” You try to pry at his wrists but he rips away from your hands
That’s when Donghyuck finally looks up to scowl at you; a frown stitched hard into into his forehead, eyes watering, hair all ruffled, but most alarmingly—a scarlet ribbon of blood running down his wrists
“I’m okay.” He muffles into his hands.
And wow did he look like an idiot.
“Sorry about your-” 
“Jesus Hyuck, you’re not fooling anyone.”
The boy visibly stiffens at your choice of his name
“Haechan.” You quickly correct yourself
He gulps
You glance away
“Let’s just put an ice-pack on that.” Then you’re dragging him into your house
“Quit moving!” You dab a wet cloth across the cut above Donghyuck’s lip
“Well, it hurts.” He tries to complain without moving his mouth too much
You purse your lips and Donghyuck attempts to adjust the ice pack on his nose despite your warning
With a sigh, you take his wrist and bring his arm down to his lap, “Hyuck, if you keep-” you feel him stiffen under your touch. “Haechan.” You keep doing that. “Sorry.”
He just diverts his eyes elsewhere and mumbles, “It’s whatever.” under his breath
So, you bring your attention back to cleaning his cut, your cheeks heating up at the thought of how much of a creep you probably were by calling him by his old name
“I’m-”
“Y/n.” His voice was a little clearer this time, a soft frown on his face, “I remember.”
He kind of wished you didn’t though. This was so embarrassing.
You pull the cloth away from his reddening cheeks, that annoyed flustered look on his face pulling at the nostalgia in you
It was only natural to call him ‘Hyuck’ because you had been going to the same school as him for years
Ever since you were kids, through highschool and now somehow, still impossibly in college, you’ve been with him
You almost had every class with the loud idiot back when he was still ‘Donghyuck’
For as long as you could remember, he had always been the center of gravity in every class, his punchy personality and almost too friendly way of speaking easily giving him the ‘popular’ tag 
It made you have a bit of a crush on him when you were younger, but who didn’t? 
Now, you found him irritating. 
The only thought you had about him consisted of wishing he’d stop using his status to his advantage and just come to class right instead of wasting your lesson time
“Can I ask you something?” He dodges your hand for a second, eyes looking down as if to hide away his embarrassment 
“Sure,” you naturally reach forward again to dab his cut, but he stops you at the wrist
“Can you,” you lift your focus away from his lip to the slight grimace on his face, “not tell anyone about this?”
You blink at him, and a muscle works in his jaw
“Seriously, people can’t know about this.” 
But you simply pull your wrist out of his grip and go back to tending to his wound
You hadn’t told anyone since you’d found he was your paperboy, and that was weeks ago. So why was he so worked up?
Hadn’t the situation already called for it anyway? Who in their right mind would tell anyone after this? For you, it was obviously common courtesy
But before you can reply, he tilts his face into your line of vision. “Are you listening to me?” The frown on his face deepens and he instantly brings the ice pack in this hand over his face at the sudden pain through his nose
That attitude of his easily drove you crazy.
“That was a stupid question.” You give up on cleaning the blood on his lip and push the ice-pack deeper into his face, “if you used that stupid, egotistical brain of yours-”
“Ah! Ow- Ooow-”
“Maybe you’d realize I’ve never told anyone about your paper rounds before.”
“Ow!” He wrenches away from your frustrated grip, the look on his face just as annoyed as you. “You’re going to break my nose!” 
“You broke my yard lamp!”
He looks at you with a huff; a slight puff to his reddened cheeks, furrowed brows and tears ever so slightly brimming his eyes
If that lamp didn’t cost about five times the price of his bike he’d say something back.
You easily read that off his expression
“You don’t have to pay for it.” You start to pack up the first-aid kit you’d opened up on your coffee table just to not look at him in the eyes when you say that
As much as he irritated you, you weren’t that petty
“Really?” The genuine doubt in his face relaxing the annoyance in you a little
“Yeah.” Money wasn’t a problem for you, it was his attitude
But the casualness Donghyuck catches in your tone reminds him of the starkly different worlds you live in
So he musters it up within himself to at least show some kind of gratitude, “...Thanks.” 
And it’s almost inaudible when he says it under his breath like that
But you catch it as you pull a bandaid out of the box before you close it
“On one condition.” You turn to look at him dead in the eyes.
One of his brows slightly quirk up in interest
“Hand.”
He opens his palm to you and you purposely slap the bandaid into it.
“Stop coming late to class, you’re wasting everyone's time.”
Instantly, his jaw goes slack. 
Unable to say anything he stares as you rise from your seat in content, first aid kit in hand, before walking behind the sofa towards the kitchen
You didn’t have to say it like that.
He swings an elbow over the back of the couch, “Sorry for bringing you the paper every morning!” Maybe he was a little offended
You turn on your heels to face him, noticing the bandaid now crushed in the fist of the hand he had over the couch and ice-pack abandoned on the coffee table (the full glory of his bruising nose and cut lip on show)
“I said ‘don’t be late’ not ‘don’t bring me the paper’.” Then you disappear into the kitchen.
Donghyuck has to close his eyes for a second, exhaling a frustrated sigh before standing up in a huff and following your footsteps.
How could you say something so insensitive? Yeah, maybe he broke your lamp or whatever, but he tried to fix it!
And sure, he was sort of bleeding over your couch and used your ice pack, but he totally said thanks
“That’s just- You’re so,” He’s standing at the doorway by the time you’re done, bandaid still stuck in the frustrated grip of his hand
“So what, Hyuck?”
Seeing the all star, team favorite class clown crumble at the simple play of his old nickname made something in your stirr
“Insufferable.” 
You? Your lips turn up in amusement. He was the insufferable one, you almost scoff
“You and your big house, fancy first aid kit, stupid lamps on your lawn,” he takes a bold step forward at every reason until he’s one step to being chest to chest, “I’m just trying to do my job, and go to class.”
You look at him straight in the eyes. “Well, you’re hardly succeeding at either of those.”  
You...
Donghyuck runs his tongue across his inner cheek before biting down on his bottom lip in a brazen attempt to act unfazed by that fatal side comment
A coppery, metal taste pricks his tongue, and he realizes he’s reopened up the cut on his lip again
But that was the least of his worries. You had no idea what it was like being broke. If there was anything he didn’t have, it was everything you did. You probably couldn’t even fathom the type of shit he’s had to go through and even more so: hide.
The way you acted as if his biggest problem in life was as easy as brushing the dust of his shoulder just pissed him off.
“Have you ever thought of waking up earlier?” 
Ah, there it was again, Donghyuck wants to roll his eyes
“I sleep late.” He says dryly.
“Then sleep earlier.”
“I have other shit to do, like study.” 
“Then, manage your time better.” If he really wanted to ‘do his job’ and ‘get to class’, he could’ve done it by now.
He was always messing about with friends and organizing parties, stories spread around like wildfire on campus about the things he occupied himself with other than ‘having shit to do like studying’, you weren’t stupid
It was by the end of high school, when you began to see him as a person who valued himself with the amount of friends knew or the amount of partying he did
And at first you were mad that he had the things you never did, but seeing him easily get washed up by it all made you think maybe you didn’t need what he had
Now you figure his ego was so far up his ass he couldn’t even sit right—that’s probably why he couldn’t cycle to class on time
“And don’t use your bike, you’re clearly slow on it.” You tack on.
“I don’t even have a car!” He snaps back
He made you want to pull out your own hair. “Jeez, first this, then that, god Hyuck, you keep-”
“You say that as if it were so easy,” his words overlapping yours as you continue
“-making up so much bullshit because the only thing you really put effort into is your image,” Your words running over his too.
“-if I could get a car, don’t you think I’d have one already?”
“Then I’ll just take you!” That puts both of you to a stop.
“So, quit giving me stupid excuses to ruin my lectures every day.” If the things money could buy were what he needed, you had it
You snatch the bandaid out of his fist, rip it open and harshly stick it across his bottom lip. It was annoying to see him ignore it like that.
“You usually finish an hour before class right?” You frown up at him
Donghyuck opens his mouth then closes it again.
“Because if you reroute and make me the last house, I’ll take you with me by car.”
“What?” He manages to say. What the hell just happened?
a/n: okay so there was a lot more to the story and character development but it ran too long I had to cut it off bc I cba to edit lmao 
also I seemed to have gone way out of the request lines near the end my bad my bad, but I at least hope you’ve enjoyed it! thoughts???? a part 2?
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nevermindirah · 4 years ago
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I've been drafting and redrafting this meta post for weeks now. It's about to be 5781 and my country that was founded on settler colonial genocide and slavery and a deeply flawed but fierce attachment to democracy might go full dictatorship in about 6 weeks and it's time for me to post this thing.
All our immortals are warriors, all have been traumatized by war. But only three of them died their first deaths as soldiers in imperial armies. This fandom has already produced gallons of meta on Nicky dealing with his shit, because Joe would not fuck with an unapologetic Crusader. But there's very rich stuff in Booker and Nile's experiences and the parallels and distinctions between them.
Nile was 11 when her dad was killed in action - that was 2005, meaning she and her dad both died in the same war that George W Bush started in very tenuous response to 9/11. Sure, Nile's dad could have died in either Iraq or Afghanistan, or in a training accident or in an off-the-books mission we won't know about for a hundred more years, but he died in the War on Terror all the same. I had to look it up to be sure because Obama "drew down" the Afghanistan war in his second term, but nope, we're still in this fucking thing that never should've happened in the first place. The US war in Afghanistan just turned 19 years old. A lot of real-life Americans have experiences like the Freemans, parents and children both dying in the same war we shouldn't be in.
I know a lot of people like Nile who join the US military not just because it's the only realistic way for them to pay for college or afford decent healthcare, but also because they have a family history of military service that's a genuine source of pride. Military service has been a way for Americans of color to be accepted by white Americans as "true Americans" - from today's Dreamers who Obama promised would earn protection from deportation by enlisting, to Filipino veterans of WW2 earning US citizenship that Congress then denied them for several decades, to slaves "earning" their freedom through service in the Union Army and in the Continental Army before it. As if freedom is a thing one should have to earn. Lots of Black Americans have the last name Freeman for lots of different escaping-slavery reasons, but it's possible that this specific reason is how Nile got her last name.
Dying in a war you know your country chose to instigate unnecessarily and that maybe you believe it shouldn't be waging is a very particular kind of trauma. It is a much deeper trauma when your military service, and your father's, and maybe generations of your ancestors', is a source of pride and access to resources for you but your sacrifice is nearly meaningless to the white supremacist system that deploys you. That kind of cognitive dissonance encourages a person to ignore their own feelings just so they can function. How do you wake up in the morning, how do you risk your life every day, how do you *kill other people* in a war that shouldn't be happening and that you shouldn't have to serve in just so that your country sees you as human?
We see Nile do her best to be a kind and well-mannered invader. Depending on your experience with US imperialism, Nile giving candy to kids and reminding her squad to be respectful is either heartwarming or very disturbing propaganda. We also see Nile clutching her cross necklace and praying. From the second Christianity arrived on this land it's been a tool of white supremacist assimilation and control, but like military service, it's a fucked-up but genuine source of pride and access to resources for many Americans whose pre-Columbian ancestors were not Christian, and it's a powerful source of comfort and resilience. This Jew who's had a lot of Spanish Inquisition nightmares would like to say for the record that it's not Jesus's fault that his big name fans are such shitty people.
Nile is a good person trying to do her best in a fucked-up world. "Her best" just radically changed. Her access to information on just how fucked up the world is has also just radically changed, because everything's so fucked up a person needs a lot of time to learn about it all and not only does she have centuries but she won't have to spend that time worrying about rent and healthcare and taxes, and because she now has Joe and Nicky and Andy's stories, and because she now has Copley's inside scoop on just what the fuck the CIA has been up to. Like, I want a fic where Copley tells Nile what was really behind the brass's decisions that led to her experiences on the ground in Afghanistan, that led to her father's death, but also I Do Not Want That.
Nile was 19 when Alicia Garza posted on Facebook that Black Lives Matter. She grew up in Chicago well before white people on Twitter were saying maybe police violence against Black people is a problem. She knows this is a deeply fucked up country, and she put on her Marine uniform and deployed with her team of mostly fellow women of color, and maybe she and Dizzy and Jay marched in the streets between deployments, maybe they texted each other when a white manarchist at a protest sneered at one of them for being a Marine. Nile's been busy surviving, and she knows some shit and she's seen some shit but she hasn't had much time to think about what it all means. Now she's got time. And Joe, Nicky, and Andy are willing to listen. (Is Copley willing to listen? I could see that going either way.)
Booker might also be willing to listen. The brilliant idea of cleaning up the rat Frenchman so that Nile can have millennia of emotional support and orgasms sent me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, and holy shit do Booker and Nile have a lot of shared life experience as pawns of imperial wars. Obviously Booker is white and a man and that makes a very big difference. (Though G-d help me, Booker could be Jewish and France was knocking its Jews around like ping-pong balls in the 18th-19th centuries. Jewish Booker wouldn't make him any less white but it does add a shit ton of depth of common experience: military service as a way for your country to see you as a full member of society who matters, because who you are means that's not guaranteed.)
Booker was hanged for desertion from the army Napoleon sent to invade Russia as part of his quest to control all of Europe. We learn in the comics / this YouTube video that Booker was on his way to prison for forgery when he was offered military service instead of jail time. While we don't know how he felt about the choice beyond that he did choose soldier over inmate, it's unlikely he thought invading Russia was a great idea, given he tried to desert because Napoleon like a true imperialist dumbass didn't plan for how he was going to feed his army or keep them from freezing to death in fucking Russian winter.
I find it very interesting that the French Empire was at its largest right before invading Russia and fell apart completely within a few years. My country has been falling the fuck apart for a while now - see aforementioned War on Terror, growing extremes of economic stratification in the richest country in the world, abject refusal to meaningfully deal with climate change that US-based corporations hold the lion's share of blame for - but between Trump's abject refusal to meaningfully deal with the coronavirus and strong likelihood that he'll refuse to leave office even if a certain pathetic moderate I will hold my nose and vote for does manage to earn a majority of votes, ~y~i~k~e~s.
Our only immortals who have never known a world before modernity and nationalism happen to have been born of wars that were the beginning of the end for the imperialist democracies that raised them, and I think in the centuries to come that's going to give them some very interesting shit to talk about.
Nile's a Young Millennial, a digital native born in the United States after the collapse of the USSR left her country as the world's only superpower. She's used to a pace of technological change that human brains are not evolved to handle.
Napoleon trying to make all of Europe into the French Empire was a leading cause of the growth of European nationalism and the establishment of liberal democracies both in Europe and in many places that Europeans had colonized. Booker's first war produced the only geopolitical world order Nile has ever known and I just have so many feelings ok. Nile the art history nerd is probably not aware of this, and why would she be? This humble meta author is, like Nile, a product of US public schools, and all they taught me about world history was Ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt/Mesopotamia and then World War 2. Being raised in The World's Only Superpower is WEIRD.
Nile the Young Millennial is used to the devastating volume of bad news the internet makes possible. But she has absolutely no concept of a world where the United States of America is not The World's Only Superpower. In order to get up in the morning and put on her gear and point guns at civilians in Afghanistan, she can only let herself think so much about whether that American exceptionalism thing is a good idea.
She's about to spend many, many years where the only people who she can truly trust are people who are older than not only her country but the IDEA of countries.
She's got time, and she's got a lot of new information at her disposal. But there comes a point where my obsession with her friendship and eventual very hot sex life with Booker just isn't about sex at all. Nile needs someone to talk to about the United States who Gets It. Booker the rat Frenchman coerced into Napoleon's army, and Copley the Black dual citizen of the US and UK who's retired from a CIA career that he half understands as deeply problematic but half still believes in hence his mind-bogglingly stupid partnership with Merrick, are the only people on the planet Nile can talk to honestly about, and really be understood in, all the thoughts and feelings and fears and hopes of her experience as a US Marine.
And one more thing before I go get ready for Rosh Hashanah: Orientalism was a defining element of the Crusades and that legacy is painfully clear in current US-led Western military activity in Afghanistan, Syria, Israel/Palestine, you name it. Turns out memoirs by French veterans of the Napoleonic Wars are full of Orientalist language about Russia as well. I am maybe/definitely writing a fic where Booker spends his exile reading critical race theory and decolonial feminism and trauma studies monographs because he can't be honest with a therapist but maybe he can heal this way and become the team therapist his own damn self. I just really need him to read Edward Said and Gloria Anzaldúa and then go down on Nile, ok?
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draculaurafangz · 4 years ago
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swim good / p. parker
a/n: honestly i did not plan on posting anything but i had to get this out of my drafts because, it’s been there for a while. anyways, this was based off of frank ocean’s song “swim good”. if you’ve ever listened to the song then you’d definitely know what i’m getting at with this. also, you guys can imagine the reader to look however you want, it’s not limited to like one specific image.
warnings: there’s like, a whole lotta angst, there’s curses here & there, and mentions of smut (not really but it’s kinda there, if you read you understand. lmao i don’t like writing smut at all.) also peter’s aged up 18 in this story & in college.
─ ─ ─
peter parker was very popular at your school. not only was it because of the fact that the whole entire school knew he was spiderman, but it was because he was known for sleeping around with girls on campus. thinking back on it, peter doesn’t even remember how it happened. one minute he was this nerdy, awkward teenager who always read his comic books and put together star wars lego sets, and here he is now messing around with girls and tugging at their heartstrings.
at first, he was obsessed with the idea of being this chick magnet. he lived with the pride, no matter how many girls he had lead on and given false hope to.
but now, he’s not so sure.
he’s realized he’s caused other girls around the school, and even in queens, a ton of pain. but most importantly, he had hurt you a great deal. to the point where you had left voicemails, telling him you wished you’d never see him again, and that you regret anything you ever did with him.
peter doesn’t regret it, he actually felt some sort of feeling towards you. out of all the other friday night hookups, you were different. your aura and your presence was just unmatched to those other girls. of course, you cursed yourself for ever sleeping with him because you knew about his reputation. but when you know you had the opportunity you had to take it. you thought you would be able to convince him and change his mind, but it was no use.
so here peter is on a friday night, sitting in his room all by himself, no hookup present. he missed you. god, he missed you so fucking much. he knew you wouldn’t talk to him if he just messaged you or even left a voicemail. he couldn’t bring himself to even think about the last conversation the two of you had because he hated seeing your face. you were broken and in pain. tears streaming down your face as your voice boomed within the room. saying that he was an asshole, and you thought you could actually change him but there was no point in changing him.
little did you know, you did change peter. you changed him a lot, to the point where you caused him to think about his past. there were some girls that honestly treated his hookups the way they were, and some actually cared but soon after got over it. then there were some like you who had been extremely heartbroken. peter never really paid attention to them though because they always made it their mission to ignore him.
it’s not that you didn’t ignore peter, because you did. you just didn’t talk to him at random anymore. he was in a couple of your classes, and would sometimes ask for notes. but other times, he’d just bump into you on campus. so yeah, you were ignoring him. with no intention of talking to him.
he felt so much pain over the past couple of days, thinking about he hurt other girls, thinking about how he hurt you. he cannot stop thinking about you, at this point he’s in love with you. he’s so guilt-ridden that even ned notices something is off with him.
“are you sure you’re okay? you just haven’t been yourself lately,” ned questioned just noticing that his friend seemed to always be disturbed.
“it’s nothing ned,” is what he’d usually respond with “i’m just stressed with my classes right now.”
ned shook his head understandingly. he knew that college for sure was hard on him and couldn’t even imagine how hard it was on peter. peter never told ned about everything, ned was three states away from peter. there was nothing ned could do to fix this, as peter realized he needed to fix everything himself.
his professors even noticed it. some of them even had to speak with him after class letting him know his grade was in great jeopardy. when they asked if everything okay, peter just explained that he had been off recently. he assured them that he’d be back on track soon, and get on top of his academics as well. after speaking with his physics professor he had headed towards your dorm. he never actually went to visit you at your dorm so he had no clue what room was yours. he’d remember swinging by your window, but never got an exact numbered door. when he walked into the main lobby, he asked some random girl if she knew who you were or where your dorm was. luckily for him, he actually bumped into your roomate, but your roomate refused to talk to him.
“i know who you are, and i think you should go,” she coldly spoke.
he pleaded with her and he promised he would make everything right with you if he could actually see you and get the chance to talk to you. after hearing his long ramble about his overdue apology, your roomate caved him and gave him your room number.
he felt anxiety rushing throughout his entire body as he looked through the hallways of numbered doors and finally spotted yours. he took a deep breath before knocking, reminding himself that he was going to be okay, this was going to be okay.
you opened the door and immediately slammed it in his face. behind the door, your eyes went wide and you bit your bottom lip as you thought about opening the door again. what could he have possibly wanted? what was he doing here? had he been stalking you? how the fuck did he find you room? your mind went back to the main question: what does he want and why is he here?
you turned around again facing your door and wiped your sweaty palms against your sweatpants. opening your door, you made a joke about how it was too early for a booty call. peter’s face remained straight seeming to just be unamused with the joke. you then asked what he had wanted. how this was all unlike him and how he truly he doesn’t chase but rather attract.
“y/n, just please hear me out. give me five minutes, two minutes even. i just need to talk to you,” he started.
you gulped, the big lump in your throat returning as you whispered a “come in” to him.
he sat on the edge of your bed as you stood in the middle of your room. your arms were crossed and you had a blank look on your face.
“i- i just wanted to say i’m sorry,” he stuttered, “i regret ever hurting you, y/n. i think back about how i ruined everything between us daily. usually i don’t let feelings get in the way of this but holy shit i cannot even deny them anymore. and that’s why i came here. i know i’ve given you so much stress lately and i truly apologize. i know i hurt you at night and i can’t even sleep sometimes knowing that i hurt you. i need to make things right. i’m not asking for anything major, i just want to be on good terms again with you,” he finished, averting his eyes away from yours.
you took his words in, thinking them over as you stared back at his features. you didn’t hate him, as a matter of fact you were head over heels in love with him. but you couldn’t do it. you could not be in a relationship right now, but you weren’t going to just dismiss the way he wanted to mend things between the two of you.
the two of you sat in silence for another minute as you collected your thoughts, him waiting patiently for you. you walked over to him and just hugged him. you already felt tears well up in your eyes but did not want them to spill. peter at this point was full on crying. this was the closure you both needed. you whispered in his ear how you don’t want a relationship right now, but he understood because he didn’t know if he was able to take on one by himself right now. as the two of you pulled apart, you wiped your eyes as you gave peter time to collect himself.
“i’m down to fix things. i love you a lot pete but we need to work on ourselves and our own dynamic before we even think about jumping into that whole relationship stage,” you said.
“and i’m totally okay with that. i can deal with that. i was just scared of losing you,” his eyes glossed over again as he said that. new tears were forming in his eyes.
you’d never thought you’d see the day where peter parker was actually showing some emotion. he seemed like the type to be emotionless after you had your experience with him.
it was going to take a while to heal, but you both had each other so there was no fear. peter was going to be more open and honest with his feelings. he was sorry, he was taking the accountability he should’ve taken a long time ago. he had you to thank for that.
i’m goin off (oh, my pretty love)
don’t try stopping me
i’m goin off (throw me in a line)
don’t try saving (you broke my heart)
no flares (you broke my heart)
no vest (you drove my love)
and no fear
waves are washin’ me out.
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ash-etherwood · 4 years ago
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Top 5: writing memories, songs, characters that are not blank rune, runes, food
Linda I love you but are you trying to kill me … that’s so many Top 5’s! But alright, I’ll do my best! (Answers will probably switch between German and English RIP to every non-German-speaker who follows me and wants to read this for some reason I swear I’m normal)
WRITING MEMORIES
5.) The entire time I spent finishing my first (second?) longer writing project It was the year 2012 and it was a cyberpunk story about my friends’ and my edgy self inserts riding dinosaurs, fighting aliens and being badass. The plot twist in the end was that my character was secretly evil and wanted to kill everyone. (Things to show your therapist) The final boss fight made zero sense and also everything was incredibly weird and stupid. But sometimes I still think about those times when I sat in my grandma’s living room at night, eating chips and listening to Vocaloid covers while thinking this story was the coolest shit ever. Truly simpler times.
4.) Researching something about universities in Texas for OvF on a rainy Saturday afternoon I have no idea why this memory is still sticking with me to this day (I think it was around 2016 or something?), but I remember that it was just a really nice day and I felt really at peace at that moment?
3.) The entire writing process of Bathroom Blues It was such a spontaneous project and I still have no idea how I managed to power though it in just a little under two months! Also it was just incredibly fun seeing you getting excited over new drafts and I loved coming up with new plot points and Halloween costumes for everyone with you. :-D Truly a summer worth remembering.
2.) FINALLY uploading the prologue and intro chapter of WWBL Not really a writing memory, but that moment was … so sexy and magical. Seriously, you have no idea how long I had been waiting to finally start that story, waiting for the Steckbriefe to roll in and see people react to the prologue and generally the idea … I even made one of those countdown graphic thingies for the designated upload date! 8D At that point I had planned that story for about six months and just … yeah, that felt powerful to me.
1.) Writing the prologue for WWBL When I first started the draft for that prologue I was sitting at the window in my favourite hotel in Winterberg, Sauerland, wore my dark green flannel, had the window wide open breathing in the cool mountain air and allowed myself to listen to my WWBL playlist for the very first time. God, that felt so amazing. I even have a photo of it (which somehow makes it look like I have the biggest football shoulders in the universe) my sister took that night. God I miss Sauerland. )’:
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SONGS
My apologies to every favourite song of mine that I forgot about, I have a whole playlist of them, but I think these are some of my oldest faves … (Honorable mentions for Don’t Mess With Me and Not That Big by Temposhark, Goodbye by Apparat, Me And The Devil by Soap&Skin, Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers, Pain and Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace, Beautiful Crime by Tamer, Gravity Of Love by Enigma, In Flames by Digital Daggers [thanks Phi u_u] and Murder Cries by Snow Ghosts AHHH FUCK IT I could’ve just made a playlist,,,)
5.) Vater Unser by E Nomine Starting off with some weird shit, won’t we? I’ve been in love with this song since fifth or sixth grade, when I was just starting to develop an actual music taste and although I have many favourite songs by E Nomine, this one has to be my absolute fave. Every time I can relate it to a character it makes me love said character even more. (Also I think about it every time my mom forces me to go to church for Christmas so … yay? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even be able to remember the Vater Unser if it wasn’t for this song. 8D)
4.) Wires by The Neighbourhood I think this is the newest all-time fave on this list, I found it in … 2015? Thank you, Youtube AMVs. Yeah man, this one is just … on so many playlists it’s not even funny anymore.
3.) Heathens by Twenty One Pilots An edgelord classic but like … it’s on EVERY playlist of mine. Every single one. It’s just so good. The first time I heard it was on the radio tho, when I was having breakfast with Jessie and I forced her to shazam it because it immediately stuck with me,,,
2.) Imaginary by Evanescence My first Evanescence song ever and the first step towards becoming who I am today I think. This song has like … such a big history for me, man. It single-handedly turned me goth in 2008 and I have never really thanked it for that.
1.) Eternal by Evanescence Might be my favourite song of all time. The number of dramatic RP scenes I have written with this in the background … man. Oh, also this song is the reason for one of my oldest internet nicknames, ‘eternala’, which subsequently shortened into Etschuh and then Tschuh, my main nickname until 2017, when I came out as trans and finally found an actual name for myself I was comfortable with!
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NON BLANK RUNE CHARACTERS
I know this was probably supposed to be about fandom characters but I can literally not come up with a single character right now that I love with a special burning passion and that is not my or one of my friends’ OCs so you’re getting OCs now. u_u And boy do I have a lot of those.
5.) Jackson Tracey from atroCITY (mine) This little piece of shit kept me company for a pretty long time and is still very close to my heart for some reason, although I haven’t drawn him or really thought about him in detail for a while now. My favourite thing is how I only realized what a horrible person he was after I stopped regularly working with him but honestly good for me. 8D His storyline and personality is kinda convoluted and tbh I’m not really sure how much of it is canon anyway (atrc was always a little weird about canon rip) but yeah. He’s an obsessive stalker piece of shit who pities himself way too much and he is also a semi-immortal demigod who likes knives. I hate him but he also helped me a lot with some gender and sexuality stuff so thanks I guess.
4.) Mayoko Imai from Century Riders DXPrototype (Maus’ and mine) Mayoko is a magical girl protagonist with a cool cyborg arm prosthetic and her main character trait was that she was basically a reverse weeaboo, a Japanese girl who was obsessed with American media, culture and comic book heroes! I actually love her concept a lot and she also had a pretty cool character arc in her story (which Maus and I wrote together and actually finished btw!), although it could use a lot more … polishing from today’s point of view. But I love her anyway. She always wanted to do the right thing and be a hero and got broken pretty cruelly and her ending is kinda bittersweet I guess? Ahh there’s just so much nuance to it … anyways, CR3 also stuck with me for a very long time and I enjoyed the time with her a lot. :3 (Her name had a cameo in Another Incident btw heehee)
3.) Tessa *insert extremely long chain of unnecessary first names here* von Lean from Nobody Is Perfect and Infernal Temptation (belongs to one of my old school friends) Tessa is just … a hand full. I love to hate her. She is badly written and developed and just OOZES mentally ill teenage girl’s idealized self-insert power fantasy, but she just … man, she was a big part of one of my most drama-filled high school friendships which I love looking back at so much. Tessa has fucked so many of my characters … good for her tbh! There are actually two versions of her, one is just a ‘normal’ teenage girl and one can shapeshift into a cheetah, but both of them are very close to my heart. I should really adopt and redesign her some day.
2.) Judy Khayat from Original vs. Final (mine) Look, I love all my OvF-characters and every single one of them is special to me in their own way, but Judy is just … the most complex of them all I think? Man, she went through so much … she is actually one of my oldest (semi)-active characters (I created her in 2009) and her latest version is from 2016 but I should really, REALLY revise her again tbh. She has a very complicated backstory that I didn’t handle as carefully as I should have, and anger issues and religious conflict and depression and PTSD and then Vance of all people becomes obsessed with her for no reason and decides to traumatize her even more … yeah. God I really love her but I seriously need to work on her. A LOT. I should also finally rename her tbh … let’s just see where she takes me next.
1.) Okami (I don’t even remember if she has a proper last name rn lol) from Split Realm (mine) Yeah, that bitch is just my favourite OC. She’s also very old, probably from around 2009, and initially was a magical girl with fire powers who I played in an RP with my friend Flauch but boy did she grow up! Holy fuck. Okami is a horrible person but I love her so much. She is so violent and full of anger and pain and sadness and treats everyone around her like shit and she is in love and she is a demon but also apparently the personification of the concept of Chaos but she just wants to be a teenager again and run away with the love of her life and ahhh it’s all so hopeless for her … also she turned out gnc af with time passing and pretty much went through a gender/sexuality crisis in real time with me, her creator, which is always fun. :^D I haven’t drawn her in a while tbh. Should really do that.
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RUNES IN BLANK RUNE
I’m just gonna go with the arcs here, okay? Also this entire answer might look completely different if you asked me again tomorrow, you know how indecisive I am with Blank Rune shit ahha,,,
5.) Jera Look. I know I’m boring and stupid. But I just love Tave and Liam having their disgusting little foreshadowing talk, okay? I can read it over and over. I just love my horrible little shit crime boys. Also Rhy and Phillip are there. (’:
4.) Isa This one is here because it was the first arc I witnessed in real time which gives it a very special place in my heart and it also … hit pretty hard at the time. But having read Fehu it’s become even better now! It’s just such a wonderful, tragic romance between two horrible, ruthless boys and I … I’m not immune to Rhy, sadly. :-/ Just like Phillip.
3.) Wunjo We still haven’t seen everything that leads up to Wunjo yet, but we DO know more than we did initially (wow shocker) and it’s just always a fucking blast. Also, it has the first mention of Ash’s real name … the first Rhy POV (which what the fuck!! I always feel like we had one before but we didn’t!! Wild) and it has crazy blood-soaked murder Tave, my beloved. :///3
2.) Eiwaz You guys have heard me fanboy about Eiwaz so many times already. Eiwaz-OT3 (and Kain) my beloved!!! It’s just SUCH an amazing starting point and there are so, so many things that tie back to it and every time we find out about a new one my heart makes a little jump … und es beginnt von Neuem indeed.
1.) Gebo One of the most painful but also the most beautiful arcs yet in my opinion. It’s been hyped up for so long and boy did it deliver. God, my heart still hurts when I think about that last scene. Also all the dialogue … the golden lines we got … and it’s an arc without Rhy! Crazy!! :-D I just love the relationship between Ash, Astrid and Jakob so much. God fuck I want what they have. Just maybe without the murder suicide,,,
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FOOD
5.) Diese Sonntagsbrötchen wo die Verpackung so plopp macht, wenn man die Folie abzieht Better than normale Brötchen for some reason. Most of the time. See 2.) Look man, I just really love a good breakfast …
4.) Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese topping One of the first things from a certain baking book I tried when I was getting into baking back in 2019. God they are so tasty. I don’t make them often so I don’t get used to them too much and eating them still feels special but ahhhh I love them so much!
3.) Grünkohl mit Kartoffelbrei und Mettendchen One of my favourite things about autumn/winter and one of my biggest comfort foods. God I love this shit so much. I just put … mountains of Grünkohl and Kartoffelbrei on my plate every time and I will just warm it up for four days straight until there’s no more left. It turns me into a fucking caveman. I’m not even big on eating meat but … yeah. Everything is different when there’s Grünkohl.
2.) Normales Brötchen mit Butter und Scheibenkäse aber ich bin beim Frühstücksbuffet im Hotel Oddly specific but that’s just how it is. Sorry. Nichts geht über Brötchen mit Käse.
1.) Chilli-Knoblauch-Nudelauflauf My beloved. My comfort food. I eat it literally every second day. At least one hour in the kitchen every time. Fresh ingredients. My only vegetable intake. And I’ve been doing that for three years. I just love it so much, man. I cook it for everyone who visits me. Chilli-Knoblauch-Auflauf cured my depression.
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solohux · 4 years ago
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@anonynous submitted: Poe:- As he should've been
 I am still so fucking salty that Poe got left behind as the awkward third wheel that no one seemed to know what to do with. His character was horribly underutilized and if anything, went through character regression, not character development! TFA!Poe and TLJ/TROS!Poe are practically different characters! It just doesn't seem.... natural for the compassionate, confident (NOT arrogant!) pilot we met in TFA to suddenly be totally ok with sacrificing dozens of his fellow pilots for ego in TLJ and to have been an ex-drug dealer in his youth as revealed in TROS! 
  By no means am I saying that Poe should be flawless. But his flaws and failings should’ve made… sense. He can be compassionate! Just have it get the better of him! Like say:- Poe takes every death of a pilot under his command hard. He feels guilty, as if he’s failing his pilots personally by not preventing their deaths. That would even tie into his extended backstory as revealed in that comic series he had! So Poe over-extends himself, he refuses to put his pilots in danger when it’s not “necessary” so he’s constantly volunteering to go on dangerous solo missions… 
  Just like the one where we were introduced to him in TFA! 
  Holy shit! Having Poe develop a Savior Complex could even have made TLJ work better! You could even keep the bungled attack in the opening! So Poe leads the attack on the First Order, he places himself in a truly ridiculous amount of danger to give the evacuation enough time to get away… but it still goes horribly wrong! Despite Poe’s best efforts his pilots die like flies, he’s one of the only survivors. 
  Leia can still be disappointed in Poe, only she’s upset with him because she knows he puts himself in too much danger! She can still want him to put himself in a less “In the air with his troops” mindset! But now she’s genuinely concerned that Poe will never get the chance to transition to a “Lead from the command deck” role like she wants him to, because with the way he’s been acting he’s going to get himself killed sooner rather than later! 
  Then Leia is incapitated shortly thereafter… (Or we can just substitute her for Holdo, whichever way works)
  Now we have a distraught Poe, who is pretty much convinced that he’s a failure (Because not only did so many of his pilots die, his mentor is disappointed with him!) and then Holdo sweeps in and doesn’t want much to do with him! 
  Only now Holdo has a different motive for giving Poe a wide berth. She’s one of Leia’s personal friends and is an accomplished military leader in her own right. She takes one look at Poe and immediately knows what type of person he is. So instead of barring Poe from being amongst the leadership and planning The Resistance’s next move because she doesn’t like his attitude… she tells him to stay out of things and get some rest because she can see that he’s in no emotional shape to be of any help to her! 
  Poe naturally is even more freaked out and left frantic! He's lost confidence in himself, but he just has to help! There must be something that he can do....
  So there we go, Poe can still be a “menace” to Holdo during her short term of leadership (Or he can simply go on the ill-fated mission with Finn as the first draft of TLJ’s script had planned to do!) but now TLJ!Poe is more consistent with TFA!Poe because we have changed his motives for acting the way he does throughout the film. Making Poe (And the various character he interacts with!) seem more sympathetic even if his attempts to help just keep making things worse. 
  That can cumulate in Poe learning a valuable lesson “That he can’t save everyone and shouldn’t light himself on fire just to keep others warm” and thus actually develop as a character. 
  Oh my god, now I’m even more pissed off at Rian Johnson for not taking that route. It just seems… so obvious! It would’ve been a refreshing change of direction ( ;) A “subversion” if you will) for Poe’s character archetype (Seriously, just how common is it for male leaders to be so emotionally invested in those under their command that they become distressingly self-sacrificial?) and more importantly, not stereotypical! 
  Ugh! And now that TLJ has been fixed, TROS would go so much more smoothly! You can have a more nuanced Poe, growing weary and perhaps a bit jaded by the seemingly endless war. He’s transitioned into a more traditional leadership role like Leia wanted him too. All of this causes some tension between him and Finn and Rey. 
  Poe can regain more of his original optimism by having him go with Finn and Rey ( :) And Chewie! And the Droids!) on the big mission, where he can have opportunities to patch up his bond with Rey and Finn and thus now that he’s feeling more like himself again Poe can inspire more people to join in the final push against The First Order (There we go! The perfect way to bring the Spice Runners into the film without giving some bullshit excuse about how Poe was a member of their gang as a teenager!) and then during the big final battle Poe can showcase all that he’s learned over the course of the trilogy by comparing and contrasting what he does there to what he did during TFA’s opening scene! 
  Lol, now I’ve made myself even more mad! It’s just so clear that the Sequel Trilogy genuinely could’ve worked -Even without a lot of big changes!- had the characters simply been more consistently written. 
  I just re-railed Poe’s character simply by making some small changes to his motives! Things can still progress closely to how they did in the various films’, but now Poe is a stronger character that does more stuff, has opportunities to naturally bond with Finn and Rey (And other characters too!) and again, isn’t stereotypical in any means! 
  I just kept Poe’s backstory (A rebel born of rebels! With a closer than usual relationship to the heroes of the Original Trilogy. Oh yes, I just realized that a potential childhood friendship with Ben could easily be worked in, which would help out with Kylo’s character as well…) in mind the whole time and had him react to various things happening as he logically should react! 
  -Sigh- If only Poe’s backstory had been upheld from the start… 
  But ultimately I am pleased with myself for coming up with all of this, so thanks for listening Lottie! Hope you didn’t mind me dumping this into your submission box. :) Hope you have a great day.
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thanksjro · 5 years ago
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More Than Meets the Eye #1- Meeting All Our New Friends
Okay, let’s see what happens when you give one man way too much power over a franchise, and he doesn’t use it for evil.
Before we get into the story, let’s take a look at the cover art! MTMTE, as well as its sister series, Robots in Disguise, started off IDW Phase Two, a brand new run of main comics to replace the by-then completed The Transformers (2009). To celebrate this momentous occasion, each comic’s first issue got FOUR separate covers, which could be combined to create a large, overarching image. MTMTE’s looked like this when all the covers were put together.
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The cover art here is by Alex Milne, who is on as the main artist for the series, but he’s not on issue #1- no, for our foray into this comic run, we see the return of Nick Roche.
The last time Roche and Roberts worked together was on Last Stand of the Wreckers, and other than MTMTE #6 and the Revolution one-shot, they won’t be teaming up again within the IDW run.
On a potentially-related-but-more-of-just-a-humorous note, it seems that Roberts is a huge stickler with his scripts, going into what sounds like an honestly horrific amount of detail for each individual panel. The average comic script is either between 20-23 or 28-30 pages long, not counting title and credit pages. Roberts has been cited as sending in comic scripts that approached 50 pages.
Which, if you know anything about the scriptwriting process, is a little… yeah. It’s a very good thing Roberts seems to be able to take criticism.
ANYWAY.
IT’S TIME.
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The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye- Liars, A to D Part 1: How to Say Goodbye and Mean It- holy fucking shit that’s a long title- starts off with the Story So Far, a comic book classic to catch readers up on what’s happened prior to the issue. The very nature of a Story So Far will become plot-relevant much later down the line, but as is, it’s just reminding us what happened during Phase One, in as basic a point as it can.
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And then the credits are right underneath.
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I can’t even imagine how friggin’ good seeing this printed must have felt.
So, what’s going on in the premiere of the sad, gay, space comic?
Not my phrasing, by the way, but the Wiki’s.
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So, the war’s over. What does that mean? Well, a lot of things, honestly, but the first thing we’re given in terms of what changes to expect with everyone’s favorite space robots is in relation to their wardrobes. Yeah, without a war to fight, what’s the point in having relatively identical blocky armor that protects all your insides? It’s time to get skimpy.
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Rodimus has switched out his toned calves and discernible ankles for the Uggs that are now positively iconic to his character. Drift’s mass has almost completely gravitated to his thighs, making him the curviest thing this side of the Milky Way. Ultra Magnus didn’t get the memo about not needing to be in uniform anymore, I guess, but somehow I doubt he owns anything casual.
Rodimus, Drift, and Magnus are holding a rally to invite Autobots to come on their party-barge to find the Knights of Cybertron, in an effort to heal the planet, because Rodimus took one look at post-war Cybertron and said “no thanks.” Honestly, I think most would, if these properly colored characters are any indication.  
Just the Autobots, by the way. We aren’t ready to be friends with the ‘Cons just yet. Swindle did some major damage on that front.
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Prowl and Wheeljack are off to the side discussing this turn of events, and while Wheeljack seems to think that a lot of folks will be boarding the ship and getting the hell out of dodge, Prowl’s expecting nothing to come of it.
So, that was yesterday. What’s going on today?
Inside Kimia, there’s a dead guy. He wasn’t dead when he was brought in, but he is now. Who is he, anyway?
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Oh, he’s one of the NAIL protesters, and he died because he was protesting by way of transforming on the steps of Autobot HQ, until his transformation cog burn out. Yep, that can kill you. Ratchet’s the one who performed the autopsy, as per Metalhawk’s request- he only wanted the best of the best on this.
Too bad the best of the best is starting to slump. After a brief scare with Rigor Morphis- the stiffening of the corpse into the body’s preferred mode- Ratchet explains to Bumblebee that his hands have started seizing up, and that’s why he’ll be leaving on the Lost Light with Rodimus. He just can’t do the work anymore.
This news is not well received by Bumblebee, who’s just about had it with everyone up and leaving him all by himself with the mess that is Cybertron.
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Phase Two will not be kind to Bumblebee.
Bumblebee accuses Ratchet of having been insnared in Rodimus’ siren song of reclaiming the Golden Age, but c’mon, this is Ratchet! He’s too cynical to fall for that. He’s more interested in finding the Autobots who’ve been lost over the millennia to the war. Ratchet’s already well aware of the true purposes of this little galactic road trip, almost like he’s read the plot outline.
It’s about helping people, and adventure, and being unapologetically gay and sad in equal measures.
Up in the sky, Cyclonus is displeased. He spent six million years in the Dead Universe, under the control of a madman, waiting for the moment he could return to his beloved homeworld, and what does he get? A ball of half-baked primordial cookie-dough, and it’s not even chocolate-chip like he was expecting; it’s fucking oatmeal raisin.
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Mmm, that is some tasty panel-breaking right there.
Of course, the I/D chip might not have worked anyway, seeing as Cyclonus got a little bit of a boost when Vector Sigma ejected everyone during the Matrix incident. It’s doing some weird stuff to his body, on top of whatever nonsense existing inside the Dead Universe does to a person.
Cyclonus is about to head over to the Lost Light- apparently he and Rodimus made a little deal off-panel- when he detects a familiar life sign and decides to see what that’s all about.
Over in Prowl’s office, things are tense. He and Chromedome can’t even look at each other, as Chromedome reveals that both he and Rewind are jumping on the Lost Light. Prowl doesn’t like this, not one bit. He needs Chromedome, needs his skills, his expertise. He tries to appeal to Rewind, knowing who wears the pants in this relationship.
Or, well, he tries.
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Prowl, they’ve been married for over 250,000 years.
In all seriousness, this is slightly before the first tentative steps Roberts took towards making the franchise as gay as he possibly could, at least when going by the story’s chronology. The thing about professional comic script writing is that plotting/planning goes for a ways beyond the current script one’s working on, so that everyone knows where everyone else is. Considering the somewhat congruent nature between MTMTE and RiD, planning ahead was especially important.
Chromedome and Rewind were originally (like, first draft originally) meant to be best friends. This was to fill a void in the department of close relationships Roberts felt within the Transformers franchise. Then Roberts saw how handsy he’d been writing them during plotting and realized he’d made something a little different happen. Which still sort of went with what he was going for, just in a slightly different fashion. Chromedome and Rewind are a rare case of a writer NOT leaning into the “they’re just bros, bro” mentality and just letting the characters be together as romantic partners.
Also keep in mind that it would be another three fucking years before the United States would legalize same-sex marriage, which is where the IDW offices are located. You gotta ease that sort of change in, that way nobody realizes what you’re doing until it’s already been done, then you can go hog-wild. We won’t be hitting critical mass on the homonormative civilization that is IDW1 Cybertron for a solid year or so.
So this bit of dialogue is just the start of the setup, and the “best friend” line is either a leftover from earlier versions of the script, or Prowl really just is that big of an asshole.
Rewind is, of course, recording everything taking place on his handy-dandy little head-mounted camera, because history is his business, and he’s not going to stop recording for the likes of Prowl.
Rewind doesn’t like Prowl very much.
It would seem that the feeling is mutual.
Chromedome suddenly remembers that trying to reason with Prowl is like talking to a brick wall, and the two of them leave. Prowl responds to this slight by yelling in the hallway and then flipping a table.
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I sure hope y’all like running gags.
Of course, Prowl wouldn’t be Prowl without having a few contingency plans in place for when things don’t go his way, and he makes a call to his inside guys to “load the cargo.”
That’s not ominous in the slightest.
Six million years prior to all this nonsense, a tiny little dude fell in a hole and broke his legs trying to get to work.
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This is Tailgate, and he’s seen better days. Not many, mind you, but at least a couple. He was making his way to the launch of the original Ark, when he decided to take a shortcut that would change the course of his life forever. Hence the whole “stuck in a hole” thing. Still, he’s got to get out of here, because without him, the entire expedition is doomed!
For being an idiot, Tailgate’s pretty smart- he figures that if he sets off his energon rations, it’ll blast up through the roof of the cavern he’s in and someone will be able to find him. Good thing energon’s so incredibly volatile.
Speaking of volatile, let’s jump back to the present and check on our buddy Whirl.
It looks like Whirl also got a makeover between series, because he’s now sporting a much sleeker, angular frame, complete with long, tapered head.
Whirl’s currently busy thanking his new friends for spending so much time with him. It really meant a lot to him, their patience. Not many folks have been patient with him before.
Of course, it probably helps that all these guys are dead as hell.
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It’s time for another Roberts’ staple- the suicide attempt. We won’t be using the robot-equivalent to Multiple Sclerosis though. This go around, we’ll be using a classic: self immolation!
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Title drop! Bet you weren’t expecting it to have such a dark connotation, huh?
Cyclonus interrupts Whirl’s monologue and suicide attempt. He thought he’d seen his best buddy, Scourge, on his tracker, and his immediate response is to lurk in the shadows looking like a night demon wearing a party hat.
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Fun fact: a group of Sweeps is called a Spring Cleaning.
Scourge isn’t here, and he won’t ever be. Scourge most likely died off-panel, never to be seen again, assumedly because nobody wanted to write for him. I think it’s the nails, puts people off.
Whirl doesn’t take kindly to the intrusion, and responds the only way he knows how.
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It’s always embarrassing when your self-immolation gets interrupted, but maybe try taking a first deep breaths before committing to more war crimes, Whirlybird.
While these two morons fill the post-Bay movie explosion quota, Red Alert’s hard at work screening the passengers on the Lost Light. Currently, he’s checking Brainstorm, who’s making it as difficult as possible, both legally and emotionally. Red Alert waves him on with a grumble, without even getting a peek at what’s inside his mysterious briefcase.
Up next is Swerve.
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His legs are so jacked, it makes me a little uncomfortable. Glad to see Swerve’s body reformat went swimmingly- seems he went for the classic “tires in the shoulders and ankles” model.
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Oh hey, it’s Rung! Hi Rung!
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This series will not be kind to Rung.
While Cyclonus and Whirl terrorize the folks just trying to get on board the dang ship, Rodimus is feeling rather pleased with himself with the turnout. Drift strokes his ego a bit, because they support each other, but things are still weird because Drift doesn’t know who he is as a person anymore, and Rodimus has a guilty conscience mixed with being the Matrix’s golden child, which really fucks with a guy’s head.
Ultra Magnus goes through the list of the folks joining their quest, and starts running through all their demerits and crimes like it’s his job, because it is. We get a little peek into Magnus’ world view and then it’s back to the Whirl and Cyclonus show.
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Also, Drift doens’t have a nose right now. He’ll get it back in time for the next issue, don’t worry.
Over with the flyboys, Cyclonus has decided to land and attempt to reason with Whirl. Not that he couldn’t totally kill Whirl if he wanted to.
He just doesn’t want to.
No, Cyclonus is far more concerned with his meeting with Rodimus, the one that he’s already friggin’ late for thanks to the detour he took checking that life signature. Whirl doesn’t care, far more worried about the fact that Cyclonus saw him talking to desecrated corpses and, far more importantly, vulnerable.
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Look at this jackass’ ensemble- demon helmet, a crop top, a skirt and bellbottom pants. What an icon. He and Eugenesis Wheeljack should trade fashion tips.
Whirl still isn’t done with him, even after scraping him across the side of a mountain. Feeling especially artsy, he scoops Cyclonus up and jumps into the air, since he apparently has a hundred-foot vertical leap.
Back in the past, things aren’t going so well for Tailgate.
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More cool panel stuff going on here- every time the panels have had rounded corners, it’s been when the scene takes place in the past. Now that the last panel has proper right angles to it, Tailgate’s in the present with everyone else. That middle panel probably covers a couple million years, at least. Poor guy.
Up on the surface, Ratchet’s met up with Chromedome and Rewind, and they’re all walking over to the launch site, Chromedome bitching all the while about how they’ve got to use their legs since Rewind’s alt-mode isn’t a vehicle, but a USB.
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Chromedome seems to have forgotten that his tiny husband is small enough to probably just ride on top of his alt-mode, if not directly inside, most likely due to his larger-than-life personality.
Whirl and Cyclonus fall out of the sky before Chromedome can say something that’ll get his ass divorced. Cyclonus gets knocked out cold, having taken the brunt of the impact. Unfortunate, seeing as Whirl’s taking the time to make up lies about him.
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You thought I was kidding when I said the armor was skimpy, but here we are, with a shot of Whirl’s battle thong.
Ratchet, who knows Whirl, because he knows everybody, tries to talk him out of straight up murdering Cyclonus. Whirl doesn’t like it when people try to talk him down, and is about to turn on the good doctor, when Tailgate enters the scene, by way of explosion.
Whirl doesn’t handle explosions terribly well. Probably why he was going to use one to kill himself.
With Whirl knocked out, Ratchet and the power couple pull Tailgate out of his hole, where he manages to ask about the launch before freaking the fuck out and fainting at the sight of a rather dead-looking Whirl. To be fair, I can’t think of a whole lot of folks who’d survive getting their tits blown off with enough force to clear a tunnel in solid rock.
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You said it, Rewind.
Ratchet grabs Tailgate and Whirl and brings them onboard the ship, seeing as Tailgate seems to want to be there, and Whirl’s too dangerous to be out of sight. They just kinda leave Cyclonus on the ground. I doubt the two guys who were on Kimia last month really want to deal with him.
Rewind breaks off from the group to see his dealer. This dealer isn’t selling the good kush though. He’s got something far more incriminating to offer.
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But we don’t get to find out what the fuck Rewind just bought from Swindle for a few more issues. Rest assured, it’s nothing good.
On the bridge, Rodimus is in his captain’s chair, ready to captain it up. The Lost Light raises into the air, as Bumblebee and Prowl watch on, about to exit the atmosphere and begin a adventure filled with hijinks and mild peril.
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And that’s a series wrap on everyone! I hope you enjoyed this wonderful one-shot written by James Roberts.
What do you mean there’s 56 more issues?
Alright, let’s see where this goes.
Back on the bridge, there’s alarms and sirens out the wazoo, as things have pretty much immediately gone to shit. The quantum engine the Lost Light’s outfitted with apparently went off prematurely, rocketing them into a completely random quadrant of space.
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Also, there’s a hole in the ship, and vacuum physics are doing their thing.
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This series will not be kind to Rodimus.
The Lost Light touches down on the planet they popped back into existence over to start looking for all the guys who got sucked out of the ship. They don’t have to look long, seeing as they’re all burning up in the atmosphere.
Welcome to the Lost Light. It’s a friggin’ mess.
Back on Cybertron, the aftermath of the explosion is seen, as Bumblebee and Prowl listen to a message that seems to imply a lot more heartache in the future.
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Prowl, you could at least pretend to give a shit.
That’s the end of the story, but not the end of the issue. In the back of the book, we get a welcome letter from James Roberts himself, thanking the reader for taking the time to read the beginning of MTMTE, and holy shit does he really try to sell it to you. This is a guy who wants you to be excited about the story that’s coming your way, because he’s excited about it. He’s a big dork who loves Transformers, and he gets to write about them for the next six years! That’s awesome. 
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southern-belle-outcasts · 4 years ago
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4, 5, and 20 mun views
Mun Views 
4. On your fandom. 
Which one lmao....um, well X-Men? Cool, a lot of the fandom to some degree is drawn cuz they can relate be they part of some type of minority group. Don’t see too many assholes, I think most of the jerks that were on here fell off during nippocalypse. There is a divide with the comic elitists vs xmcu and it’s dumb. I used to be an xmcu blog cuz I WANTED to read the comics but I was a broke ass college student who had literally no access to that, but I’d seen Wolverine and the X-Men, plus the movies that were out at the time. If I’d let those asses run me off, well, wouldn’t have continued to build my comic book collection (I’d already read Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, I’m talking specifically X-Men comics).
Arrowverse? I don’t follow many of the blogs, I have a select few I follow. My fandom experience is pretty much my friends with fairly similar views so I can’t speak on the fandom outside of the fact there’s a loooot of veiled hating on women of color under the guise of griping with the crappy writing. I try to avoid it. I don’t hold with Iris and Cecile hate, they’re good characters subjected to the writing of white men, what do you want.
Star Wars? NOPE. Hell naw. No thank you. Bye. I have no interest. I make it very clear this is a “the prequels are the shit, TCW is a fucking joke and trashes the characters, not!Star Wars mouse sequels are non-existent, the og EU is not legends it’s the only recognized canon” blog, and I’m this unapologetically. I have extremely strong opinions, I’ve literally been in the fandom since I was 6, I’ve spent hours reading EU content, visual dictionaries and encyclopedias, concept art of the movies books, comics, novelizations, etc. If you’re a stan of the other...stuff, I’ll probably say shit that will offend you and it’s probably for the best you don’t follow me cuz I’m not censoring these opinions, ever, at all. And for the love of all things holy, if you want to call R*ylo okay, or Anidala toxic, we meeting up behind Denny’s, yo.
Supernatural? Kinda sorta, considering I don’t link Nil and Farrar to any of the show canon besides using some of the monster lore. Like we don’t do the appropriation of native spirituality on this blog, so there’s no use of W*nd*g* cuz you’re not supposed to write or say that, like no. I have major problems with the show, that’s a mile and a half long, past season 5 it went downhill, they really should have left Swan Song as the finale. The queer baiting and bury the gays, the trash trash trash finale, the way any poc and female characters are handled, there’s so much oof. I stay away from it. Honestly kind of nice to see the SPN crowd was mostly quiet, it was RAMPANT when I first got on here, and there was a looot of drama. The way the extreme crowd of the fandom conducts themselves with the actors and stuff tells you a lot. Another nope. I prefer to stick to fandomless urban fantasy.
5. On exclusivity. 
If that’s someone’s jam, that’s cool. Doesn’t bother me. At one point I was exclusive to a few versions of characters. Not anymore, but I can understand how sometimes someone just clicks for you to the extent it rubs you wrong seeing a different version. It doesn’t stop me from writing with other people so I literally give no fucks and don’t see why anyone else should either.
20. On 'popular' blogs. 
Here’s where I piss a lot of people off, and I don’t really fucking care, as having at one point been an even more actively sought out blog back when the MCU was taking off in 2012-2014 and having tons of asks and thread requests, I can more than speak on what it’s like being a popular blog.Technically still am, you don’t have to take my word for it, just look in my thread tracker, and that’s not even all the threads cuz some are in drafts cuz they’re starters and I can’t add yet.
There’s nothing wrong with people enjoying your writing and following you. Awesome, good for you. It often proves to be a lot for people and I don’t like when I see people biting off more than they can chew but still pushing for more followers and asks and threads. Frankly, it’s really, really rude. I get wanting to make people happy, or wanting to try new threads and stuff, but you should also be reasonable with how much you can manage. If I see someone complaining about having too many drafts and asks and then not being able to write because of the pressure, but then daily pushing their promo or their wire or memes...and nothings coming of it...and they’re admitting they can’t get their muse to reply...then STOP. “You don’t owe anyone anything” means you don’t owe anyone respect and obligations that aren’t due.
When you decide to join a collaborative writing hobby, you’re still committing to your partners to write to some degree. Now if that means you’re going to be slow, and super minimal with which followers you actually interact with THAT IS FINE...as long as you have that communicated and make it very clear to the people who follow you they’re probably just following to be lurkers. But I can’t get with constantly pulling for interaction then within the same day the whole inbox is being dumped, drafts are being dumped, the same three people are the only ones ever getting a reply for the past three months, etc.
There’s been times I’ve said I can’t plot right now, there’s been weeks I bump all the memes in my queue further down so that they don’t post so I can catch up. I’m so secure with partners I don’t follow back unless I get my rules code sent in (newsflash: 9/10 I never see it). I never post a promo. I really don’t need to, if I see someone I really want to interact with on my dash, I’ll follow first, but I can’t in good conscious promote myself when I’m at a decent spot keeping up with a LOT. Sometimes I’m really glad I’m a multi with OCS and mostly female muses, it helps avoid ever reaching the point where I’m just getting too many followers to keep up with, but giving yourself a cut-off isn’t a bad thing people. Trying to do too much is.
There, I have successfully pissed off a ton of people, but I’m not taking it back. There’s way too much immaturity on this matter on here, and it’s really a litmus test of the people who HAVE been in group hobbies that are interdependent of cooperation of all members offline, and those who haven’t. “It’s my hobby” isn’t this get of of jail free card you get to wave everywhere when you want to ignore people. You can’t pull that in most hobbies that involve more than one person, whatever it may be, if it’s a DND group, rec sports, chess, whatever. This is my hobby too. I just probably take hobbies and commitment to other people to a more...respectful level. If I have real life, or physical issues, of course that takes priority, but here’s a little secret...we ALL, like 99% of the community, have some degree of mental health, nuerodivergence, jobs, home life, chronic physical issues. I want you to single me out the mun that doesn’t have any of that impacting their writing capabilities to some degree. Please, find them for me. You having those things doesn’t make you special and if you can’t communicate that it’s too much, you need the “flood of follows” from your promo circulating but can’t ever write...I’m just sighing over here.
If any of these opinions rub you wrong, I don’t mind you just unfollowing,that’s fine. No one is forcing you to remain. I strongly believe the people that don’t want to remotely take it seriously, and the people that do take it more seriously, should just keep to themselves, that way no one is getting offended by the other for how they choose to enjoy their hobby. You should enjoy it, goddamnit!!! But NOT at the expense of stringing other people along. Communication is kind of essential here, as much as people want to go “I’m too shy, BLOCK”, but y’all I have ADHD, RSD, social anxiety (I used to live in an anxiety attack it was so bad), and I still do my best to communicate with people even on uncomfortable topics. If I can manage, so can you. And if you CAN’T be mature...and communicate...then mayhaps stick to fanfic until you learn how.
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honey-bunches-of-nope13 · 5 years ago
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How would Team Rwby react with a s/o that is a dragon faunus that has a treasure hoard that contains things they consider treasures and one morning team Rwby wake up in the hoard instead of their bed and most of the treasures are things that they gave their s/o and basically the girls being in the hoard basically means that the s/o is saying that they are a treasure to them?
Holy shit! I finally wrote something! This is for Darkborn187′s birthday, so happy birthday, my friend! I know it’s about a day or two late, but I hope you don’t mind. I also hope this was close to what you were expecting from this ask.
It’s a fact that Dragon Faunus have a tendency to stash the things they treasure most away in the caves and hollow logs around their home for safe keeping. What each Dragon Faunus deems valuable enough to hoard varies and can tell you a lot about their personality. This hoarding is instinctual, but it can be resisted. The problem is, if they do resist this urge, they may end up stealing and hoarding things in their sleep. Well, one day the girls of team RWBY wake up in their S/Os’ treasure hoard with their S/O rather than in their bed. It seems that their S/O had stolen them away in their sleep. As they lie there in their S/O’s warm embrace, they take a moment to look around and see what sorts of things their S/O has deemed “valuable”. It quickly becomes clear that items in their “treasure” hoard consist mostly of the things that they had given their S/O, or things relating to their dates.
Ruby: Ruby wakes up with a sleepy yawn and tries to get up, but can’t because her S/O has a tight hold on her waist. It’s not an abnormal occurrence since a snuggle-bug like her naturally went after another snuggle-bug as a love interest. Knowing that there was no point in trying to get up until they come to, she snuggles back down and starts to doze off again. That is, until her sleep-addled brain finally woke up enough to recognize that something wasn’t quite right. Her eyes snap open and she realizes that she is not in her room or her S/O’s room; it’s darker here and the air feels damp and a little chilled on her face. She turns as much as she can to look behind her, sighing with relief when the person behind her does turn out to be her S/O and not some weirdo who whisked her away in the night. She is curious as to how she got there, but decides that it can wait until her S/O wakes up. She does take time to look around as much as she can in her current position. There’s a lot of stuff in this cave, or what she assumed to be a cave. There was the giant stuffed Ursa she had won for them at one of the game booths around the festival grounds (she’s really good at those shooting games), a pile of what seemed to be movie tickets in one corner of the cave where it would be safe from any water damage, several pictures adorning the walls (some of them both and some just of her. It seemed like there was at least one for every date they went on), the comic books she had given them, and so on. Ruby smiled at the fact that her S/O had kept all of these things and had used them to decorate their little “hide-out”; it was really sweet and super cute. She lets out a little giggle, which wakes her S/O. Her S/O yawns and sits up before looking around just as confused as Ruby had been and then blushing in embarrassment. “Well, good morning, sleepyhead” Ruby said and pecked them on the lips.
Weiss: Weiss grumbles in her sleepy state, trying and failing to get comfortable enough to drift off again. Her sleeping space is unusually lumpy and uneven, and something was digging into her side. When she eventually gives up and opens her eyes, she’s shocked to see that she isn’t in her room. From what she could tell, she was in some sort of underground cavern. It was dark, the air smelled like clay, and there were what appeared to be roots coming out of the ceiling. She looked down and saw that she was laying on a bed of moss; not the most sanitary thing, but it was better than the dirt in her opinion. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she started to be able to make out other things in the cavern. There were little ice themed knick knacks, a bouquet of excellently preserved white roses, and several small boxes stacked and piled all over the place. As she took everything in and tried to figure out just where she was and why she was there, she felt something crawl across her hand, making her jerk back and scream. Her deafening shriek caused her S/O, who had apparently been snoozing away beside them jump up and scream themselves. Once they both calmed down, Weiss demanded an explanation. She was mad at first because she hated being in such a dirty, insect ridden place, but her anger immediately dissipated when her S/O got to the part about them likely taking her there in their sleep was likely due to how much they treasured her; it was bound to happen sometime and would likely happen again. Weiss thought that was adorable and hugged her S/O tightly while complaining about their choice of hoard location. Their S/O laughed and promised to find a more suitable location in case this does happen again.
Blake: Blake wakes and is a bit disoriented at the unfamiliar surroundings. The dark room, cracked concrete walls and dingy floor were very different from what she should be seeing. Her heart leapt into her throat within milliseconds of her opening her eyes. Had she been taken? How and why? Who had taken her? Was it Adam? Her mind though all of these things at once and she started to panic. Then, she noticed the other presence in the room, a warm body curled up behind her. She turned her head slowly as possible so as to make as little noise as she could and to keep her movements from being detected by this other being. The car faunus breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the being behind her was her S/O and not some weirdo or one of her many enemies. Feeling more at ease knowing they were there with her, Blake sat up and began taking in her surroundings. There were plush black cats and empty cups from their favorite cafe all over the floor. What appeared to be books were stacked nearly to the ceiling in the far corner of the room. She got slowly crawled closer to the stack and was able to make out the titles of the books in the darkness thanks to her faunus heritage; they were all books that she remembered suggesting her S/O read, or books that they read together, or books her S/O had “borrowed” and she had never bothered to ask for back. Next to the books was a cardboard box, which Blake promptly but quietly opened. Inside were sheets upon sheets of paper covered in words; she quickly recognized both her hand writing and that of her S/O. She picked one up and realized that these were love letters. They often wrote each other cute little notes or long-winded letters professing their love for one another since it seemed to be much easier for them to write the words instead of verbalizing them. Well, for the most part. The papers that had her S/O’s handwriting were scribbled out or half finished. She recognized some of them were similar to ones she had been given by her S/O, just not as well written. Perhaps they were rough drafts? That would be ridiculous though! S/O didn’t even write rough drafts for massively important essays, so why would they do it with something so trivial? Also, what do all of these things have to do with each other and why were they here in the first place? Then, it all clicked in Blake’s mind. All of these things involved her. She then remembered that her S/O was a dragon faunus and that they are known to hoard things they deem valuable; she even knew about their occasional nocturnal kleptomania. It didn’t take long for her to put two and two together then. She looked back over to her snoring S/O with a soft smile and an almost silent giggle before putting the papers back and gently closing the box. She then crawled back over to them and snuggled up to them to get a little more sleep. She was in the safest place she could ever be; in her dragon’s secret hoard.
Yang: Yang sleeps like the dead and that was something her prankster of a S/O took advantage of regularly, so she wasn’t super surprised when she woke up in an unfamiliar place again; she was just glad it wasn’t on an inflatable mattress in the middle of the school’s swimming pool this time. No, this time it was in a dark, windowless room and she was laying on a hard linoleum floor with what seemed to be a bedsheet over the top of it, and a plush blanket over the top of her. While not being able to see unnerved her, hearing the all too familiar snore of her S/O beside her kept her from getting freaked out. She slid out from under the blanket and stood up with a stretch before putting her arms out in front of her as she started feeling for the nearest wall. Once she found it, she moved along it until she found a light switch. Yang flopped on the light, temporarily blinding herself as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change. Once she could see again, she started to take in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that an old set of her bedding was on the floor with her S/O snuggled up under it completely unbothered by the sudden brightness that filled the room; she had wondered where that bedding had gone. She then noticed that the tile on the floor and the blank white walls seemed familiar; they were somewhere in the school. A disused storage room perhaps? The old industrial shelves that normally would have held cleaning supplies or school equipment were crammed full of different items that seemed to have nothing to do with the school. Sure, there were some books, but they seemed more like photo albums rather than studying material. There were also plush animals and what looked to be articles of clothing. She pulled one balled up cloth from the shelf and found that it was the band t-shirt she had gotten her S/O on their first date, a concert for one of her favorite bands. She never saw them wearing it, so she had always wondered if they hadn’t liked it or if she had gotten them the wrong size. She put the shirt back haphazardly and pulled out another piece of cloth. It was one of her jackets that had gotten damaged by a particularly fierce Beowolf on a school field trip; she thought she had thrown that away. Another piece of cloth that she found crammed into the shelf was one of her bandanas that she normally kept tied on her leg. She had given one to her S/O because they seemed to like it so much, but she never saw them wearing it. She pulled one of the books off of the next shelf, and sure enough, they were photo albums. Every single picture in the album had something to do with her. She knew that her S/O was real shutter happy on dates, but she hadn’t realized they had taken enough to actually fill an album, and they had actually bothered to have them printed out to make said photo album! The next album was mostly pictures of her S/O’s family, including the time she had met them. She knew how much her S/O valued their family, and that they loved taking pictures of things they liked, so she was honored that she had gotten an album all to herself and that the album had been made with such care; her S/O had a real talent for scrapbooking! After looking at a few things, she realized that this must be her little dragon’s hoard of “treasures” and giggled. It was just so cute! She would no doubt use this as ammo to tease them with in the future.
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jiyu-koya · 5 years ago
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Let's be honest at 3am - Update on art block.
Hey, it's been a long time since you've heard of me, and honesty is important to any relationship so hear me out. It's 3 am, I'm tired, let's go.
Art block doesn't even begin to describe what I'm going through these past couple of years. Idk what's wrong with me but I've left drawing aside lately, and by lately I mean like a year, though it's mostly lack of time.
Honestly, it's a weird time for me art-wise (And life-wise as any college student ever can say). Going to an art based university, I kinda expected it'd make me learn more and fulfill my thirst for art, but what it's done instead is drain me of it and waste my time on that more than my personal projects.
And another thing I've found about myself, since we're on this topic, is that I really can't push myself to create something. If it's been ordered or I have a deadline, then I get this burden on my shoulders that affects my performance. Which I know I have to get over soon because if I want to be an artist, this is exactly a skill I should be able to have. But I feel guilty, because I have a handful request that should be easy and I really wanted to make them, and I just. Can't. Do it. I have 5 versions of sketches for each one rotting in my files, and I can't bring myself to finish them. And that goes for all my recent ideas for art.
So I'm really really sorry about those request left undone, I was even stupid enough to answer privately to some and now can't find the URL to explain the deal or even say who requested them in the first place if I ever do them. Like GRRR.
Moreover, last year I got really into D&D and also grew out a bit of my anime phase. Don't get me wrong, I still like anime and all that, but last anime I watched was Fairy Tail final series (which I didn't even finish), and while I'm still a fan, I don't get as inspired by it as much as I did. I have one big piece of artwork on the making since summer, which for some reason can't keep me inspired enough to work on it for more than... Maybe less than an hour, or even half - as well as sooo many ideas for concept art and artworks that I've left as sketches or haven't even begun.
And coming back to D&D, it's inspired me to practice new forms of art, such as comics / graphic novel, and animation, which I started teaching myself around that time last year. In the rare instances I get the time to work on some drawing, I often find myself working on a few more draft pages of a graphic novel, or practicing animation, other times drawing D&D characters, or what I've been doing lately, painting from reference. All of which is a different, more personal work that ties in with the next topic.
Let's be honest here, I'm kind of shy. If you've noticed I very very rarely post text posts of any kind on Tumblr, and even now I'm very nervous to even post this. However, this culture of media, with the movies and series and comics and fantasy and just this whole escapism and art and animation and cartoonish aesthetic, etc, is something that I wanted to do since I was really young. I really wanna be an animator, a concept artist, a comic book artist, all that kind of stuff. And in 2019, going to 2020 in less than a month, it's possible thanks to social media. But. I'm shy. And it's not easy.
Truth is that art pieces that make it to Tumblr are my proudest ones, the best of the best, only the finished ones that look good to me, and lemme tell you, this has gotten so much more difficult as I reached "adulthood".
And for better or worse, this blog is just anime, and specifically Fairy Tail. Which I don't want to diverge from, but the constant exposure to that has burned me out. I'd like to expand my horizons on that, like I want to draw some Critical role, or Game of Thrones, or even other Fandoms and even some D&D.
But that isn't the point. It's not what I draw, it's that I don't finish my art or I don't post it.
Part of it might stem from the fact that I used to get a decent amount of notes and following, and after I took a few months off to study 3 years ago (holy shit it's been 3 years), that kind of... Disappeared. I'm sure some of you may understand that when you build up a tempo and momentum that suddenly vanishes, it becomes quite discouraging. Especially when I've been working soooo much harder on my art and taking it more seriously than when I did in high school. I obviously don't mean to fish for compliments here - I know my worth and I know it's just stupid algorithms - it's just something that happens and affects me on some level and I know most artists go through or have gone through at least once on their lives and understand where I'm coming from.
Sigh... The point of this entire long ass post is to... Be honest with you, explain it to you who will - I hope - understand. Some of you are artists and can probably see where I'm coming from. I haven't reached a decision yet, but it's something that is often on my mind and plagues my thoughts. And I know this blog is super new and I haven't given it the love it requires. I haven't even figured out its identity yet.
I found a piece of identity in drawing fanart with a twist, like metaphorical or realistic, or crossovers between universes etc. Which, while is something that I like, art block, man, it's eating me alive.
I don't know if I'll start posting anything different for the time being, but I have thoughts on posting on other platforms like ArtStation. Still, very new and alien to me, so I haven't figured it out yet. Please don't take my word for it.
Other than that, this is about it. Feel free to ask me any questions if you want and even care, sorry for the long post, I might even delete this who knows.
~Ellie
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f-117-nighthawk · 5 years ago
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More playlist meta bc I don’t wanna do homework and Jimmy kicked me out of the TA room saying I’d been in there for far too long for a Friday (it was four hours! Interspaced between classes! Workshop kit inventory is just an excuse to blast Gloryhammer to me, it’s fun)
Since I was talking about Ten Thousand Against One earlier, I’ve been thinking about the timeline and which event the songs are connected to. Long post under the cut
Turn the Lights Out is... sort of an odd case. It’s not like Remnants of Stars, which is about Galran and my philosophy about how we were created, what happens to us when we die, and the cycles that power the universe. Of course, Remnants of Stars is a little more than just philosophy. It actually describes (in a rather metaphorical way) the actual process of the marthinazik filtering quintesence into new stars, planets, beings, anything you can think of. It also has a very important lyric for much much later like, post Sticky Notes later. Now that I think about it, it actually defines a good chunk of that maybe-sequel-maybe-idea era in conjunction with Soul Extract’s Filaments. 
Anyway, back to Turn the Lights Out. It’s an odd case because it’s sort of like Remnants of Stars in that it’s more about the philosophy, but it’s before Remnants of Stars because it’s also kind of an event. If you read interviews with Delain about Moonbathers, Charlotte states that Turn the Lights Out is about Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, specifically the character of Death. I confess I haven’t read those comics, but my interpretation fits her rather well I think. To me, Turn the Lights Out is about a gentle god who accepts they will not always be seen as who they are but will give their everything to protect those within their universe. Now, who does that sound like? Which characters have been around since the birth of the universe, under various names, whether they be Ibeshganszá, ‘kibrraldíl, Marduzbazí, or Vôltrôn? 
You can make an argument for Your World Will Fail to be directly after Turn the Lights Out, but I rather like it after Remnants of Stars too. Turn the Lights Out is the beginning of the universe, so naturally, it goes first. Sentient life needs to evolve for Remnants of Stars to truly fit, and even though Your Would Will Fail technically can happen at any point between the first Plank time and the next, it also happens when the comet that becomes Voltron crashes into Daibazaal. The Your World Will Fail/Dark Matter/Eater of Worlds trio is both a general, entire timeline-spanning idea, and a specific event. 
(Your world will fail my love/It's far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)
(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)
(Can't imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I'm looking for someone to feed me)
And then, right after that event, or even during, you have Apocalypse 1992. The death of the dream, the final madness before the triumph of chaos. 
You Keep What You Kill is very much the odd one out out of everything. Helion Prime based it off a book I forget the name of, but here it’s purely about Zarkon’s empire. The “Holy Half-Dead” have lost so much of their culture, of the family bonds that kept them together even when their mistakes threatened the destruction of all, but they still remember the songs of glory. And they do keep what they kill. 
And then there’s a rather large time jump of about five thousand Earth years to The Seven Sisters. This song is pretty well encapsulated in Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) (which is a lyric from Closure, but Closure is later for Reasons), but the other half of it is connected to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met.
Who Will Save You Now has gone through so many iterations of what it’s connected to I honestly don’t remember what it actually is anymore. Given its placement between The Seven Sisters and Nobody Gets Left Behind, I think it’s related to the SFSS Genesis’s disappearance. But it could also be placed in conjunction with A Simple Plan and be about something slightly different...hm, I’ll think on that. This song has such a Dark Matter vibe to me, but it hasn’t found a home that sticks in my brain yet. 
Nobody Gets Left Behind is really there bc it’s a fun song and when I found 1551 I immediately had to put something in. BUT it is a good song about family dynamics and, well, that’s Voltron in a nutshell right? (and then you get, right there in the first verse, “Don't even try to pretend/That you're rough and just as tough/As when you're missing a friend/Attack and take him back/Cause when the team isn't whole/You've got a hole in your soul/So step up to your fucking role/We might get hurt/We might be taking some hits/But when you're taking our friend/Then that's some personal shit” and you cannot tell me that’s not everybody’s mood post Battle in the Sarnan Nebula) 
A Simple Plan is a new addition in the past few weeks. I rediscovered The Spiritual Machines a few weeks ago and the lyric “How long can we hold off ending/How long can we pretend we're ok” hit me right in the Keith feels. So this one is in conjunction with the first verse of Nobody Gets Left Behind. The entire song actually reminds me of Dark Matter with how it’s centralized at one event but contains hints of other things (The truth arrived too slow).
Memories of a Girl I Haven't Met is maybe one standard year (so six earth months-ish?) after A Simple Plan. 
String Theory is... weird. It’s mostly there for the title, but the lyrics do contain themes found in other parts of the playlist that fit really well but don’t map to the event I associate the song with. It’s honestly about Shiro missing Adam and the rest of the people on Earth. Which, granted, given the point in the timeline the title is associated with makes a certain amount of sense but...idk. And the bit that begins with “You don’t believe in space” is about something entirely different. It’s confusing, but all inexplicably related to the title event.
Interesting fact: My Dark Matter drafts/ideas folder is actually split int pre- and post- String Theory folders. It was originally because String Theory is such a pivotal moment in the Coalition’s efforts, but it also ended up vaguely the middle of the timeline. It’s the point where things absolutely, truly, have no relation to what happens in canon. The butterfly effect stemming from the events of Shatterpoint (and an implied secondary shatterpoint in another fic) have changed things enough that apart from one general event, nothing happens the same way (and that event is for drastically different reasons). All in all, it fits the weird vibe of the song rather well.
Next is Belgrade, the Ultimate Klance Song, about three months later. Fun Shenanigans happen in conjunction with this absolute bop.
Here’s the surprisingly big gap of just over a standard Earth year, in which several important events happen that don’t have songs attached to them (Roentgen, maybe)
Then we get Birthright/Firewall, a set of songs about reclaiming yourself from the depths of hell with just a liiiiiitle bit of help from your family.
(It's time to take ahold of what belongs to me/It's time to walk away with no apologies/Voices in the mirror start quietly/And now they're screaming back at me!)
(This force knows what you can do/And what you can make/With your tattered shell)
Here Comes the Reign technically starts during Birthright/Firewall, but doesn’t come into full effect until a month later, and then even fuller around five months after that. Meanwhile, we have The Day the Earth Collapsed, which is rather self-explanatory.
A few months later there is Darker Matter. The fic connected to this is real weird, but also real important. Suffice to say it’s gonna be confusing, and a universe doesn’t like the Paladins for a while.
And then we have Closure. Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) is actually the first of four fics inspired by Closure’s chorus. (I also drew a picture for each fic. They’re combined into my desktop background, and the first one is still my phone background and my pfp) “I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye”
Closure is a rather sad song actually, but the way I’ve interpreted it ends on a bright spot of hope. The first related fic I’ve already posted/talked about, the second would be around the time of A Simple Plan. The third is somewhere in the gap between Belgrade and Birthright/Firewall. I’ve placed Closure at the approximate time of the fourth fic. I actually just moved it while writing this, because I realized this makes more sense after Darker Matter and with the Fall of [Redacted]. I’ve chosen to interpret the last line as finally deciding to stay instead of the (probably more likely given the rest of the album) darker interpretations.
After Closure is Ember, which is actually super connected to Darker Matter which is why I originally had them next to each other. The thing is, all three of these songs are connected to very specific events, the latter two of which are in direct response to the first even if there is a month or two between them. Ember is on the playlist for two reasons: the first is the line “dark matter falling from the sky” that basically required me to put it somewhere; the second is the fact that I keep mishearing the lyrics. “chthonic” is not “cuthonic” (which is not a word, but I interpreted as meaning Cthulu-like) and it’s “riches to embers” not “witches to embers.” Make of that what you will.
And finally, after almost seven Earth years, we get to The Reckoning/This is a Call/World on Fire/Louder Than Words. The Reckoning sort-of picks up where The Day the Earth Collapsed left off, spanning at least a year before going full force into the frantic five days of the other three songs.
(In blood and tears/A thousand times/We rise against/We'll always hold the line/Of reckoning)
(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)
(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)
(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)
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makeste · 6 years ago
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BnHA Chapter 199: One Whole Bird
Previously on BnHA: Aizawa’s winning class A team reflected on what they could have done better. Tsuyu and Kirishima were unexpected bummers due to their recent internships still weighing heavily on their minds. Shinsou was also frustrated with his performance, despite everyone telling him how good he did. Aizawa and Vlad told All Might and Midnight that today’s exercise is also a test for Shinsou to see if he should be admitted into the hero course. It’s not clear whether or not Shinsou is aware of this, but we’re all rooting for him! The second round of battles got underway, with Team KendouKuroMangaToadette facing off against MomoYamaTokoKure. Class B’s Kuroiro was revealed to have a quirk that allows him to move freely within anything black. This applies even to quirks like Dark Shadow, and once the match began, he basically dove into DS and rode him back to Team A’s location. Now he’s getting ready to throw down with Tokoyami, who has dramatically thrown his cape aside and is preparing to unleash the new technique he developed during his internship with Hawks.
Today on BnHA: Hawks is back! In flashback form. But he’s back, you guys! So apparently Tokoyami first interned with him after the sports festival, only to learn that Hawks mainly selected him to get the good gossip on the whole USJ attack. This frustrated Toko enough that he redoubled his training efforts, and when he went back to intern at Hawks’s agency for real after getting his provisional license, he impressed the #2 hero by being able to keep up with him. So Hawks took him on a cute lil nighttime flight above the city while A Whole New World from Aladdin played, and then they landed on a tower somewhere and Hawks was all, “hey dude you should learn to fly for reals,” and then the flashback ended. Back in the present, Kuroiro sneaks up behind Aoyama and grabs him and hauls ass. Tokoyami then reveals his new technique: Flying For Reals. He retrieves Aoyama, who fires his laser to break up the shadows around them, making it impossible for Kuro to hide. Things are looking good for Team A, but then a mushroom suddenly sprouts from Momo’s nose, reminding everyone that there are still three other Team B members to take care of, and things are only just getting started.
(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 222, so any ETAs will reflect that.)
ooh, and we’re opening with what I assume is an internship flashback!
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well yeah, Mighty Wings is the type of quirk that allows you to do that. when you can individually control hundreds of little godmode wings that are strong enough to even carry people to safety, you don’t really need much in the way of backup
ah, so it’s confirmed this is Tokoyami’s narration
apparently the U.A. sports festival earlier in the year was the first time Hawks had ever taken place in the whole drafting process
hold up, so did Toko intern with him for both the jr. internship and the real internship? like, he did the weeklong thing following the sports festival, and then went back and interned there for real later? or was it only the first and not the latter?
lol Hawks is flying off to go save some other hapless soul. some out of control drunk dude at a bar in Cantina
I assume Cantina is a specifically a reference to the very famous Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars, even though it’s also a common enough word in its own right
lmao his sidekicks are all “yeah so Hawks is just generally better than us in every conceivable way and we just have to live with it”
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these guys crack me up
so during his workplace experience Tokoyami just spent the whole time chasing after Hawks with these guys and handling the cleanup with them. so naturally it wasn’t long before he started having doubts about the whole thing
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I was literally just about to say “because you’re both birds” and then Hawks was like “yeah, duh”
Tokoyami is asking if he’s joking, because Tokoyami doesn’t have a sense of humor so he probably genuinely needs to know
Hawks says he’s 20% serious. holy shit. that honest to god is what he said lmao
he says he wanted to talk to someone from class 1-A about the League of Villains, and he figured if he had to do so then he should pick someone he thought could keep up with him and who showed promise. and since Tokoyami finished in the top three he went with him
and of course we know from chapter 186 that he had selected Todoroki as well, but Endeavor got him instead
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interesting that both he and Bakugou picked the highest ranking agencies on their list and ended up being disappointed. it seems like the people who had the most fulfilling internships were the ones who went with agencies that hadn’t necessarily made huge names for themselves, but were perhaps a little better at this whole teaching thing than some of the big shots
ah, and then Hawks did agree to take him on for a For Reals Internship later on, though
that means Tokoyami actually reached out to him despite his lackluster previous experience. makes me wonder if Bakugou would actually decide to go back to Jeanist’s agency once he gets his provisional and once the kids are allowed to do internships again
(ETA: so I’m honestly not sure if we’re even going to get back to internships again, at least not for a while, but one theory I’ve seen floating around is that Bakugou will intern with Miruko instead of Jeanist, and I gotta say, I really like the idea of that. for so many reasons. but basically it makes a lot of sense; Jeanist is still laid up, Miruko is a top 5 hero, and her personality aligns with Bakugou’s a whole lot more than Jeanist’s did. all this plus Fuck Yeah Girl Power, so hell yeah I’m all for it.)
-- YOOOOOOOOOOO
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he can -- you can fly, dude? since when lmao what the fuck
(ETA: what is he doing here, though?? I thought he was flying but then a couple pages later Hawks is like “you should learn how to fly” and then a few pages after that everyone is shocked by his new “bitch I can fly now” special move. so it seems like that’s something he came up with after this scene. is he just jumping with style here or what)
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Hawks likey! kid’s got some potential
now it’s later that night and Hawks is telling Tokoyami he did good
OH MY GOD
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THIS IS THE CUTEST AND BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED. OH MY GOD. YOU GUYS. I CAN’T IT’S TOO FUCKING PRECIOUS OH SWEET JESUS
(ETA: so as you can see I was enchanted by this scene even before I learned about its significance as a beloved fandom meme. anyways so we all agree that this internship was destiny.)
TOKOYAMI IS SO OVERWHELMED. HIS POETIC SOUL IS SOARING LIKE AN EAGLE
OH MY GOD!!
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HOW DOES HE REMEMBER THE CORRECT PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN FROM A JOKE CONVERSATION THEY HAD LIKE SIX MONTHS AGO
SERIOUS QUESTION WHY IS HAWKS THE BEST CHARACTER IN BNHA. ANSWER ME. SOMEONE
AND LOOK AT TOKO’S FACE OMG
AHHHH
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it’s so personal, though. like I honestly feel like he’s baring a bit of his soul to this kid, and for someone with a personality like Hawks’s that is huge
he says he’s not especially interested in nurturing the next generation, “but...”
well that’s fine dude. you’re practically still a kid yourself and you’ve got more than enough on your plate
but the fact that he does have so much on his plate makes me wonder what’s going through his head right now. because the whole workplace experience was before he started his undercover mission, but this scene is taking place afterward. and he always plays it cool, but that shit is dangerous, like one-wrong-move-and-you’re-dead-or-worse types of danger. and that’s not even taking into account the bad-for-your-soul parts that come with having to turn a blind eye to certain things for the sake of maintaining your cover for the greater good
so basically, despite what he says, he may just be feeling a bit more sentimental or brooding or whatever than usual, and maybe that’s what brought this on. he never particularly wanted to be a mentor, but hey, might as well give it a shot. life is short
so Toko’s asking what he meant when he said Tokoyami was wasting his potential
and Hawks says that while Tokoyami is doing a lot to cover his weak points, he shouldn’t neglect improving his strong points
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one moment please while we process these Hawks feels ladies and gents
aaaaaaand done
my boy just wants to be free. okay. that’s fine. I’m fine it’s all good
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nothing to see here, just some solid mentor advice pulling some double duty as a deeper look into Hawks’s psyche at the same time. just Horikoshi things
and we’re back in the present!
that was a much lengthier flashback than I anticipated, and thoroughly enjoyable! very nice!
so Kuro is blending back into the shadows and for some reason everyone is surprised
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what else would he do. I mean. if it ain’t broke
so now he’s mocking them from somewhere in the piping, bragging about how they can’t tell where he is
oh shit!
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so he’s planning on targeting one of the others? tbh that probably would have worked just as well even without the red herring, since they can’t see him coming
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like, this would have worked no matter what though. but I guess it did get Aoyama to lower his guard
LOL MY POOR GLITTER BOY
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FIRE YOUR DAMN LASER KID
ooooh
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it’s so gross that he refers to it as an umbilical cord and now I’m never not gonna be able to think of it as that
so anyway, I’m guessing that this special move works by having Dark Shadow fly somewhere and then instead of retracting the shadow back to him, he pulls himself toward Dark Shadow
LOL
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what, y’all didn’t see those flashbacks with Hawks just a few pages ago. pay attention to other characters’ life stories
ah, here are the mechanics explained to us in a cute little comic
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“Dark Shadow can fly so one day I was like, ‘ohh... pick me up so I can fly too. fucking duh’”
also has the bonus advantage of distracting opponents with how shockingly adorable it is
so now he’s plucking Aoyama out of Kuro’s clutches
I bet Aoyama’s pissed that his cape broke in the process though
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LISTEN HERE BITCHES, Y’ALL ARE GONNA NEED PLAN B, C, D, ETC. BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN COME CLOSE TO TAKING OUT MY GIRL MOMO HERE. YOU’RE GONNA RUN OUT OF LETTERS OF THE FUCKING ALPHABET YOU AMATEURS
she said, but also I’m still pretty sure they’re gonna lose fffff
since Aoyama and Tokoyami are now perfectly positioned, Momo’s telling Aoyama to use his navel buffet
ah I see, eliminate Kuro’s potential hiding places by blinding him with Aoyama’s splendor
so Dark Shadow is covering himself in Kuro’s cape and Aoyama is letting ‘er rip
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this is such an odd and perfect sound effect and I’m really impressed with Horikoshi for coming up with it in English
aha!
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GOTCHA MOTHERFUCKER
now Momo’s calling Hagakure to action, and for a moment I was like ‘why’ but then I remembered her special move
but before we get to that, please enjoy this Yaoyorozu Momo “just as planned” panel
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yessssss now get ready for --
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...
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okay what is plan B
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...
and the chapter ends. of course
chapter 200 is gonna be some wild times isn’t it. lol
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captainmazzic · 6 years ago
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I decided that I could use 10-15% of my tax return on something frivolous and indulgent, so I went down to my local comic book shop and purchased a few Star Wars anthologies. I got Captain Phasma’s comic (quite good), both volumes of Vader’s newest series (excellent), and the Infinities collection.
I was not expecting the Infinities collection to be my absolute favourite out of all of those, but here we are. SPOILERS below the cut, because this comic series is FANTASTIC and I want to highlight my favourite points about it.
Okay so first of all, the Infinities collection is essentially a series of AU stories set in the Original Trilogy timeline. There are four story arcs total, one each dealing with an alternate timeline for each movie, and a fourth one that is simply a comic book adaptation of the original rough draft. Each one is better than the last, but I’mma breeze over the first three just so you can get a taste of this smorgasbord of awesome before I hyperfocus on my favourite one.
So the first story deals with the “what if” storyline of if Luke had missed his shot on the first Death Star. Essentially, it detonates too early on its way down, the rebel fleet is routed, Han and Chewie hightail it out there to save their own skins, Leia gets captured, and Luke goes straight to Dagobah. In this one, we get such treats as Imperial!Leia, Blaster-wielding Imperial!C-3PO, a restored Imperial Senate, Yoda actually getting off his ass and leaving Dagobah to confront... Tarkin?, an Imperial Guard fight scene, and the whole-ass fucking Death Star ramming into goddamned-fucking-Coruscant. It’s a glorious hot mess and once I breezed by Yoda’s typical pontificating, I loved every single panel.
The second story answers what would have happened if Luke had died in the snow on Hoth. Despite the pretty sobering premise, there’s an ongoing humor point of Han thinking HE’S the next chosen one and has to train to be a Jedi, but it’s clearly Leia. Insert hilarious misunderstandings here. Boba Fett shows up unmasked in this one, and because of a single scene I’m not hopelessly shipping him with Lando. In this story, we have things like Jedi!Leia, lots of beautiful shots of Dagobah landscapes, Cloud City falling, Vader interacting directly with Jabba, Vader interacting directly with C-3PO, a trippy inside-Vader’s-head sequence, and the epic conclusion happening in Dagobah’s swamps. Leia is a constant treasure throughout this one, and it makes me sorely disappointed that we never got lightsaber-wielding Leia in the actual movies.
The third story asks what would have happened if Han Solo’s rescue from Jabba the Hutt had failed, and is by far the best of the “what if” stories. In this one, Jabba has an early demise in a massive explosion that takes his entire palace out with him. But Fett still has Solo, so our friends set off on a long chase to hunt him down. In the meantime, Yoda is whining about how magical-Force-fate isn’t doing it right, and Luke should have come back by now to complete his training. He dies mid-whine, the Emperor feels his death, and sends Vader to Dagobah. Luke also feels his death, and also ends up going to Dagobah. The rest of our heroes find Fett, Leia steals Slave I along with Solo-the-still-carbonitecicle, but by the time they thaw him out he’s permanently blind. Meanwhile Luke’s been captured by Vader, we have a ton of father-son angst and attempts at bonding, and Leia tries to go and rescue him. SHE gets captured as well, and they’re both taken before the Emperor on Death Star 2.0. There’s a scuffle, but Vader can’t bring himself to kill his kids. He loses an arm (again) and as the rebel fleet attacks all around, the Emperor disappears into the shadows and Leia insists on taking wounded Vader with them. Luke happily agrees, and they flee the scene. The next time we see our intrepid heroes, they are joined by Vader, still very Vader, but dressed in a white version of his suit. Together they plan on discovering the location of the Emperor and finishing their fight. It’s... honestly glorious. Vader has no major moment-of-regret or tear-filled turn-around, he simply thanks Leia for saving him. He just wants to be with his kids, and if that means he’s helping the rebellion then WELP looks like he’s a rebel now. It’s delightful.
But even as awesome as that story was, my favourite is still “The Star Wars”. It’s adapted directly from the very first rough-draft screenplay by Lucas, and even though it is certainly familiar, it’s definitely NOT the same story. Lightsabers are everywhere, and generic characters have white-blue ones while Important People like the main characters all have red ones. The Galactic Empire is literally just an empire that supplanted a PREVIOUS Empire. The Jedi-Bendu and the Knights of Sith are also very literally just rival warrior clans that have nothing to do with quasi-religious drivel and while they have mysterious powers the only reference we have to the Force is when they stay “May the force of others be with you all”. I just... I LOVE this aspect of this story. It makes it so much more enjoyable.
Luke Skywalker is a grizzled old Jedi who used to be a top general and then war advisor, with little in the way of posh diplomacy, and who is not shy about saying things like “War is by business”. He’s buddies with one Kane Starkiller, whose son Annikin is a teenage-ish Jedi warrior-in-training that Skywalker takes on as his Padawan. Leia is the spoiled and scrappy princess that he ends up having to protect, and while she’s kind of a disappointment in the story many of the other characters are definitely not. C-3PO and R2-D2 are in this one as well, but AJKFLSFHDS HOLY SHIT R2 TALKS, that threw me for a fucking LOOP I’ll tell you. Han Solo is a massive green alien who reminds me a little of a scaly version of Khem Val except Solo is old buddies with Skywalker. Solo gets a red lightsaber too. He big. He hot. Sarc like. 
Anyway. Darth Vader’s in this one, but he has no face-covering helmet and is instead a rather engaging man with one red eye. He’s not a Sith, though. That role goes to one Prince Valorum, who is an unfairly pretty man in black with a breath mask (most of the time).
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(apologies for picture quality, I took these with my phone). It didn’t take me long to ship Vader with Valorum, but honestly Val’s got better things to do in this story. Namely, saving Annikin’s ass and breaking him out of interrogation. They even have that little “we’re not so different” moment, but it’s literally just... rather lighthearted banter while they plow their way through stormtroopers and find the princess. They rescue Leia (again) together, and end up... in a garbage masher.
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(I clearly have a thing for Valorum he is my favourite in this, okay.) Their banter is adorable, they think they’re about to die, but a clan of massive Wookiees that look like hairy versions of Garrazeb Orrelios show up, the day is saved, big explosions happen, and our suave Sith Prince Valorum is standing right along with our more well-known heroes celebrating Annikin’s new status as Lord Protector.
It’s... it’s so charming. The whole story. It’s deep enough that you can get into the gritty wartime tragedies happening all around, there’s family bonding and humor and decent people confronting shitty-ass people, but it doesn’t get in over its own head and the characters are just... people. On different sides. Doing their best and doing their thing. Sometimes they’re swapping sides when it makes more sense, and there’s zero angst about it. It’s... refreshing, honestly. The romance subplot between Annikin and Leia is really contrived and kind of painful to watch, but it takes up so little of the story it can easily be ignored. It’s beautifully and expressively drawn, moves fast, and is pretty solidly put together. I really like it. I think I’m gonna go read it all again. XD
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