#i have no self control i WILL elaborate on this later !!! that’s a threat !!

[katasstrophy]

headcanon that koko falls for you in one night because despite the six figures synonymously associated with his name, you insist on buying him a drink – not the other, “traditional” way around.

and instantly he’s a pile of mush, embarrassingly losing all that silver-tongued charm because you keep fucking grinning at him like an idiot and his eyes are just glued to you like a magnet – a creepy magnet, his thoughts supply, extremely unhelpfully – unable to physically tear his gaze from your stupidly beautiful face. he can’t remember the last time he’s been spoiled like this, if something small (and very, very thoughtful, he thinks<3) such as this even counts, but the night has gotten ten thousand times better since you offered to buy him a drink (he has more money than he knows what to do with, for god’s sake) but he feels all tingly about it, which is amplified further because you’re like ridiculously pretty and not to brag but he’s not so bad himself so maybe this could even lead somewhere and oh my god your card’s been declined you’re broke as fuck holy shit he’s laughing so hard his belly genuinely hurts—

[sophieinwonderland]

The Plurality of... Blue Beetle! (Movie)

Plurality: A state of multiple self-conscious agents, or "headmates," sharing a single body.

Oh, this one is going to be a little rough!

If you know the Blue Beetle, it shouldn't be surprising that they're a plural character. We've never read Blue Beetle comics, but my host was pretty familiar with Blue Beetle from Young Justice, where Jaime had a pretty big role in season 2.

I went into Blue Beetle with high hopes and, if I'm honest, ended up a little disappointed.

But before we can get into why I felt that way, let's first talk about their plurality!

Spoilers for the Blue Beetle movie ahead:

Jaime Reyes and Khaji-Da as plural characters

In the movie, Khaji-Da, often referred to as just "The Scarab," is a world-destroying weapon that found its way to Earth.

It bonds with Jaime Reyes when he touches it, fusing to his flesh and turning him into the Blue Beetle in an elaborate body horror sequence.

Khaji is established as a sentient being, and is able to communicate with Jaime mentally. Now, it's not actually clear if Jaime can communicate back mentally like many real headmates can. Every time he talks to Khaji is aloud, which I think was also how it was in Young Justice too. It's possible that while the Scarab can send messages to Jaime's mind, it can't read it. But that seems kind of a strange limitation when the movie shows it gaining access to a person's full memory after connecting with them, and is at least able to figure out Jaime's name through their connection.

It would seem weird to me if talking out loud to Khaji was necessary to be heard, but that's how the movie presents it. (This could be a comfort thing too. As part of a plural system, I'll admit we'll often talk out loud through the body when nobody is around to hear us. Words can be clearer than pure thoughts.)

A small part of the movie is dedicated to the two learning to get along, with there being some conflict around Khaji wanting to kill an enemy, and Jaime saying that they aren't killers.

This leads to an important moment later in the movie where Jaime is enraged, believing he's lost multiple family members, and is going to execute the villain.

The word "execute" is important here, because while other good characters have no problem killing (their nana took great joy in it, in fact), it's always against active combatants. Not someone who was disarmed. The movie doesn't make this distinction directly, but I think it's an important one.

It's one thing for superheroes to kill to protect themselves and others, most heroes are willing to these days, but it's another for them to kill someone who isn't actively a threat anymore.

Kahji takes just enough control to hold Jaime back from doing something he would regret, repeating back that they aren't killers, showing itself capable of learning from Jaime.

It's a cool moment, and I appreciated this little character growth.

Despite Khaji being sentient and capable of learning though...

Khaji isn't treated as a character

This was my disappointment with the movie.

Blue Beetle should have been more of a plural story, but Khaji is hardly ever treated as a character by the narrative or the other characters.

Yes, Khaji gets some funny lines here and there, ("Host overreacting" being a favorite of mine) but doesn't seem to have any real motivation, interests or really anything going for it.

And what's worse... there's not even a REAL CONVERSATION between Jaime and Khaji. Even when they really should be discussing things.

Like...

The Rooftop Scene

At one point, the bad guys have found Jaime's family. Jaime tried to activate his powers. They don't work. What's a Beetle to do?

Well, Jaime decided that since the Scarab will try to protect him, the best bet will be to JUMP OFF THE ROOF!

And while this is sorta well-reasoned, I found myself internally screaming this entire to time to just ask it to change.

Like, Khaji can talk. They literally said in the scene right before that Khaji was sentient.

And while jumping off the roof made for a dramatic scene, it eliminated what could have been a great moment with Jaime explaining the importance of his family and his need to protect them to Khaji.

It forced Khaji to help, when Kahji may have been perfectly willing to help if Jaime just talked to it, instead of trying to make Kahji to do what he wanted.

And you might wonder, does Khaji get offended at Jaime risking his life to force Khaji into doing what he wants? I wonder that too, because this moment is never mentioned again in the movie.

For a film so much about family, Khaji is never part of that

Blue Beetle is a movie centered around family.

It's about Jaime's relationship with his family who is very close, almost suffocating but in a good way. Jaime is driven to protect and fight for his family at every turn, and his family will do anything to protect him.

This is contrasted with the Kord family which is dysfunctional and broken, and Carapax who lost his family and sees familial love as a weakness.

These themes are intricately woven into the narrative.

So it is so disappointing how utterly divorced from that theme Khaji-Da ended up.

There is a great story to be told about this extraterrestrial machine that crashes to Earth, never having a family of its own or a concept of what family means, only to be bonded to Jaime and go from being treated as something to be gotten rid of to be welcomed as another member of Jaime's family.

That would be really cool. And they seemed willing to tell a similar story with Jenny Kord, being brought into the family group hug after everything was over.

But Khaji is treated less like a valued member of the family and more like an accessory. And even when Jaime fully bonds with Khaji, it's not about agreeing to integrate and share a mind so much as it's accepting his heroic destiny.

This feels like a huge missed opportunity for the type of story they were telling, and a betrayal of that story's central themes.

Jaime's Mother Addressing Khaji

This is the one exception where a character who wasn't Jaime actually treated Khaji as a person.

She first asks what Khaji's name was. Then says...

I know you can hear me, Khaji-Da. I want you both to get it together. Find your strength, mijito. Use the pain we’re feeling and turn it into power. I want you to go back in there… And kick their asses!

I love this so much. I love the mother's character for thinking to acknowledge Khaji as its own person and talk to it directly, giving her pep talk to both of them at once.

It's a fantastic scene. An incredible moment.

But it's also still treating Khaji as a weapon. The one and only time a character who isn't Jaime talks to Khaji, it's telling Khaji to go fight people.

I'm glad to have gotten this. But I feel they could have done so much more.

Khaji's feelings are never explored

We're told that the Scarab is a planet-destroying super weapon. How does Khaji feel about that?

We don't know. It never comes up.

Does Khaji have memories of worlds it's destroyed?

Does it know why it was created or who created it?

If it doesn't know those things, does the lack of awareness scare it?

Can it feel fear, and if Jaime asked if it was scared, would it understand the emotion?

The fact that these things weren't explored at all leaves me with one important and sad conclusion.

The writers weren't interested in writing a plural character

Blue Beetle's plurality is an afterthought.

The Scarab was sentient and Blue Beetle would use "we" pronouns occasionally because Khaji is sentient in the comics. But the relationship between the two wasn't a priority of the writers.

And in my opinion, the film suffered for it. Not just from a plural perspective but from a writing perspective. The film would have been so much better had Khaji been treated more like a character rather than just a weapon and plot device.

Khaji stopping Jaime from killing needed more build-up, and Khaji needed and deserved to be better integrated with the story's central themes of family.

Conclusion

All in all, I feel that Blue Beetle was a good movie. But I also feel its treatment of Khaji held it back from being a great movie.

I hope I don't come off as too hard on this particular movie. There's a lot of media that, when less explicitly plural, I might be more forgiving of. I once wrote a whole post about why I thought Kronk was plural based on his angel and demon Kronks who never get any sort of character arcs. But those aren't intended to be sentient people by the writers. Instead, they're plural by happenstance, simply by being more developed than other shoulder angels and demons in cartoons.

Meanwhile, Khaji Da is supposed to be a full character, I went in expecting a lot, and I feel Khaji just didn't live up to its potential in this movie.

I look forward to seeing what DC does with the character in the future, and if Khaji can get more development.

And I'm sad that, given the box office, it's probably not going to get a sequel of its own. I'm sure the planned Reach story would have given Khaji some much needed character development.

For more of me rambling about the plurality of DC superheroes, see: The Plurality of... Batman (Failsafe).

[rubra-wav]

I know your read are closed, so you can delete this if you want or save for later but what about Vox x reader who is INCREDIBLY similar to him

-🦋anon

(Yes it is and official now. You also got me into Vox and I love him and his toxicity<3)

[ Entry #11 ] Vox with a reader who's incredibly similar to him

A/N Split into 2 parts because I have different thoughts on this one 🙏

Also some of these go into different posts I've made with headcanons and posts I'm gonna make atsp so yeah.

I strongly believe that option 2 is the best type of partner for someone like Vox.

CW: SFW, gn!reader, this is written with romantic relationships with him in mind but platonic in section 2 would also really work ngl

Someone exactly like him

- Exactly like him?

- He would actually hate you straight up.

- That's not in a self depreciating Vox actually hates himself way either-

- He wants constant power and control over everything and everyone.

- So someone trying to do the same? That would piss him off and honestly just make him try fight you into submission.

- Because if you're exactly like him, you would be trying to do the same to everyone, including him.

- I also get the sense that he wouldn't like someone like himself because dude needs to feel individual and special or his ego shatters to a million pieces lmao.

- So someone who's got the exact same personality, mask, motivations, even issues as him is an instant fuck no.

- He's very likely got a pathological fear of being replaced due to being an older tech demon (constantly trying to change his parts to be new and the best there is), so someone who's exactly like him, as maladaptive and parasitic to everything and everyone is instantly going to have him feeling threatened.

- May even try to pull a 'there can only be one' and possibly try to take you out over that. Especially if you're gaining notoriety at all.

- If you're just some random, he will probably just scoff and hypnotise you to stay tf away from him. May also try to shackle you into a contract under him because it gets his sadistic ass off to exercise power over those he deems a potential threat.

- The thing about being fake is also that fake usually knows fake. Shitty people see other shitty people. Especially when that shittiness is similar, let alone the same.

- He would be able to see through your shit, and you would likely be able to see through his too which would terrify him.

- He has his mask of perfection over his mask of being a total asshole to stave off anyone who scratches below the surface, and that sits over the actually vulnerable person he is under everything.

- So you being able to see that he's fake is instantly going to have him gunning to take you out or silence you in some way.

- Not to mention, he doesn't want to see his own flaws as being flaws. He needs to be seen as perfect (both by others but also himself) and deludes himself into thinking he's a God amongst men just waiting to become even more powerful then he already is.

- So having someone who is an exact mirror of not only his false presentation he puts out but also every single terrible, shameful thing about him?

- That would be absolutely chilling for him.

- I also say this because someone who's the exact same as him wouldn't want to change or better themselves at all either. I'll elaborate on why I mention this in the next section.

Someone who is like him but not an exact copy of him / or who was exactly like him but is recovered

- I think that a lot of the above would still apply, however, it would be less to the point that you would actually be an extremely desirable partner for him.

- In the beginning he'd absolutely still see you as a threat and try to avoid you/bring you down to a lesser position of power then him.

- But if you manage to get him over that with you?

- Yeah he's gonna be into a relationship with you.

- Vox needs a partner who can push him to change, to actually love him properly, but also satisfy his need to fight/ feel like he needs to win in the relationship and actually fight back against him on an equal playing field.

- A partner who's gunning for control and power but like. To a less extreme point, then what he goes at with devaluing the other person completely in that process would be something he's into.

- It's extremely entertaining to him to have rivalry in a partner, so if you are also publicly at odds with one another on the outside?

- Yeah, he's gonna be going crazy about it.

- Even better if he's losing the public rivalry.

- He will complain like an absolute bitch but the more you take his power - perceived or not - over you and your actions away from him, the more you're going to ease him into trying to mend his bs.

- Again, equal playing field is what's important. If he doesn't see his partner as an inherent equal then that's gonna be bad for obvious reasons, you being alike to him in several ways would level that more/make it easier to level.

- Also its good because if you've already managed your own similar/ former same behaviours, then you already have an idea of what direction and buttons to push with him to get him doing better.

- You would have a better chance at easing him into recovery to actually change rather then the chance that he'll pretend to change to manipulate you, or that he'll just push back out of spite because it feels like you're trying to control him.

- It's not all the same dealing with more complicated bad behaviour, of course, but it does certainly give you more of an idea of what will work as to what won't that other partners who are unlike him wouldn't have.

I kinda went more analysis here then overall warmth/drabble - sorry if that's what you more wanted 😭 I was just very excited to analyse this idea.

Masterlist

[shreddheir]

KT lore passione explanation.

THE REVENUE SOURCE——

Giorno’s Passione doesn’t need to have constant profits. They’re self sustaining from the inside (this will be elaborated on later). But they still need to do something in order to maintain their control of Italy and keep them feared and respected. This Passione is all about social power. It’s as much of a booming industry as the narcotics trade was. Information dealing, blackmail, extortion, manipulating political parties—they do all that, and do it well. Of course, they still participate in the businesses of smuggling, illegal betting, and making people disappear, to name a few. It’s a good idea to cater to all sorts of clientele.

The members:

The Passione members we see in KT lore are the new equivalent of “Unita Especial”. They are Giorno’s closest inner circle.

Giorno Giovanna———The Boss

Stand: Gold Experience (Requiem).

You all know who he is. He’s the man, the myth, the legend. His role is self explanatory. He’s one of the most influential men in the country, and one of, if not the most powerful stand user in existence. It’s thanks to him that Terunosuke was able to return to human form. Giorno sees all of Italy as his domain to protect. Though most of what he does is morally dubious at best, he wants this country to flourish and move towards a good future. A future he plans from behind the scenes.

Despite public backlash, Italy uses almost no fossil fuels anymore. Similarly, fracking and ecologically damaging business practices are banned, with hefty prison times. Regardless of the politician in office, these laws are not challenged or repealed. I wonder why?

Pannacotta Fugo——head of logistics.

Stand: Purple Haze (distortion)

He keeps the gears of Passione HQ turning. Though he doesn’t do all the logistic work (that’s what subordinates are for), he has the final say on most of it, and he handles anything stand-related or otherwise classified. Though he’s been a part of some spectacular operations back in the day, he currently prefers to stay out of the limelight. It’s safer for everyone. His involvement in planning smuggling operations has lead him to develop an interest in cartography. For a while, he was at peace. Then he lost another friend. When we see him, he’s barely slept for weeks.

Guido Mista——reluctant bodyguard.

Stand: Sex Pistols

Even though Giorno ABSOLUTELY does not need a bodyguard, he takes one with him anyway, as it’s the expected way for someone of his status to act. Up until recently, this was Sheila E. However, she was killed while attempting to independently eliminate a threat to Passione, so Mista was promoted. He’s not too happy about it, but he’s had plenty of chances to leave that he’s never taken. In the years following 2001, he has also developed a complex about the number 3, believing that groups of three are inherently lucky but are also always doomed to be ruined with a 4th.

Panzanella—-The Medium

Stand: Heaven Knows

Wound: Phasmophobia

The head informant of Passione. Her ability in gathering the secrets of others is unmatched, due to the network of spirits she has at her beck and call. All Stand users can see SOME ghosts, but she sees all of them. She knows that the dead are always watching the living. Unexpectedly, her office is full of potted plants, many of which are named. It seems like a surprisingly lighthearted hobby for such a morbid and stoic woman to have. The three largest plants are a rhododendron bush she calls “Carne” and two citrus bonsais she calls “Squalo” and ���Tiziano.” Her 3 favorite things in life are her wife Champagne, her hearse, and the cleanser spirits that follow her around and listen to her commands. Giorno is a close fourth. The factoid about the cleansers and the plants are 100% related.

Champagne—-Head of assassinations.

Stand: Jigsaw Feeling

A woman who joined passione while running from her old life and quickly moved up the ranks. She had a hand-picked team of assassins that were some of her closest friends, and moschino picked them off one by one. When we see her in the story, her desire for revenge is all-consuming, but she does a good job hiding it under her irreverent attitude. She is fascinated by the human body to no end, and uses her missions to indulge her morbid curiosity. If her target has interesting eyes and she’s got the time, she’ll swap theirs out for hers. When she’s off the clock, she enjoys sewing and being better than her wife Panzanella in Every Video Game.

The House of the Rising Sun——-The Supplier. Stand: House of the Rising Sun.

This is why Passione doesn’t need to worry about lost money from drug trafficking. This is why no one has ever survived infiltrating their HQ. This IS their HQ. Rising sun is a sentient, stand using building with total control over its impossibly big interior. It can just. Create matter. From NOWHERE. Arms, food, clothes, money,….. it summons all these into existence without a catch. It communicates through signs and has awareness of everything inside of its “body”; even people’s thoughts.

It’s benevolent to allies of passione, but it views humans that aren’t Giorno as below it, much like you might view a cute animal as below you. Like, you want to protect them and see them thrive, but they aren’t at the same level that you are. After all, it is a requiem stand. Only giorno knows how it came to be.

thanks for reading!

[oinkinpigprince]

Hiii, I hope you're having a good day ^^! So, what about James (Smiling Friends) with an OC? It's not a romantic relationship. It's all platonic (i'm not repulsed by borderline romantic tones. Feel free if you think it adds spice!). He starts out more awkward and even kind of aggressive, but this friendship ends up showing (somewhat) good results! If we ignore James low-key latching onto her later on.

I have this tall critter here who is the leader of a band (I like to think James listens to their music hehehe it would be something like Machine Girl) which also kind of is a bike gang. She’s the one who hands James some money and food from time to time so he doesn't starve since nobody really feels safe around him in a proper working place, but she ends up trying to """rehab""" him regardless, eventually just carrying his ass around with the rest of the gang in the process. The other girlies don't understand what really makes him notable for her, but they just assume she knew him when they were younger (and that's right! They got separated after James’ dad murdered his mother when he was 10 or sum).

Last specific thing about them is that James, sooner or later in this situation, would think of or even try to harm her like he did with Charlie, he only doesn't or stops right away because she makes it pretty clear that the other members of her group would torture him cartel style for it.

Also yeah she tries to not remind him of how hard he fumbled with that Charlie thing because she's ass at romantic advice.

Sorry if it's like, so long I ended up letting no room for elaboration, I just wanted to give context to ask for some possible hcs in the “James is starting to get too clingy to her that he starts to resemble a lamprey” stage ^^’

This one’s fascinating to me! Sorry it took me so long to write, thank you for being so descriptive about your OC!! I also got ur other request which I will be answering later :33

James + hammerhead

Wow! James is an interesting guy, hmm. He is violent, rude, demanding, antisocial, everything you’d want in a best friend!

Everyone in James’ building is SHOCKED, that hammerhead somehow befriended him. Let alone just being around the guy, he’s violent and unpredictable.

No one wants to be around James so, hammerhead is literally his only friend. The only person he can stand to be around for five minutes without trying to freak them out

A lot of the stuff he does is due to self entitlement and also he just thinks it’s funny. Ask for a glass a milk even though he hates milk, that’s just his way of joking around. Hammerhead made him learn real quick she does NOT find that shit funny(it’s just a prank bro)

He sighs and obligates, mainly because of the whole childhood friend thing. He also genuinely wants to get better and learn how to socialize

So yeah, because he literally had no one in his life he does cling to Hammerhead which, she doesn’t mind, she just wished he would just try and make other friends.

Kinda follows her around everywhere, if he isn’t alone, he’s with her. Kinda like a silent(very violent) shadow. The other girls don’t, enjoy, his presence. Because his favorite punchline is to literally punch

Kinda wants to control Hammerhead, especially at the beginning. It’s mainly a fear of abandonment but also, he just is high key very selfish. Tries to isolate and manipulate her before she talked some sense into him

He behaves though, after a little talk. Now he just sits and kinda just watches her. James is just quiet, observing people around him. He doesn’t really know how to socialize other than demanding and threats. So he just becomes quiet

Still gets REALLY jealous though, of everyone in hammerhead’s life. Like, crazy jealous. After the talk of course he kinda just festers in his own misery of self doubt and anger. It’s hard for him to open up so hammerhead had to kinda pester him about it

It isn’t all bad, James really does care about hammerhead. It’s very much like a sibling bond. He’s fiercely loyal to her, and very very clingy. He may follow her around but it’s mainly just to protect her

The two are able to confide in each other they wouldn’t be able to if they weren’t, weird besties. It actually comforts James a lot that he’s able to confide in his fears, doubts, and stresses.

Hammerhead takes James out on bike rides which he loves. He loves anything thrilling, exciting. So going to their concerts and going on bike rides is his #1 favorite thing to do

[heliopauseentertainments]

I forgot to post something for WIP Wednesday. Oops. Uh, have this spoilery snippet of Solar Flare's epilogue, that needs much editing. There's another scene that needs finishing but we're well on our way.

Wrapped in tarpaulins containing tubes full of pumping coolant, Megatron waited as his processor gradually returned to normal functioning. The coolant, forced through interwoven tubing, drew away the worst of the thermal energy he had absorbed, dissipating it through small powered fans embedded in the tarpaulin. The fans roared, picking up the slack where his own onboard cooling system couldn’t keep up, as they sent the heat into the transport’s overhead vents back outside.

The only thing that would bring him back down to a safe baseline faster than this elaborate, emergency setup would have been a swim in an icy lake, a natural feature Nyon notably lacked on this side of the caldera wall.

The comparatively cold air of the temperature-controlled shuttle breezed through his own vents, bringing soft tingles of relief as the air brushed by his metal.

The smaller burst capillaries in his extremities were closed up by his self-repair nanites but more major silicon jointing would need to be replaced. He was lucky nothing vital melted to the point of failure.

The soldiers, however, hadn’t bothered to clean away the coagulating fuel and oil on his frame, let alone his hand. Obvious evidence of what he had done to Zeta coated his plating. It would be hell to remove it later on his own—not that Rodimus would necessarily let him do that himself.

His joints were still stiff, aching from where linkages had expanded but they were beginning to contract. Many would now be deformed but they were not immediate threats to his health and wellbeing.

Yes, he would need further, more advanced care for a complete repair but at least now he would live long enough to get more thorough medical assistance than what could be provided by dubiously competent soldiers administering first aid post-battle.

At his side in the shuttle sat Rodimus, daring to complain about being cold while the constant pinging of Megatron’s overheated armor was muffled into soft pops under the bulky coverings. Rodimus’s voice, despite his struggle with volume control, was hardly audible over the roar of the fans and the shuttle’s engines.

[aquanthis]

can u infodump about Solomon. Please. I know I’ve heard a bit about him but go wild. give me the full essay. if this is a movie theatre I’m sitting there front row very excited 🥹🖤🫶‼️‼️

JUMPING UP AND DOWN SO FAST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOLOMON VALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this cringe fucking loser (<- said in a way that makes it clear i want him in a way that would get me burned at the stake)

(please forgive the fact that all the images are full size, i've literally been trying to fix it for 15 minutes and tumblr just reverts it back every time and i'm literally so mad about it)

yes i can infodump about him. yes i always can. this fucker altered my brain chemistry at 15-16 years old and continues to make me ill to this day.

welcome to the first introduction of magicverse on this blog hehehe my true agenda all along

(CW: child abuse/abuse in general, kidnapping, sort of graphic violence, sexual abuse (implied)/sex as a self-defense mechanism... basically any warning you'd put on astari*n's story can be applied here. they're shockingly similar. i would avoid talking about some of this stuff if it wasn't so important story-wise, sorry ^^;)

anyway. look at him again. your reward for opening the readmore

okay so, i'm gonna have to elaborate on some worldbuilding first because otherwise a lot of this doesn't make sense.

there are six major types of entities in magicverse, with some notable offshoots. but in the context of solomon, i will be mainly referring to three: humans, sorcerers, and demons. humans are exactly as they are in the real world, living normal lives unaware of magic. sorcerers are, in essence, humans who can see and interact with magic, with an additional thing: humans can't see them, hear them, or interact with them. magic still affects the real world, but to humans it looks like natural disasters or other strange phenomena, rather than what it actually is. demons are creatures that were originally humans, but were turned (similarly to vampires! except demons have to actually kill them rather than just biting) and are no longer human. they can interact with both humans and sorcerers, as well as anything in between, including magic. however, they can't manipulate magic.

USUALLY.

however! you remember that "notable offshoot" i was talking about? that's solomon, and his "siblings". but i'll talk about them later. for now, i'm going to talk about solomon and his "superior", servius.

solomon was born a sorcerer. you'll notice that in my description of demons, i said they were originally humans. and, the vast majority of them were, because turning sorcerers was forbidden long, long ago, by the sort of governing body that exercises control over demons, the "high demon council" (i'd like to find a better name for this someday but have never gotten around to it). however, servius, cocky piece of shit that he is, decided that he wanted to overthrow that governing body, and take control of the demons himself. and in order to do that, he needed an army. or, if not an army, an extremely powerful weapon.

and what extremely powerful weapon was available to him? sorcerers. because why would turning sorcerers be forbidden if it didn't pose a threat? but servius isn't particularly strong for a demon, and certainly not strong enough to take on a full blown sorcerer by himself. so, you know what he did?

he started hunting down sorcerer kids. impressionable, still weak enough prey. and solomon was the first.

sylvester vale was 9 years old, an only child, and so, so loved. his parents adored him; he was their whole world. he was a little shy, loved candy, and hated brushing his teeth.

and servius caught him on his way home one day, cut his head off, and made a puppet out of him. turned him into solomon.

the thing about demons, see, is that they can't disobey the orders of their "superiors", aka the ones who turned them. their bodies react when their superior speaks, whether they want to obey or not. suffice to say, it was disgustingly easy for servius to turn a boy into a weapon, horrifyingly simple to do whatever he needed to to get solomon to lose every ounce of defiance he had.

solomon doesn't remember his life "before". he doesn't remember his parents, hardly remembers even having any. it's been 150-ish years since then, after all, and everything servius did to him erased every bit of the boy he was before. the only remnants he has are the jagged scar on his neck and his fucked up teeth.

the other thing about demons is that, despite the fact that they can shapeshift, there are certain things they can't shapeshift away, usually "imperfections" of some kind that are either indicative of something from their prior life or scars from the way they were killed. solomon has both. like the universe getting one last spiteful laugh lol

anyway. so, once servius felt like he'd sufficiently erased every bit of "sylvester" from solomon (so, when solomon was older, about 16) he started training him. and it was true that a sorcerer-turned-demon was far more powerful than any normal demon, even if solomon was still just a scrawny, fucked up teenager. not only did he have the superhuman strength of a demon and the ability to shapeshift, he also still had his magic. a demon with magic, and not only that, but he still had the ability to interact with humans. and that was a strength that no one else could claim.

so, that cemented the plan: to craft superweapon demon children, and twist them, and break them to obey servius's will. to eventually overthrow the demon society as they knew it.

it took a long time for servius to find other targets. sorcerers are few and far between, and sorcerer children even moreso. so it was just solomon for a long time, and in the meantime he learned to do as demons do: haunt the streets, pick targets to turn, make more. it was a good distraction, if anything, to drown himself in city nightlife and bars and sex and doing what he had been taught to do: kill. he got so good at it that he did it without thinking, because it was all he really knew how to do. for about a hundred years. he turned into a charismatic, flirtatious, murdering monster. a good, true villain. back then, anyway

there were others that servius tried to turn, over those years. but they were failures, either failing to turn and just dying instead, or simply being impossible to break and being killed for real (the holy water kind). and solomon felt nothing. but then servius got sick of doing it himself, and went, hm! well, i have a superweapon, after all! might as well finally use it! and sent solomon to do his dirty work.

now, you may be wondering, "grims, wouldn't they have to obey solomon then?" well not if solomon dragged them back to servius instead of killing them himself.

which was the plan. but the first time, solomon fucked up. lol

i have this other oc, lavern, who was solomon's first target. and solomon would've been able to handle it pretty easily. except that when he got to the point where he could drag him back to servius, he had this momentary thought of like, "okay, well, if i turned him myself though, i could get the upper hand on servius". because, like, it's not like he loved servius. he hated his fucking guts. but there was nothing he could do. so he thought, well, if i turn this kid, maybe he can be my weapon. and he started to do it, started to kill him. but about halfway through, he suddenly felt sick, realizing this must've been what servius felt when he turned solomon, and he stopped.

unfortunately, something went wrong, and lavern ended up becoming some weird half-demon half-sorcerer amalgam that kind of just made him weaker instead of stronger. and solomon is saddled with the guilt of permanently fucking this kid up because he got greedy. but it's only a little guilt, because we must remember solomon was kind of a piece of shit at this point. 👍 he does end up hiding lavern in his apartment though because he feels bad. he kind of ends up like a little brother to solomon, and that's where solomon's "siblings" start.

servius got mad at him for this, of course (solomon lied and said he failed and the kid died) and never let him go hunting for him again. soon after that, servius hunted down a couple of other kids, an 8 year old and a 16 year old (and he was REALLLLLLY lucky on that one), and successfully turned them. lili and jem, solomon's other siblings. and servius began calling them "horsemen," some tongue-in-cheek joke because he meant to make a fourth one. solomon, death. lili, famine. jem, war. and the last would be pestilence.

but he never got the chance to make a fourth one. there's a long story about the first person solomon ever fell in love with, the thing that changed him from this mostly heartless monster to something salvageable, but it's something i kind of want to rework because it involves an oc that is not mine and that feels wrong to still use. the plot would remain the same, but the details would need to be different. but the jist is, solomon sticks his neck out for someone he really shouldn't have, because he got stupid and possessive of an enemy, and it leads to him saving them from being permanently obliterated, and in return they eventually kill servius in a blind rage because servius tries to get solomon to kill them. and they basically destroy themself in the process. and solomon is left alone again. :)

so for about 20 years, solomon's alone with no servius and just his siblings, one of which (jem) hates him so much and keeps trying to kill him, and the other two who he has no idea how to deal with. and he has this new problem of having grown to care about someone enough to fall in love with them and then losing them and having no idea how to deal with these feelings he now knows he's capable of. and it sucks, and he's miserable, and he starts randomly taking jobs just to fill his time.

and that's how he meets meko, a sorcerer, and solomon's future husband (seb's oc who i literally go fucking crazy over!)

i'm only saying how they met because i think seb would be disappointed in me if i didn't. we were like 17 when we came up with this so please forgive how juvenile it is though it's in character JKSHJDKJSD. but anyway uh, it was originally just a joke, but i had solomon working the night shift as a cashier at a sex toy store because he would do that (he enjoys people watching). and meko, yknow, being a sorcerer, figured he could just go in and steal whatever he wanted because it's not like anyone would be able to see him, right? but he didn't expect a demon to be working the register LMFAO so uh. yeah. solomon calls him out on it because no one else is there and meko being meko is like "hey i'll suck your dick if you let me go" because he's. normal. solomon doesn't take him up on it but it's still funny to me. also meko's first impression of solomon is, and i quote, "That has to be the palest motherfucker I've ever seen in my entire fucking life," which i still think is a hilarious first impression and also extremely true.

anyway uhhhh jem shows up and tries to kill solomon again when meko's there and solomon has to save him, but then it ends up with this whole debacle where solomon takes meko to his pocket dimension apartment but can't get him back out immediately and it's a whole ridiculous way to meet. but they just keep running into each other over and over despite not trying to and they disastrously fall for each other because they're equally weird and chaotic. but meko is terminally ill and doesn't tell solomon until he's so weak he can't hide it, and solomon loses it because. well. the other person he loved died unexpectedly and it's Bad. so solomon, despite his better judgment, offers to turn meko into a demon (or, well, a horseman, but, semantics) to "save" his life. so he wouldn't have to lose him. and meko lets him.

it's a scene i've wanted to write for YEAAAARS but solomon kills him by stabbing meko in the back while he's holding him. and he feels so sick the whole time because he told himself he'd never turn anyone again and much less a sorcerer, but here he is killing the man he loves and turning him into a monster just like he is and technically fulfilling servius's wish by making a fourth demon-sorcerer. but it's worth it, he tells himself, if he gets to keep meko with him.

and like, he doesn't regret it, but it's guilt that still haunts him even in current day. he still has nightmares about it. it sucks. it's bad. i'm sad about meko and solomon sorry i think about them a lot

but anyway look at them

absolutely obsessed w/ them. they're gross <3

anyway uh last but not least, after they've, yknow, settled a bit, solomon accidentally stumbles upon two demon kids (twins. they're literally like 4) who got turned and abandoned by their parents, and solomon feels sorry for them and picks them up, not really intending to keep them but not wanting them to rot on the street ("i'm not running an orphanage here but god i just can't leave em there" he says, lying about not running an orphanage). and he gets attached, because of course he does. and that's how meko and solomon end up with adrian and blaine, two absolute freaklets.

and that's (mostly!) the solomon story, skipping over or skimming some major things LOL i love him so so much i'm sorry

oh uh bonus trivia:

he has a giant scraggly black cat named death who can talk and also turn into a horse (though i haven't decided if i want to keep the horse thing. it's kind of a leftover thing from the original horseman idea that i only halfway scrapped). they fucking hate each other but death sticks around anyway and solomon has no idea why. he actually likes the kids though and solomon is baffled and confused by this

"sylvester" was actually trans and was still like, settling into that when he got killed, and solomon has literally no memory of this and thinks he's amab because he's been shapeshifted as such for so long. it's kind of funny to me but also sad :(

i didn't really get to mention this but solomon's magic type is teleportation! or, like, more specifically teleportation/pocket dimensions sort of? it's a little nebulous but basically he can teleport himself and also summon things from other places as long as he knows exactly where it is. so he has like, a shit ton of knives and other weapons stored at his apartment and can just summon them at will. he can also teleport other people but it takes a lot of energy and he has to be touching them

demons all have, like, "true" forms and solomon's is his original body carrying its own head + goop wings and stuff. i wish so badly that i could draw so i could design it but aughhghhg.

when i originally made him, i was trying to prove i could make an "irredeemable" character because a friend thought i couldn't, and i was like, oh yeah? and i made him and originally he was but then i. got attached . and redeemed him. so i failed. LOL oops

i think that's all for now !!! i love him so much. guy who rewired me. i'm still fucked up about how similar he and astari*n are and it further proves that i could never put solomon in the public eye because people can't help being freaks. but i digress

solomon vale NUMERO UNO!!!!!! he's a disaster! mwah!

[lemonsilly]

john crocker one chance please please (raising my hand pick me pick me i want to know more about him!!!!!)

YES YES YES HI HI HI HERES THE JOHN CROCKER DUMP!!! this is gonna be a long one bc im literally explaining his entire character, pls mind the autism

Jonathan "John" Crocker (lemonsilly ver)'s lore kind of follows the typical Alpha John structure with two critical exceptions!!

He stayed with the Crockercorp corporation

He's a bit younger here lol (I'd say 50s or maybe late 40s at the youngest, rather than the 86 y/o ver of Crocker we see in homestuck!)

To elaborate on point 1, I mean he kind of stayed tied to his mother and never really broke out of this familial tie. He's still an actor and comedian, however, he's also working under CrockerCorp (and thus, HIC). I've always imagined him being used for propaganda (and I get that HiC's rule was kinda more lowkey in HS proper but its not in my version!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bc im insane abt the alpha guardians) and kind of seen as Hollywood's Darling.

His main reason for still sticking with Evil Troll Mom is a mix of obligation and a weird attachment to her. You know the experiment with monkeys with cloth mother and wire mother? She's John's wire mother.

Having been raised alone after Jade's escape, he grows to resent his sister (both from a combo of his own personal feelings and HIC's influence) and kind of clings to his mom like a baby koala. TLDR; big mama's boy in his late 40s-50s because trauma

Being a big time comedian and actor, John is probably the most charismatic man in Condywood (as I like to call it), next to David "Dave" Strider (more on that relationship later). He's very charming and quite silly too! In AUs where he's raising Jane (or any of the egbert/crockers for that matter, if you wanna get silly with it and include beta john), he's actually very good with her. Despite his erm .. everything! he is a doting father (which I guess is kind of OOC in terms of breath players and their massive fears of commitment, but we're already incredibly OOC for what any variation of John stands for so I kinda dont care)

His charisma is lethal, though. He doesn't use it for ill will very often! Because above all else, he's a pretty nice guy (usually). This unfortunately makes him HIC's biggest weapon in her arsenal.

This is where Dave Strider -- biggest anti-HIC fighter beside his sister, Rose Lalonde -- comes in.

Now, Dave and Rose's works are subtle. They're not too overt. This pushes them into stardom. Dave's movies are pretty pretentious, and even more pretentious if you actually pick up on the subliminal messaging. Bottom line is, HIC sends John to try to scrape as much information off of them (and possibly deal with them) as possible.

But the thing is, John kind of gets a weird fascination with Dave. Dave is kind of easy in terms of John's mission, as he's much more ... pliable ? (at least in my au JKGHHAGJK). Dave is a coked out, eccentric director who dances on the thin line of self-hatred and egocentricism. Dave is smart, don't get me wrong, and this is kind of what attracts John to Dave.

John kind of gets a desperate need to constantly one up this guy. It is always power and control to him. Once he somehow slithers into Dave's life, he holds what Dave wants just enough out of reach. Even outside of Condywood AU, I really like to portray them like this lololol. And being much more powerful than Dave, it is so easy to get one over him, even in the most subtle of ways. This need also stems from Dave also being able to get one over him (because Dave is smart). And Dave (rags to riches, new director) is a little guy -- in terms of society -- compared to John (born into wealth, famed comedian and actor). It's kind of a threat to John's ego, so he's kind of obsessed with catching Dave before he does anything.

Ok it's like 1 am and I've had a bit to drink and I need to wake up for work tomorrow SO I WILL END IT HERE but ohhhh i lvoe you john crocker. imagine that heart locket gif animation but with him

i imagine his voice to sound like Ian Bruce (The Correspondents) or Shayfer Jaymes... if this means anything ... i listen to Puppet Loosely Strung by The Correspondents and im like OMFG ITS HIM!!! (abt his feelings toward dave, bc he also kind of has this jealousy of how free dave is compared to him LOL)

[dyedazombiepink]

TPFFIB Pt 3: The Silly Side Villains, and Candi & Lime (The end is nigh)

The Side Villains

(who aren't really villains but were moving on, their all a collective menace, also The Dead King hates them for no reason)

Maxwell Melodica

A purple dragon that stands on his hindlegs like he's some kind of human (even though they don't exist). He's a screech dragon, so instead of breathing fire, or controlling the elements, he has a very specific type of magic that lets him control sound and music, including his own roar which is like his big secret attack. The only problem is that's its really dangerous and has made people lose their hearing completely (and brake all their bones). Other then that, he's an insecure musical artist who hides is true feelings and perception of himself by over compensating with elaborate musical performances and trying to take other Golden Glade, which mostly means fighting Kite every now and again. And their relationship is basically just Kite watching Maxwell do a little show and complementing his musical talent, but then beating him up once he tries to attack. Overall he's a fairly charming, creative, and ambitious bipedal dragon.

Oaklyn the Ocean-centaur

Leaving her home out of spite of her kingdom after it turned into a democracy just as she was going to become queen, the ex-princess ditched her home with her trident (a weapon with the power to create storms and control water made just for her). And swore she'd make herself a queen no matter what, and get her justice. Besides her need to rule something, she very energetic and hyper, but easily distracted and her battles with Kite usual go from her having a clear battle motive (being to get inside), but then gets distracted by other stuff happening around her and even her own attacks, which is fair they are very cool. Though if I'm being honest the most dangerous thing she could do is damage property and drown someone. However her powers are surprisingly effective towards Kite, because she relies on flying and aerial maneuvers and was not built for swimming.

Slinky

He is a menace, pure and simple, he doesn't want to take over Pactor and rebuild it into his own vision, he just wants to watch the world burn and eat popcorn, before putting out the fire and letting everything heal, then lighting it on fire again. Suffering and misery is his high, it's what he wants. He'll befriend people just to find ways to plot there downfall and watch them crash and burn. Now.... In light of- all that, he has a few redeeming qualities, for one he's a tiger, which technically makes him a cat, and he has a lovely laugh and is so charming you forget how much a threat he is. Unlike everyone he has no powers or cool ability just a regular tiger, and when he first fights Kite, he was genuinely fighting for fun no scheme or plot. So yeah... that's Slinky.

Now that's I'm down with villains I can talk about Lime & Candi

Lime Leaf & Sugar Sweet

(Sugar Sweet is the pink one and Lime is the green, duh)

Both Sugar Sweet (also called Candi) and Lime Leaf, were born and raised in Golden Glade. They basically grew up side by side, and because of that they are basically the definition of best friends.

Lime is energetic and enthusiastic about almost every new experience, and biggest strength is building people up. However he dose struggle with determining his own self-worth from time to time. He still manages to be there for the people he cares about. His worse habit is probably his thick head, he's the type to react first and ask later which tends to get him in trouble.

Candi is also energetic like Lime, and she's very supportive of creatures when they need it. Her best trait would definitely have to be her compassion and honesty (she's really good at listening and is very understanding). However, she will never lie to someone about how bad something really is. Because she cares so much she can stop Lime before he dose something stupid, and tells him what's actually happening everything stays civil. Candi can also be very self-conscious at times, viewing herself as un-creative, or may think she's weird looking, and scrutinize little things about herself. Especially is someone makes a comment.

But that's where my boy Lime comes in to cheer his bestfriend up, 95% of the time when she's feeling down, he will build up, taking the things she said made her feel like a loser or ugly, and telling her what he thinks. For example: if someone says her bow looks stupid, Lime will say that he thinks it looks fantastic along with how it makes her look one of a kind and that she has way more style then whoever was mean to her.

Then when he's feeling like he isn't enough or feels worthless, she will tell him that he is more then enough. Or that when he feels dumb/can't do anything, she will make him feel better by hanging out with him and talking all the stuff he is good at, like sports and flying.

As for how they interact with Kite, their dynamic is basically detective (Kite) and friends/assistants/clients (Lime and Candi). The reason Kite becomes a detective is because after Ancient Feather gets imprisoned by the Dead King for her crimes against him, Kite temporarily became the leader of P.o.P before resigning and becoming a detective to solve crimes and problem, that don't involve impossible stakes and less fighting (because she did a lot of that).

AND I AM DONE. JOYUS DAY FOR ALL (specifically me). I can now have this off my mind and wait till I have more worlds and the oc's that live in that world to share. Have a nice day

.

.

.

.

See he's confused because he thought I wasn't actually be able to fit it all in this time, or get lazy, and as a punishment he would eat me, WELL, looks you whos wrong now hmm Scratchy? yeah that's right.

[biblioflyer]

Note: I've added a few corrections and elaborations based on a rewatch of the climax to fix some mistakes based on a poor memory.

Based on some feedback, I want to re-emphasize the indiscriminate nature of Magneto wrecking the Earth’s magnetic field and restate the facts as they were given to us narratively, even if they don’t necessarily jive with our understanding of physics as one commentator pointed out.

Now in my thinking there are two decision points that need to be dealt with.

The first is Magneto’s planetary scale EMP at the moment of being unleashed. This makes me queasy because it is indiscriminate and a lot of innocent people died in what I assume were plane crashes, train wrecks, car crashes, the failure of life support systems like oxygen machines and so forth.

However!

This genuinely seems like a scenario where narratively Magneto was backed into a corner. It’s a classic trolley problem. There were too many Borg-Sentinels to be fought individually, very few mutants had the ability to disable the Sentinels in any lasting way, and left unchecked they would eradicate or enslave all mutants and any humans who dissented based on Bastion’s whim.

At that moment, Magneto was right.

As someone who grew up on Star Trek The Next Generation and it’s setting assumptions that there was always another way if we just stretched our imaginations, this is not a comfortable emotional place for me but I concede the point under the narrative logic of the X-Men ‘97 setting. I will not engage in self serving fan fiction to avoid having to grant the point by imagining that Magneto should be functionally omniscient and have a level of control over his power that is ludicrous.

Here’s where things take a turn for the bleak.

Something that is critical to understand is that per multiple characters we should understand as reliable narrators Magneto did serious damage to the Earth’s magnetic field. Damage that not even he could reverse if he didn’t act within a very narrow window of time. Magneto is very explicit that he knows this and is fine with it. This is made clear when he offers sanctuary for mutants on Asteroid M.

He later reaffirms that he is content to watch the Earth die: even when the X-Men plead they have a way to stop Bastion and the Sentinels, even though Magneto is aware that it is Bastion personally and not a secret cabal of mutant haters or a national government theoretically accountable to its people that is responsible. Edit: This is more complicated than I make it out to be here and upon rewatch, its obvious that Bastion did have accessories but its left ambiguous how much of Bastion's real plan his benefactors and staff had been read into. So this is not strictly a one man option, but I do still maintain that ending civilization is a bridge too far. End edit.

As pointed out, from a Doylist perspective this is not how the Earth’s magnetic field works but nothing that happens makes a lick of sense if we don’t suspend disbelief. Without this ticking clock, there’s no reason to split up. All of the X-Men can just go fight Bastion until someone gets lucky and gets the plot device around his neck. Easy peasy.

So let’s dig into Magneto’s logic here. The X-Men universe is one in which a time traveling android facilitated the birth of a human/future Sentinel hybrid that used extant technology to carry out a massacre of mutants who were simply existing, posing no immediate threat under the rationale that they had the potential to be a threat.

Magneto then decides that since he is one man who can end all life on Earth civilization, he’s not alone in this, Bastion already seeks to kill or enslave all mutants and unlike previous genocidal madmen he actually has the means, Magneto may as well launch the functional equivalent of a nuclear second strike and just go ahead and kill everyone most people on Earth because, presumably, even if Bastion is stopped it’s not as if he’s the first to try, Bastion is just the most successful to date. The species level destructive capabilities available to solitary maniacs or small cabals are clearly beyond the ability of even omega level mutants to monitor and preempt 24/7.

Because a tiny number of people can cause outsized harm, all billions must be made to suffer and die.

Where have we heard this before?

Incidentally, this very argument over who deserves to kill indiscriminately and without any upper limit on what is necessary or acceptable makes X-Men not just a great analogy for debating appropriateness and excess in preemptive violence and resistance, but it’s also a dandy metaphor for nuclear weapons and the way we’ve almost done ourselves in using the very same logic as Bastion and Magneto: get them before they get us.

Finally, the “failure” of mercy in civilizational scale conflict was also brought up. I would make two observations.

It’s relatively rare in modern times that a conflict has ended in virtual extinction at the level of the population of one side or the other. World War Two and the American Civil War are often brought up as examples of just wars. I won’t quibble too hard with that, but under the constraints of the time the sides we think of as the protagonists were fighting with restraint.

The second point is that after the end of active fighting, considerable effort was poured into securing a lasting peace. Including trials for the worst of the worst, but not collective punishment above and beyond the punishment represented by disarmament, occupation, and the imposition of new political orders by force. In the case of Reconstruction in the US South national unity, constraining military occupation spending, and other political expediences trumped justice as we would define it in the modern day and Black Americans would have defined it at the time.

I for one have little faith in the long term prospects for mutant kind succeeding where humanity failed if their new society was built on mass slaughter. This sort of thing tends not to produce just and peaceful societies. The first attempt at a celestial mutant nation ended in Magneto being purged by Cortez for being too soft on “the Homo Sapiens question” and that was without a genocide being a recent and valid option for problem solving.

You don’t get to unring that particular bell. History would seem to indicate genocide is habit forming unless it enacts a greater cost on the perpetrator in the end. But I’d love to be wrong.

Being right doesn’t mean you get to kill everyone else.

I’ve seen some griping that the writers of X-Men ‘97 “did Magneto dirty” by first showing how human / mutant coexistence was a delusion only to have Magnus go full genocidal tyrant. I think this, like the exchange between Rogue and Captain America has nuances that aren’t being appreciated, but I’ll grant the point that the demographic disparity and the destructive capabilities of the setting ensure that it doesn’t take broad support by non-mutants to enact a pogrom. Even before the revelation of Bastion, the idea of an attempt to kill as many mutants in one place as physically possible and ruin the illusion of safety wasn’t that far fetched: with or without the support and sanction of major world governments.

That Magneto would respond to the Genosha massacre with disproportionate force, and let’s call it what it is: killing humanity including quite a lot of mutants, is not the writers turning on Magneto. It’s who Magneto is in the animated series and at the moment in comic lore it’s based on. Who Magneto is is a mutant supremacist. Separation from Sapiens was never just about safety. Magneto wanted to build a parallel culture. Not for the sake of creating a culture and the beauty of creative endeavors but because of mutant chauvinism.

Because the setting is what it is, Charles the assimilationist is doomed. If the rubric for success is mutant safety and equality across the board, then it’s simply unachievable because tiny cabals of madmen can cobble together salvaged alien tech, secrets from the future, and knock off Stark tech to unleash horror that is obscenely difficult to prevent and doesn’t require widespread societal consent.

Charles chooses not to blame the people just trying to live day to day for the actions of hate filled mad scientists and lynchers.

Magneto blames the masses for not recognizing and stopping the threat in their midst, sees their inaction as complicity, and even if they are blameless then they are camouflage within which existential threats to mutants conceal themselves and if Magneto has to burn down the whole village or planet to deny genocidal schemers their cover, that’s what he’ll do. He’ll kill as many non-mutants as it takes to feel safe because he did not value their lives prior to Genosha, did not feel they valued mutant lives, and he has always viewed mutant lives as more valuable. Genosha ratcheted that up to genocidal rage.

Revolutionary, terrorist, oppressed, and oppressor are not static categories. Real life figures and fictional characters can slide between them very easily because monsters can make valid points and victims can do monstrous things. A correct observation about society doesn’t justify the monster’s darkest desires and suffering doesn’t make evil deeds justified.

That’s the point. That’s always been the point of X-Men. It’s not cops and robbers, bigots vs good people, it’s the struggle of everyone not to judge everyone else by the worst thing a member of the other group has ever done. Magneto and Bastion are the faces of giving in to rage and fear. Succumbing to the easy moral certainty of collective punishment and of the rationalizations provided by their respective supremacies. They always were. Even when they were making sense. Especially when they were making sense.

Epilogue: (Tolerance is Extinction pt 3 spoilers)

It’s never too late though to step off the path of the tyrant. Better early but late is better than never.

[sekceesimps]

Shimmering Through Darkness (a Zhongli x reader oneshot)

summary:   Rex Lapis finally retires and allows for Zhongli to spend time with his darling. Basically just tooth rotting Zhongli retirement fluff with a lil spice!  (tried to make reader GN)

a/n  Schlongli is so sexy I can’t. This man is literally my entire reason for shifting. Hope all of you enjoy some fluffy Zhongli. Leave some feedback and drop a request! 

Sincerely Coffee 

Rex Lapis had been tired for so long. His responsibilities over the thousands of years in existence had drained him of strength and the will to continue his rule over the land of Liyue. 

He had been wandering the lands and been practically stripped of all purpose in his life. At least, that was until he met you. 

Your meeting had felt fated and arranged by powers far more powerful than him. Zhongli truly believed that the two of you were soulmates and quite honestly he was probably correct. He was ready to spend the rest of his entire life with you, however long that may be. 

Now the two of you had met by chance on one of your work ventures. He had been off at Wuwang Hill for funeral arrangements, a task that he found needless, but was thrust on him by the lack of workers at the parlor. You had gone there to investigate a slew of ghostly sightings, a task which you were loath to do alone. 

He had run straight into you while you were wandering around the houses looking for clues from a mysterious particle. Instantly, he had been captured by your stunning E/C eyes, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and body alert, but still relaxed. You had apologized for bumping into him and all he could do was stupidly stare at you open mouthed as you bashfully rubbed your neck with your hand. Ever the gentleman, he aided you with your commission and accompanied you back to Liyue Harbor. Well, next thing you know he’s inviting you to dinner and a few months later you’re living together. 

Your relationship blossomed much faster than either of you had expected. Zhongli was not going to complain though, every action of yours, as simple as it may be, seemed to spark something within him. Your very existence gave him reason to live and to plan a future that wasn’t a dead end one. 

He had been with many lovers over his years of existence, but none of them made him flustered or dream of keeping them close at his side. Zhongli prided himself on his calm composure, but when you gently ran your fingers across his knuckles or through his long dark hair, he was a blushing and speechless mess. To think that he was once the most fear striking and rageful Archon as you wrapped your arms around his lithe form and rested your chin on his head. 

You hadn’t really been shocked when he had told you that he was Rex Lapis. He was probably more surprised than you when all you did was shrug and leave kisses across his jaw. You truly are perfect for him, he thinks as you pull him to your side on the bed and shower him with love that he had not experienced in thousands of years. 

One of his favorite things to do with you is grasp your hand, lacing your fingers with his, and take you to all his favorite locations in Liyue. Really, his dates are just adventures of their own. He finds so much joy from being able to watch your eyes sparkle as he tells you a tale of a battle or an event that happened at a certain ruin or cliffside. His heart never fails to race when you rest your head on his shoulder and let him hold you close to his side. 

Living together was not something he wanted to ask of you, as you had yet to be married and his traditionalist ideals feared offending you. The concept of marriage was one of which he was beginning to entertain more and more. However, when you begin to stop accepting commissions in faraway regions, choosing to instead stay by his side more often, it leads to you not really being able to have a stable place to lodge. 

He was quick to use the Northland Bank’s funds to purchase a beautiful home slightly north of the bustling harbor. You were a little annoyed that he hadn’t consulted you and you could have paid for it yourself, however the pride in his eyes of being able to provide for you (ahem Childe provided for you, but neither of you say anything) just filled you with acceptance over the new developments. Shortly after, you decide to invite him to stay with you, not really knowing if he had even had a place to sleep in the first place. 

Zhongli preened under the attention you gave him at home. Almost every night, the two of you had accustomed yourselves to wrapping in eachothers arms and basking in the warm embrace of the other. These wonderful moments in your shared home gave him more meaning than he’d ever had before. His existence was now only to please and provide for you and your happiness. 

Retirement was an idea, just a faraway dream, that he could never be able to accomplish. He had his duties in Liyue! The people needed him to stave away threats and preside over the land. Yet, Zhongli no longer wanted to have dominion over Liyue, instead, he wanted to finally rest at your side. As the people of Liyue began to grow more self-sufficient, he began to see it fit to depart.

He had let the idea simmer in his mind for years, but now his plans could possibly reach fruition. He wasn’t like the Mondstadt Archon, Barbatos. Freedom was not his forte, he was the Archon of contracts. The great Rex Lapis had sworn to protect these people in the place he called home. As his definition of home shifted from the vast and diverse lands and mountainscapes of Liyue towards you and the warmth and love that you provided, his decision became clear. These people could care for themselves for the time being, and he wasn’t going to be going too far. 

When he broke the news to you, he had blushed at the way a smile broke across your face and you embraced him with fervor. He had planned for you two to live in your small home near the Guili Plains, but your begging to live somewhere with a few more people prompted him to decide to move to Qingce Village. After all, his home was wherever you were. 

You were the one who had to do most of the working and wage earning as he had no mora. He felt a bit guilty when you would come home exhausted every few days and he was just brewing some tea for the two of you. To be fair, the tea he made was very good and he was trying to master how to cook certain dishes so he could please you. 

Traditional husband and wife roles had shifted considerably as Zhongli was staying home and cooking and cleaning while he waited for you to come home from work. Your home itself was located in the outskirts of the village, allowing for a slightly longer travel, but privacy that Zhongli now desired. He was more and more relaxed and trusted you enough to mostly shed his troublesome human form. 

His draconic features were more apparent as he relaxed by your side in the spacious home. His golden eyes had a more prominent glow and two sharp curved horns protruded from his head. His nails were longer and more sharp and some days, parts of his skin would be shiny with scales. He was still in a human form for your convenience, however it helped him rest when he showed parts of his real body. Perhaps one day he’d show you his true self, but he’d have to do it in a secluded area, he is supposed to be dead after all.  

Zhongli in retirement was far more interested in children than he would have thought. While you might not have been technically married yet, something which he was eager to fix, he still wanted to start a family with you. After several long talks you decide to hold off for the moment, whether you want to have children or not, Zhongli is anxious to one day expand the home the two of you have created. 

Truly, he is much more domestic and eager to help you in any way he can. Especially in the bedroom. As he is slightly more dragon like now, those features seep into your more intimate moments. He’s more keen on marking and claiming you than he was before. Probably because he views you as his and is loath to allow others near you. He’s definitely more soft than before and prefers to have you guide the way. His yearning for that domestic life has really give you more control. It’s also given him a renewed focus on your pleasure and on taking care of you afterwards. 

Zhongli is glad that he found you. You’ve given him a sense of normalcy, a home, and love which he has never really felt before. You are his guiding light, his reason for life, and person he  wants to protect above all else. As his soulmate, you’ve cut through the darkness of the past several hundred years and provided him with everything he never knew he needed. 

a/n I’m currently writing Genshin NSFW HCs and I elaborate more about Zhongli there, so keep your eyes peeled! Hope you enjoyed this piece though. 

[eastgaysian]

i think the progression of dak-wai and astarion's early relationship is literally the funniest thing ever btw i should elaborate on it probably. (long unorganized rambling below)

dak-wai wakes up on the nautiloid remembering fuck all but with an uncomfortable sense that something external to them/outside of their control is urging them towards violence. basically all they know is they don't want to die. they're running on pure survival instinct and if they stop moving for one second they'll freak out about not having any clue what's going on but then astarion holds them at knifepoint and they actually calm down and go. Wait I know what to do here. (headbutts him). at no point does it occur to them this is a bad first meeting or a reason to distrust him. if anything the kind of violent reactivity astarion and lae'zel display is something immediately comprehensible and familiar when literally everything else about the situation isn't.

dak-wai's #1 priority is tadpole removal so initially they don't want to get involved in the grove past asking nettie for help (then they do kill her when she tries to poison them). astarion and lae'zel think this is sensible and cool. they run into gandrel without astarion, go 'ok well astarion isn't a vampire he's been walking around in the sun with me for the past three days. why would i tell you where he is if you're going to say something that ridiculous.' < doesn't occur to them that it's weird to be defensive of a shifty guy they've known for three days. he's useful to have around and he feels oddly familiar they'd prefer to keep travelling with him. dak-wai is kind of weirdly tolerant/non-reactive in general, so initially it doesn't read as strange behavior towards him in particular, astarion just thinks they're kind of gullible when they tell him about it later and buy his fake cazador story.

dak-wai murdering alfira is a weird turning point because for astarion he's like Ohh i see you're actually a sicko! that's cool i'm down with murder. but dak-wai has a breakdown over it and becomes a paladin in the hopes that an oath + divine guidance will help them maintain control over the urge. lathander save me.. lathander. save me lathander. astarion thinks this is fucking ridiculous she's already dead girl move on. stop why are you telling zevlor you'll help his people now. however dak-wai has imprinted on wyll as their moral compass so it's too late. you're going to get dragged on Good Quests now white boy. the minicomic alfira burial situation is the only time they get into an actual argument about morals, mostly astarion complains and dak-wai ignores him

astarion trying to bite dak-wai after this and dak-wai being fine with it is i think when astarion internally goes What's your fucking deal? I'm clearly benefitting from it so I probably shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth but seriously what's the fucking deal. This can't just be you being a gullible pushover something's up. for the record dak-wai doesn't perceive him as a threat at all, they could pick him up one-handed, him killing them by drinking too much blood is not even a possibility. like if you asked them why they let astarion have a sippy they'd go if it makes him stronger why not it's practical. i'm tough and i can lesser restoration myself. but there is some level of passive suicidality vs desperate self-preservation tug of war where being useful in a sacrificial way without killing something is meaningful to them/the only other way they can conceive of being useful.

(orin is responsible for many of dak-wai's scars. a significant portion of those scars were inflicted during their mid-teens and intended to be lethal. most of those situations ended with dak-wai holding orin tightly, half to restrain her and half to comfort her. by the time they were in their twenties orin gave up trying to understand why dak-wai never retaliated, and could never quite decide whether it was weakness or whether it was because they wanted to be killed, or whether those were the same thing.)

by act 2 they've kind of settled into their weird pseudo-sibling mode. astarion's crossed off 'does dak-wai want to have sex with me??' as a possible explanation for their behavior and concluded he just doesn't get it. it definitely doesn't hurt that their party leader who is a jacked paladin is inexplicably fond of him. the first time anyone hears dak-wai laugh is when one of his bitchy comments gets a little chuckle out of them. most people assume dak-wai isn't receptive to Bits because their resting expression is 😐 but astarion is annoying and has decided it's safe to toe the line so he keeps being like. how would you want to be murdered? how do you think our companions' blood would taste? and dak-wai more or less humors him in their deadpan way which just encourages him to keep treating them like the straight man in faerun's weirdest double act.

they're self-recognition through the other (derogatory) they piss each other off all the time. they're similar people who can't possibly understand each other. astarion thinks dak-wai is a rigid killjoy whose self-sacrificial thing is unnecessary and they'd feel better if they accepted that they're good at killing, it makes them unfuckwithable, he thinks they're squandering the strength and opportunities given to them that he never got. dak-wai desperately needs to believe that they can be better and control themselves and is endlessly frustrated by astarion refusing to believe that's a valid option. nevertheless dak-wai is fiercely defensive of astarion's wellbeing and autonomy and refuses to stop saying we can both be good and it'll be worth it. Be Nicer. astarion is a bitch but he's never scared of dak-wai which means a lot to them, and his constant complaining about them being a good person counterintuitively makes them go. You think i'm a good person...? so his presence is weirdly reassuring to them

anyway they're a bonded pair and if you separated them they'd start eating drywall. this dialogue specifically is still so crazy for their relationship. girl dak-wai had nothing but shame and fear because they couldn't conceive of themself as anything other than a killer

big fan of dak-wai and the 'replacing orin with astarion' concept

thank you. it's such an important concept to me even though it only makes sense with my specific imaginary version of dak-wai and orin's relationship and dak-wai and astarion's relationship

[tonyglowheart]

okay the more I think about this, the more I like this idea

So, premise is that I'm not sold on Tim as Red Hood in reverse batfam AUs, since like if any of them Get why Batman can't kill (both as like the symbol/title bc otherwise GPD couldn't be friendly or tolerant of the Bat as an official stance, and as like a personal line for Bruce), it'd be Tim imo.

so I'm thinking, it'd be interesting if his death wasn't caused by Joker (passe, tired, society has progressed past the need for Joker), and instead the second Batlad's death was caused by a freak accident in the middle of a Riddler scheme. It's the kind of thing where, yeah Riddler caused them to be in the situation, but the death itself isn't *really* Riddler's fault. It's tragic and a lot of blame all around and a lot of ppl blaming themselves. Riddler retires from villainy afterwards out of grief and guilt tho.

Years later, when Jason is the new Batlad (I think he still tried to steal the wheels off the Batmobile, but he gave Bruce a much-needed wakeup call when he like hit him with a tire iron and shouted how everyone on the streets knows to avoid the Bat now since Batlad died, everyone knows he's gotten more brutal and less discerning and almost as bad as the villains, or even worse bc at least some of the rogues abide by honor amongst thieves/the street folk. etc etc Batman takes him to Bruce who takes him in, Jason is suspicious bc why would the Bat take him to Bruce of all ppl even tho it's an open secret the Bat is funded by Wayne, maybe even a rumor that the Bat IS Bruce Wayne, and he finds the Cave and extorts Bruce into taking him on as Batlad, partly so Jason can also give back and partly so he can keep an eye on Bruce, the big dummy)-

But years later, a new.... villain? vigilante? antihero? emerges, calling himself Enigma. He sets up these elaborate tests of morality for bad guys - not necessarily rogues but like. corrupt politicians, dirty cops, biased judges or prosecutors, etc. - wherein they're given an elaborate scheme, kind of like a Saw trap ig but it's always fair, there's always a chance for the person to make a moral choice/personal sacrifice that shows they're more than just corrupt or self-serving. Batman thinks it's Edward Nygma, come out of retirement to dabble in the antihero field, and tracks him down- but no, he is retired, and has been growing his business designing and selling escape room designs for years now. He has no clue who this new guy is or what his deal is. So back to square one.

The first couple times, this new Engima guy is pretty good at diverting Batman from interfering and his schemes go off, more often to the detriment/death of the guy being tested- tho a couple times it did work and the ppl in it came out changed. Traumatized, ofc lol, but like with a change in perspective and priority. But eventually, Batman starts wising up to the diversions, and eventually it's revealed that Enigma is Tim. And, well, the clues WERE there for Bruce to see, if he'd just seen them.

I think this works w Tim not being able to fully return to the fold, bc like having died himself he knows just how incentivizing for personal change the threat of real actual death can be. He may not be setting out to kill people, but he's also not averse to setting up situations where they may well die. Maybe as he starts returning more to the fold, he pivots to being sort of Oracle-like, where he deals more with information and giving the Batfam tip-offs and leads or info support, in addition to like patrolling on the ground maybe. But like, patrolling wouldn't be his main gig, I feel like he'd become sort of information mastermind/broker, the way Jason took on being like a mob boss so he could control the trade better to prevent kids from getting involved, etc.

But anyway, for me I feel like this works as a concept better, where Tim is the one who died and came back and then occupies a sort of Batfam adjacent but unable to bring himself back fully into the fold concept, vs a straight "Tim is Red Hood" concept.

[lailyn]

This Magical Journey Called Multiple (Chapter 2)

“Now will you let me take your blood?”

“Nothing I say will stop you." With a resigned sigh, Loki slowly straightened his arm in consent. "If it must be done." 

The incessant complaining continued, regardless. “Know that I hate this.”

“Duly noted, my dear," Stephen murmured. "You're such a great patient."

“Don’t sound so disappointed.”

“For someone so fond of knives, you sure are critical about needles.” Stephen found a juicy vein in the bend of Loki’s elbow, and pressed the tip of his syringe at the plumpest point. “Sharp prick.”

The tension in Loki's muscles did not let up even after Stephen had removed the needle. 

Handing the blood sample to one of Tony’s robots to be processed, he gently patted Loki’s arm where the needle mark was already fading as Stephen watched. "You can relax now. It's done."

Loki mustered a half-smile but something was still amiss.

Stephen narrowed his eyes. "Is your stomach hurting again?"

"Some," Loki admitted reluctantly. "It's not that bad."

"I call bullshit," Tony said darkly. "We practically had to carry you."

"Half-carry," Loki corrected, raising his head off his tiny pillow to glare at Tony, who had been standing silently in the far corner of the room ever since they returned from the farmers market. "If you hadn't freaked out and given me a moment like I asked instead of crying to Stephen, I would have recovered in time." 

But before Tony could counter-argue, Loki proved himself wrong when the pain returned in full force, cleaving him in two and leaving him panting for breath. 

That was the last straw. Tony stepped out of the shadows and grabbed the hand grasping the side of the bed in a white-knuckled grip. “Bambi.”

Stephen watched the beads of sweat form on Loki's forehead. "Pain scale of one to ten, where are you at?”

Loki shook his head in denial.

“Stephen, he’s not talking. Why isn’t he talking?”

“He’s trying to think of a number to throw us off.”

With a feverish roll of his eyes, Loki held up his right thumb and first two fingers.

Tony allowed himself to relax slightly. “A three. That’s not so bad, right?”

“It’s a seven,” Stephen said flatly. 

“Huh?”

“That’s finger abacus, the thumb represents a five,” Stephen glowered. “Thinks he’s smarter than us.”

Loki dropped his finger gun. “Sod off,” he muttered. 

“Now is not the time to be difficult, Loki,” Stephen growled. "Did you take any hits in the battle that you failed to mention?"

“No,” Loki grunted. "I had my shield up the whole time. This is new."

But Stephen was already pulling the ultrasound machine closer. "Can't hurt to take a look. Occult internal bleeding can happen long after the initial trauma, doctors miss it all the time."

"How reassuring." Loki squirmed as he tried to find the most comfortable position. The ice-cold gel Stephen was liberally squirting all over his tense abdomen did not help matters.

"Try to hold still."

Loki breathed deeply in and out of his nose, focusing on keeping the fidgeting to a minimum. As gentle as Stephen tried to be with maneuvering the transducer probe, every prod and push sent a fresh shard of pain lancing through his belly. 

"Loki, lower your shield. I need to see if there’s free fluid in your abdominal cavity.” 

"What? What are you talking about?" Loki asked.

“I can't see a thing." Stephen turned the monitor around so they both could see just what he meant. “Look.”

“It’s all black,” Tony said in rising horror. “Why the hell is it black? Are you liquidating inside? Is that what's happening?”

“Not if I can help it…” Stephen murmured distractedly, fingers flying over the knobs and dials but no amount of adjusting seemed to work. “And the word you're looking for is liquefying. Liquidating is what you do when your stock price falls and you start selling your yachts.”

Tony placed his hands on his hips. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”

Stephen ignored him, focusing on the quieter of his two husbands, which was a great worry in itself. “I can’t see the inside of your body, you’re not letting me.”

"It's not me. I'm not doing anything," Loki said, sounding more breathless than Stephen would like. 

Tony must have thought the same. He turned the knob controlling the supplemental oxygen supply on the wall and cajoled Loki into wearing the nasal cannula. Unsurprisingly, he succeeded. It was something Tony would always be better at doing than Stephen, getting Loki to do stuff he did not want to do, and Stephen was forever grateful for it.

“Well, something’s blocking the sonic waves."

"Blocking?" 

Stephen nodded, allowing himself a moment of relief. Loki seemed to be breathing a bit easier now. 

"It’s like your abdomen’s made of solid rock,” he said, mind racing as he pondered their next move. “You need a CT scan. Is the blood test ready? I have to see if the kidney function’s okay if we’re thinking of giving you contrast.”

Tony typed away on the console for a few seconds. “Yeah. I’m bringing the results up right now.” 

Stephen reluctantly left Loki’s side and joined Tony at the computer. “Let’s see…” 

He scrolled down quickly before something caught his eye and he stopped. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Tony peered over Stephen’s shoulder. “What is it? What do you see?”

Stephen backed away from the monitor, looking spooked all of a sudden. “Maybe it’s not acoustic impedance at all...” 

Tony frowned. The look on Stephen’s face was not sitting right with him at all. “What isn’t? If you don’t start sharing what you know, I swear I am going to kick your ass.”

“Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the ultrasound. Maybe something is cancelling it out.” Stephen turned around very, very slowly. “Loki. Is there any chance that you could be pregnant?”

“What?” Loki balked. “No!” 

“Are you sure?” Stephen asked carefully. “It’s not like you have a discernible ovarian cycle to guide you.”

“I don’t need one,” Loki retorted, but the first glimmer of doubt crept into his voice. “What makes you think I am?”

“Your hCG level’s elevated," Stephen said. 

When Loki stared at him blankly through eyes glazed with pain, Stephen figured he should elaborate.

“It’s a marker of pregnancy and testicular carcinoma, but the latter takes slightly longer to kill you and isn’t a concern for right now.”

“This is a nightmare.” Tony sank into a chair and buried his face into his hands. “A fucking nightmare.”

“Stop being so dramatic, Stark,” Loki scoffed. "Why can't it be the latter? I do have a sizable pair."

“To confirm that, we need another panel of special blood tests that I will definitely take from you later,” Stephen said, blatantly ignoring Loki's poor attempt at humor. “One thing at a time.”

"I am not pregnant. Don't you think I would know if I were?"

"It's a moot question, considering there is no precedent for the current situation."

"I have been pregnant before."

"Not by us humans."

There were many things about Stephen Loki found endearing, too many to count, but there was a smugness to his persona whenever his husband put on his doctor hat...not that it was any more authoritative than his usual self, but definitely a lot less tolerable. In things concerning magic, Loki was easily his equal if not superior. But now, struggling with this awful pain in his gut, he was at Stephen’s mercy. 

Even so, Loki was not going to back down without a fight. “My contraceptive spells are infallible.”

“Spells can fail.”

Loki was out of the bed so fast he was a blur of shadow flying across the room toward them.

"Stephen - " Tony leaped forward.

Stephen fumbled as he tried to conjure a defence against whatever was coming, but before he knew it, Tony's fast reflexes kicked in and he caught Loki in mid-collapse, “Hey, easy, easy!”

As Tony lowered him to the floor, Loki buried his face as deeply as he could in Tony’s chest in the hope that it would stifle his scream, of pain and rage alike. "Did you do this?"

“What?” Tony strained to hear him amid the alarm blaring from the monitors from which Loki had extricated himself in his frenzy. 

“Not you.” A green eye stared out accusingly from the crevice of their interlocking arms. “Him.”

Stephen's heart thundered in his chest. He knew when something was meant for Tony, and when it was meant for him. “I did not.”

Tony swivelled his head. “Stephen, what is he talking about?”

“There is only one being in this world powerful enough to counter my spells,” Loki spat. “Is this your doing?”

“I would never do that to you,” Stephen said heatedly. “How could you even think that?”

“Bambi,” Tony said anxiously when Loki’s form began trembling in his arms. “Bambi, calm down.”

Stephen braced himself once more against the onslaught of daggers or fists or magic but no threat of any kind came forth. He watched the light leave Loki’s eyes like a candle snuffed and heard Tony shout out a warning. “Loki!” 

Stephen lunged to grab their listing husband and managed to save Loki’s head from hitting the floor, only just. 

“Loki,” he called urgently. True fear gripped his heart when Loki remained motionless. “Help me, Tony.”

They wrestled with Loki’s long limbs and together, they carried him over to the bed. 

“What the hell is going on?” Tony asked frantically. “Stephen?”

Stephen ignored him, focusing instead on reattaching the wires and cables that would connect Loki once more to the vital signs monitor. He did not speak until a blood pressure reading came back; it was borderline low but satisfactory for now, given the normal pulse rate and heart rhythm. 

“He’s fine,” Stephen said gruffly. “He just passed out.”

Tony growled, “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” 

He picked up a limp hand and rubbed it furiously between his palms. 

“He’s freezing. Why is he freezing? It’s like ninety-degrees in here,” he rambled, “And I don’t know if I heard you right the first time, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I swear I heard you say Loki was pregnant.”

“I did.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Tony pleaded.

Stephen sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. “Wish I could.”

“Are you sure?”

“I can’t be sure.” Stephen studied Loki’s wan face and the desire to just dip his astral fingers into his husband’s abdomen to take a look inside was overwhelming. He killed the thought before desperation could breathe it to life. “There’s one thing we haven’t tried. Another ultrasound.” 

He met Tony’s eyes across the bed. “Transvaginally.”

“What are you waiting for?” Tony demanded. 

Stephen bit the inside of his lip. “I don’t know how.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tony’s voice shrilled. “You’re supposed to know everything!”

“About brains, not babies!” Stephen exploded. “I think I need to talk to Christine.”

Tony’s face changed. He pulled Stephen by the sleeve of his shirt to a corner, the farthest he could go while still keeping Loki in his line of sight and out of earshot. 

“Christine? As in your ex?” he hissed.

“She’s a doctor, Tony, and a damn good one too. She’s seen her fair share of strange things and ambiguous genitalia is nowhere near up there.”

“Okay, I don’t know if you can’t hear yourself or if you’re being an ass on purpose, but you’re being an ass!”

Stephen opened his mouth to protest, but Tony beat him to the punch. 

“Never mind how I feel, but you and I both know how Loki feels about her! No shade on Christine, coz I’m sure she’s great but - ” Tony’s knight’s-move thinking took him off course, “Ambiguous? Really?” 

Stephen stared. What’s so wrong with what he said? “That...is the clinical term, if you must know.”    

“I don’t give a shit. You don’t say things like that,” Tony seethed. “I’ve never been surer of what Loki is and what he has, and what he has is not a fucking cul-de-sac!”

“I know that, and that is why I’m trying to get to the bottom of this because I know what’s at stake!” Stephen’s voice rose in pitch to match Tony’s. “I am not going to argue semantics with you when Loki could be having an ectopic pregnancy that could kill him at any minute while we stand here fighting!”

Tony instantly deflated. “I’m not fighting.”

“Good!” Stephen snapped. A guilty look instantly flashed across his face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.”

“No, I get it. You’re worried about Loki,” Tony sighed heavily. “And I’m sorry too. I just - I can't - " his voice caught in his throat, "You're probably used to it, but I can't stand seeing him like this."

"You never get used to seeing someone you love hurting," Stephen said quietly.

Tony's gaze softened. "Yeah." His thumb rubbed comforting circles on the back of Stephen's scarred hand. "I've got your back."

Stephen smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Tony."

When they turned around to return to Loki, the sight awaiting them froze them in their tracks. 

"Oh shit," Tony breathed. "No, no, no…"

Everywhere they looked they saw ice, creeping across the tiles from where the examination table was bolted to the floor and spreading toward the computers and sensitive medical equipment surrounding it.

Still deeply unconscious, Loki's Aesir glamour had fallen away, revealing his Jotun form, skin as blue as the slab of ice he was lying on.

[oil-bh]

(Note: I'm using the pronouns I headcanon for the characters. Hank: they/any, they/them preference. Jebediah: he/him. Tricky: it/any. Phobos: He/Him. The Auditor: any. 2B: he/it)

THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY... I think about the Sleepwalkers a lot. My self insert is also Sleepwalker (who managed to keep their sanity and be found by some people and brought back to health) because that project specifically just rots my mind so so much. Like it's actually fucking horrifying when you think about it for more than 20 seconds.

I think it makes a lot of sense in the worldbuilding for madcom if Hank was formerly a Sleepwalker - Hank's shown repeatedly to have very high-level combat skills and to be able to survive things that would kill other grunts, like that train sequence with Tricky. Additionally, in the game, Sleepwalkers get better at combat every time they die, and Hank seems to do similarly, improving and developing after each instance of dying. The only difference is that Hank isn't connected to the self-destructing head gear, and their sanity is very much debatable, like the Sleepwalkers.

Sleepwalkers were created by Jeb as a means to get Project Zed shut down or at least abandoned, but Phobos trained them to be His private army instead. I feel like that point especially could explain some of Hank's relationships with other characters:

Jebediah - Jeb and Hank have a long history of absolutely hating each other. Jeb hates how violent Hank is, and view them as a threat to the armageddon that he thinks he needs to bring about. However, in the Sleepwalker Hank HC, I think this can be expanded on a LOT. Jeb has a long and negative history with Phobos, the Zeds, etc. I think that seeing Hank running around and killing people would lead to Jeb viewing Hank as a remnant of Phobos, even after the events of MPN. I think that could be a key motivating factor for his behaviours of targeting Hank and his brief alliance with the AAHW. I think it could also feed into how his character is pretty implied to be delusional and how he might be having stress/trauma responses to seeing Hank, thinking that Hank could be a Generation One grunt with the ability to ascend like Phobos tried to do.

Tricky - Formerly being one of the Nexus Scientists and now being a Zed itself, I think Tricky has a hell of a lot of motivation to hate Hank. I think it'd also be interesting if Tricky sort of like... projected? onto Hank. It has a history of saying things like "you don't kill clown, clown kills you" and while that could be brushed off as a rivalry dynamic or something, I think it'd made more sense if Tricky's former status as a Nexus scientist has rendered its mind more intact than other Zeds, and therefore intact enough to feel a sort of self-loathing or twisted perception of feeling inferior as a Zed and how Sleepwalkers were presented as so much better than Zeds were.

AAHW - Okay, hear me out on this one. I mentioned briefly that I HC the AAHW as a branch that split off from Nexus Core, and I want to elaborate on that. I think Nexus/Phobos realized how dangerous the Sleepwalkers could be if they weren't controlled, since they're always being fed combat data. That said, I think that after Hank somehow got loose or otherwise separated and no longer under Nexus'/Phobos' control, they started training people to seek out and hunt down Hank. Those people then later formed the AAHW and then fully split off from Nexus either due to Phobos' death or due to the Auditor inserting himself into their ranks, eventually twisting some of their morals to suit her ideas.

SQ and 2B - I really, really think that 2B was a former Nexus scientist and not just an ex-AAHW member. I headcanon him to have overseen some of the experiments in Nexus Core before being transferred to what would later become the AAHW. I think it never had the same Hank-centric plans of capture and/or destruction, but that he still had a lot of interest in Hank. Enough to possibly be connected to experiments like them to have gotten loose or escaped. I really think that he was behind these sorts of things as one of the original Dissenters and with its early ideas that would later found Status Quo.

Anyway hehe... that's my little ramble. I should seriously doodle more of this HC and the other HCs that take place in my personal AU/interpretation of Madness Combat. Have some extra little tidbits for this HC!! :

Hank is semi-verbal (like me!) because speech wasn't prioritized in the Sleepwalker Program.

They also don't have many general education skills (reading, writing, math, etc) for similar reason as above.

Hank goes into a dissociated autopilot state sometimes during combat.

The goggles and mask feel comforting and familiar to the mask that they wore during the experiments.

Hank has an interest in non-combat things such as guitar lessons and volleyball tryouts, but has a difficult time picking them up because they're so accustomed to combat.

They're somniphobic and will often push themself as far as physically possible to avoid sleeping; often 2B is the one relaxing them into resting. This is why Doc is stated to be the only one to know Hank's soft side, their weaknesses.

Hank developed DPDR as a result of the Sleepwalker Project, since that half-awake and half-asleep state suspended their brain into dissociative states and experiencing reality in a foggy way.

Can you tell that I think about this ALL of the time...

I need to figure out how to draw Hank 😭😭 my headcanon for them is that they were a Sleepwalker and somehow managed to get separated from the Nexus stuff, and that because they were a Sleepwalker, it’s the cause of all their combat skills and why they just randomly started killing in the first episode, and also the general violence… and then maybe that led to a faction of Nexus Core becoming the AAHW (also a headcanon that the two groups were affiliated at some point if not from the same original group and later divided) to take Hank down because they are watching the consequences of their actions via Hank. I’m very tired and in a time cramp so this isn’t very cohesive but Imve been thinking of this headcanon for years

[swimfuel]

Hey!! The X-men are literally my favorite thing and I was wondering if you could elaborate on how Scott is a knight of doom

YES OF COURSE!!!! i'll put it under a cut since i tend to ramble a bit & i'm pulling a bunch of explanations from people smarter than i am

the knight weaponizes their aspect; they have an inherent understanding of their aspect that allows them to exploit it completely. doom is the aspect of systems, restrictions/limitations, sacrifices, and endings.

one of scott's core themes is reclaiming his restrictions in order to serve others/the greater good! he takes the possible liability that are his faulty powers and shifts them to become an advantage, largely through the strength of his restraint and discipline. his role as a tactician and the way he sees sacrifices (more on that later) also mesh EXTREMELY well with the knight of doom.

i feel like the Wh*don run (specifically astonishing x-men #22-23) really highlights how scott can turn a situation on its head through exploiting his disadvantages to the point where they become tactically advantageous!! like, let's count the ways:

the ship the x-men stole from kruun is obviously bugged, so his team won't be able to communicate without being overheard. he realizes this, and uses that restriction (being overheard) as an advantage, by falsifying their course of action.

he has been left "without his powers"—he presents a restriction that lowers the guard of his adversary and grants him entry to their home base. he then subverts this by exploding the shit out of everything when an opportune moment arrives

HE LITERALLY EXPLOITS DEATH...... HE EXPLOITS HIS OWN DEATH...................FOR THE GREATER GOOD..........DUDE???? someone get this man an advil

some more thoughts, followed by some examples by people smarter than me:

he exhibits a similar pattern of idolization/realization with xavier irt karkat/HICand dave/bro.... not sure if this by itself is a knight-y thing but i think the consistent disillusionment with their role in defending their aspect is interesting (aka knight burnout, more on that later)

he is def willing to sacrifice shit for the greater good of mutantkind. the shit in question sometimes being his closest friends and allies. the examples that stick out to me are how he allowed beast to get tortured (utopia era) while executing his plan to solve All His Problems At Once & also when he sent x-force to the future to defend hope knowing it was going to be a one-way trip

that entire issue revolving around just how GOOD scott is at self-repression😭😭😭 i'm pretty sure it's post-schism utopia era i don't remember the exact issue WAIT NVM i'm pretty sure it's uncanny #518

seeing phoenix!scott as an inversion to (rogue of) life is also an interesting concept (unchecked growth!)

the amount of responsibility he feels he has to take on (partially due to his idolization cycle w xavier/xavier's dream) is also both knight-y and doom-y

and of course the instinct to protect the people around him --> being expanded into the whole of mutantkind (which, in turn, expands his sense of obligation)

everything leading up to revolutionary cyclops is also very interesting through this framework because its reminiscent of the knights & doom players in hs! the "taking on an insane burden" (phoenix force, whatever whammied mituna) -> the "resignation to the fate handed to him by his aspect" (his stint in prison, dead daves, sollux in general) -> the "refusal to accept that fate" (prison break, dave not wanting to use time travel, sollux fucking off into the dreambubbles, karkat coming to terms w his relationship w leadership) --> experiencing knight burnout at the end of revolutionary era going into death of x

im not sure exactly how to put it into words but everything about his childhood/teenhood... like being surrounded by forces seeking to control him and use him for their own ends..... idk

(from @/land-of-classpects-and-analysis, sections highlighted red are of particular interest)

HIS GIANT STINKING MARTYR COMPLEX.....DUDE😭😭

side note & ive mentioned this before but scottjean is an interesting parallel to davejade in a way i cant verbalize

Then there are the ones who may accept [the fact of inevitable human suffering], and so choose to live in high alert of any danger - any threats - as well as living in fear of what harm may befall them and/or their loved ones. It is this third and final group of people that so deeply marks that of the Knight of Doom.

Now, this might cause a few eyebrows to become quirked. After all, a Knight? Being fearful of something - nevertheless that thing being related to their Aspect? Knights do often present themselves as ruthless and fearless warriors, yes, but that is only because their Aspects and the world around them raised and called them to act as such. 

... A key factor in the Knight’s life, specifically before their journey truly begins, is that they are already well equipped with their Aspect.

... The Knight of Doom is one where their Aspect being all around them is far more bittersweet than anything else.

... What is important to acknowledge is that the facade the Knight of Doom puts up is not only to hide the fear they have for their Aspect, but it is most definitely there to hide the grief and pain they have not yet completely finished going through. Whether it’s been weeks or years, the Knight of Doom is someone who would rather hide themself away from these feelings than find a way to truly mend and heal them ... they have built a false wall between them and their suffering strong and thick enough to partially block it from their memory. 

... Knights are known to become extremely stubborn whenever people try to order them around and pressure them into doing something, and the Knight of Doom is no different - especially if they believe what they are doing is for the greater good. 

(from @/dahniwitchoflight)

Dahni’s Explanantion: “Doom can be a negative force that rejects and harms, fostering a sense of hostility or sadness. But, it is also the idea that you can pull backwards and cautiously and wisely withdraw into your own self.  It can be the idea of Control taken from the sharp Black and White Restrictions that everything in the world gets sorted into. It understands community necessity and need, responsibly pulling back and lowering you down into its lap to help wind yourself down. Doom then is an ultimate gentle Equalizer, instilling its players with an internal sense of Acceptance and eventually true Wisdom.”

Knight of Doom: One who Exploits with Doom or Exploits Doom

Knights hide a fear of a perceived fundamental failure with their Aspect behind a shield of confidence and obsessive effort. Their challenge is to learn to take it down a notch and to understand that they are skilled enough

A Knight is very skilled with using the rules and limitations of any game or session to their advantage. They skillfully fulfill any responsibility or obligation required of them with ease. They might use their natural caution and pessimism to make realistic choices and endeavors. They use and exploit any rule or limit that they can to their advantage. They might also be very good at exploiting any sacrifices made or any obligation or responsibility that they are held to. They might be very good at avoiding any unnecessary thing or person and are very good at recognizing when something is too futile to even bother with.

Likewise they might only focus on the necessary things in their game or session so they are likely to not do much unless it’s absolutely necessary. They would very likely be very meticulous with themselves about following the rules properly and constantly restrict themselves, maybe thinking they aren’t following the rules properly enough or not following the right ones. They might sacrifice anything they consider unnecessary about themselves or the way they live, sometimes even going too far with it, in order to be considered or thought of as less useless. They’re always trying harder and holding themselves to extreme self-imposed standards.

They would likely wait for the opportune moment to strike, though they are slow to move or act, they always will when something necessary needs to happen. Out of all the Doom players, a Knight of Doom seems like the one most likely to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. A Knight of Doom can also expertly use and exploit fire, bombs and explosions to their advantage, maybe they create flashy distractions during fights. They might even use decaying or dying things to their advantage.

(from @/communistvriska)

Role in the Session: Rather like the Prince of Doom, this role’s title kinda has “edgelord” written all over it, but that’s not a set-in-stone character trait. The first thing that comes to mind re: what the Knight Class and the Aspect of Doom have in common is a strong sense of obligation. The Knight of Doom is bound to take their duties and responsibilities Extremely Seriously, perhaps rather too seriously at first ... Knights also tend to be very protective of both their Aspect as a concept, and of themselves and those close to them; while the Knight of Doom isn’t likely to be outwardly aggressive, given Doom’s reserved, slow-burn tendencies, woe betide those who try to deceive or confound the Knight or their allies. One of Doom’s internal contradictions (which I find personally fascinating) is that the aspect is associated both with cynical resignation and with a profound albeit restrained sense of passion and persistence. Doom is what’s left after everything else gets burnt away.

The Knight of Doom will likely be a very skilled combatant, as the Knight is a class strongly associated with Strife / battle, and Doom is one of the more overtly destructive Aspects. I’d put them in the Top 5 Roles to use a cool flamin sword, at least. They’re not going to be eager to fight, per se, but they’re not going to have much trouble scaling the echeladder when it comes to that either. Internally, they’re likely to struggle with a perceived (but largely imagined) inability to fulfill their duties, and they could well stumble once or twice in their quest to be perceived as reliable and stoic, or as someone who their friends can lean on. They’re probably doing more than enough already, but if they’re not careful they might overexert themselves and take on too heavy a burden, and they’re liable to be crushed by their own expectation that they face their challenges alone. This is going to factor into their capital-Q Quest and the environment of their planet, and will be the biggest obstacle in their path to Ascension. A Knight’s duty is to protect their co-players, but their co-players also have to support them.