#i mean it comes with all day 1 copies right? not just pre orders?
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google making me mad rn because i was checking again what the release date for sxs gens was and it told me october 22nd . which didnt sound right but i was really hoping it was right . and it was wrong
#i wish it was coming out on the 22nd .....#not in a ''i cant wait a couple more days'' sort of way#but in a ''this game is coming out at a really inconvenient time for me#and it coming out on the 25th means i probably wont get to play it on release'' sort of way#i mean i technically could try placing a last minute pre order at a store near the place im going#but im literally leaving a day or two before the game comes out which is cutting it very close so idk if that would work ...#if it wasnt for that stupid journal this wouldnt be such an issue lmao i really want it </3#and i think if im going to pre order the least stressful option would be to just pre order it at home and have someone pick it up for me#but then that means i have to wait until i come home a few days after the game comes out to play it ...... which will be so painful ..#i mean it comes with all day 1 copies right? not just pre orders?#but im worried if i dont pre order theyll run out . idkkkkkkk
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"IT'S A GOLDEN AGE FOR THE UNDERWORLD..."
The time of opportunity has well and truly knocked for Kay Vess, our favourite new scoundrel in the galaxy!
Tuesday's release date reveal for Star Wars Outlaws not only confirmed multiple editions (3 days early access for the Gold), but it also came with this 10/10 Official Story Trailer that unveils the first-ever open world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi!
How do we know that, you ask?
Well:
Like no doubt millions of others, I gave a huge point and a scream at my screen when I saw Han in carbonite... Fan service at its finest.
Kay and her companion, the mischievous Nix, will find themselves fighting, stealing, and outwitting their way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as they join the galaxy’s most wanted on 27th/30th August!
So, why pre-order with us at The Game Collection?! I've got 3 undeniable reasons for you...
1 - ALL copies of Star Wars Outlaws will come with a FREE and EXCLUSIVE Steelbook that you won't get anywhere else in the UK! *While stocks last*
2 - The game is in our EXTRA £10 REWARDS promotion, meaning you'll bag yourself an extra tenner of store credit when your pre-order has been dispatched...
3 - We're awesome. (Bias may or may not have played a part in this reasoning).
Gold Edition - 27th August - 3 days early access, Season Pass included, and Pre-order bonus 'The Kessel Runner Bonus Pack':
Standard Edition - 30th August - Pre-order bonus 'The Kessel Runner Bonus Pack':
If you've been frozen in carbonite yourself, or somehow missed the reveal - hit play on the trailer at the top to see just what it's got! (A lot - it has a lot).
Pre-order your copies with the FREE Steelbook right here at The Game Collection!
If you’re willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity...
-Jack
#star wars outlaws#ubisoft#star wars#tgc#thegamecollection#gaming news#kay vess#preorder#gamers#video games#Youtube
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My thoughts on Taylor, as of late
In my opinion, people don't need to speak on every single thing someone else in their life is saying or doing. The issue I have, though, is the fact that she started hanging out with Matty, and has continued to do so, long after his racist and gross comments came to light. When she found out she could have cut him off, but she chose to stay around him.
My friend made the comment the other day that this might be a contractual PR relationship. If that's the case, Taylor needs to fire whoever thought this would be a good idea. I know those sorts of things happen WAAAAAY more often than you'd think, but still. Taylor, look at how frustrated, disgusted, mad, sad your fans are! And maybe more importantly to you, look at how this reflects on you.
And that's the thing, with the announcement of Midnights version 29173, we know she sees what people are saying because she went back in to re-record Snow At The Beach with Lana! Yes I'm sure the new version of Karma (the irony) with Ice Spice was recorded a while back, but again, the fucking optics of it all. It would make a lot more of an impact if Taylor took this moment to let us know that she doesn't tolerate racists and that Matty was out of her life. But he's not so...
And I know the swifties who come for every single person who dares critique Taylor, love to scream about people just making it about her relationships, so I won't. I have PLENTY of critiques about her business dealings too.
I'm not gonna criticize someone, especially a woman, wanting to achieve high levels of success. I've got no problem with a singer branching out into other forms of media. But her recent attempts toward getting recognition in the movie world, and potentially an EGOT if that's her goal, is getting... hamfisted feels like the wrong word here (but it is like 4:45 am right now so forgive me if this isn't my most concise take ever). Carolina wasn't that good of a song, and the movie it was for wasn't it either. Trying to get an Oscar nom for 10 Minute All Too Well? I mean it doesn't hurt to try, but do you really need to do that? Do you really think it was Oscar worthy? It was a good, emotional music video. But if those are the qualifications, I demand a retroactive nomination for The Ghost of You by MCR. That made me feel more in a lot less time. Just saying.
Then we get to the cluster fuck that has been the Midnights era. My list of grievances is long. To start, the fact that no lead single was released ahead of the album is really presumptuous. I know it was a move to say "look how much I can sell without even releasing anything!" But it's frustrating as a fan. Give us something!
And then allllll the different versions. Good lord. So first she announces the album, pre-sales go up. Then a week later "oh yea, here are three more variants!" Two weeks later "Did you get all 4 versions? Because they make a clock!!" Girl we get it, it's called Midnights, this is clearly just a ploy to sell more records to people YOU KNOW will buy multiple copies of the same thing!! Two weeks later "Want a signed version? Now you can order those too!" Then somewhere in there she announces a Target exclusive version with an exclusive song (and two alternate versions of songs on the album). Seriously? So now there are FIVE different variants people can buy and the difference is there is 1 extra song on 1 version.
This is exploiting fans. She knows that people will buy all four and make that dumb clock because she sold kits to put it up on your wall and make it a literal clock! Stringing out the announcements like that is only artificially driving up the sales too so she can say "look how much I sold!"
Then! This one really pissed me off, The 3 AM edition. So after all those versions trickled out, the album drops and "SURPRISE here's ANOTHER version of the album for you to download with all these songs that aren't on ANY of the 5 albums you already bought! And no, they won't be available outside the US."
Come on.
And that's not getting into the 10000 different remixes she has been releasing for all the singles, again doing nothing but driving up numbers. There's making art and earning a living, and then there's exploiting a dedicated fanbase that will spend everything they have just to show support.
And that's what they did when the Eras Tour was announced. Yes I know Ticketmaster was very much to blame for this. Yes Ticketmaster is a disgusting monopoly and needs to be taken down, but that doesn't change she was at the center of it. That doesn't change that she chose to leave dynamic pricing in place, driving up the cost of seats. Not that they were cheap to begin with! But since my friends and I would have to travel at least a few hours, get a hotel, etc, I quickly lost interest in it all. Yes an artist, as they reach the pinnacle of their career, will have more and more expensive tickets, it's expected, but from my perspective, it feels more like watching a dragon sit on its hoard of gold. The only thought given toward the fan seems to be "Well they'll buy it, so I'll sell it!"
And lastly, we know that Taylor knows how to stay out of the spotlight. She did it from 2016 through the majority of 2017. She made an album at that time, she came and went from her homes in that time. But now she can't move without there being a massive pack of fans. We get it, you want to be seen now, so don't cry to us over a lack of privacy at this point. If you really liked Matty you could hide the relationship away instead of flaunting it for the world (Joe) to see. You want us to see you with that edgelord. So do you really care about what your fans feel? Or do you just care how much they'll spend? Because no amount of good songwriting is going to top that.
#god there are so many additional things i wanted to say#but this has been weighing on my mind for a while now so im glad i took the hour to write it down
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venom snake for the character ask thing!!
Send Me a Character to Rant About/5 Things About Them
HO BOY.
Venom my man Venom. I've talked about him, here and here. And a bit more in general across my blog.. But of course, there's always room for more.
Discounting any of the real-world things we know about the MGSV production uhm, issues, I genuinely love Venom’s character and think he’s a neat idea, even when it all breaks my heart. (Seriously, so many brain worms come of thinking about Venom it’s like one leads to another and) I’m also going to be speaking in terms of Venom as being a fully fleshed out character. One that, while a copy of another person, is not that person at the end of the day.
Which I think is even more fascinating. For all that they tried to make him Big Boss 2.0, he is different from the man he’s meant to be, the role he’s meant to play. No amount of hypnosis was capable of erasing him entirely, even if some of those differences are subtle, and lay beneath the surface, they are very much there.
I’m getting ahead of myself here.
Five Things! Let’s calm down a little, shall we?
1. Psychological and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) Issues Aside, Venom has a very grounded personality
It sounds weird as hell to say given how we know Venom to be, but if we take his personality at it’s core for now (as in the personality he has not including medical and psychological issues, just his bare bones personality), Venom seems very grounded. I tie this into his lacking belief in the supernatural, but also in how Venom speaks, carries himself, and behaves. Steady hands, steady mind kind of deal. Venom’s pre-existing personality (Medic) was probably very down to earth, and some of that is reflected as well within the Venom Boss that we know and see throughout MGSV. (It also makes him something of an anomaly within MGS, where most characters are a bit..out there).
This is not to say good old Venom isn’t without his (adorable) quirks, of course. He’s a guy who can fulton animals until he has a functioning zoo. Sure the NGO is one thing, but a player can easily turn Venom into the most animal obsessed man on the planet, eagerly scooping up adorable and deadly animals well beyond the NGO’s requirements. He warms up to DD very fast, despite some early misgivings. He seems to have (had?) a fairly practical personality. His only real caveat with DD being ‘well, I don’t know, I guess he could be if he’s trainable’ and then warming up quite fast once he sees the results. (Which could possibly tie into my belief that Venom is a ‘I believe it when I see it’ kinda guy). I also tie this into his tone of voice, and the way he’ll address people in general. We do hear him yell (not often), but he has one of those low-rumbling timbres that is super pleasant on the eardrums and soothing. I feel like he’d very relaxing to be in the presence of. (Some of this could be my autism talking, he’s just so calm and-)
Right, lets move on.
2. Venom is not a natural leader, but he is very good at it.
Okay, this ones going to take some detailing. We know at the core, Venom was created to be Big Boss. However, the man they made into the Boss was not a leader. He was one of the many soldiers beneath Big Boss. Someone who was a follower. Another men amongst the men type. The status we are told that Medic had above those was being the best of the lot. And he’s given certain privileges because of that. Trusted, and skilled enough to be included in the ground zeroes rescue op. An op so black 99% of the MSF didn’t know it was taking place. Into the heart of one of the most brutal camps on the planet. If Medic was able and well-trusted enough to be included on that, we can assume that this is a man who held some decent level of respect and competence within the MSF.
But that doesn’t mean Medic was a leader. He reacts fairly well and without much argument to orders being given, and is able to carry out anything he’s told to do without too much question. In times where he does make leadership decisions on his own, without someone else (such as Ocelot or Kaz telling him what they want him to do), he’ll keep a firm voice to it. It’s also very interesting that, even after the truth is revealed, Venom’s soldiers continue to stay with him. Even once they are made aware of him not being who they thought he was. Meaning that on some level, Venom has commanded them and earned their respect through some of his own merit. Because if it was solely the mantle of Big Boss keeping them there, they’d leave. I’d think anyway. If nothing else, I believe more friction would’ve been had.
Somehow, he becomes the guy they still follow, regardless of who he is. Maybe there’s friction that happens off screen in this regard, but I am going by what we see as a viewer and player.
3. Venom’s opinion of himself is dark, darker than perhaps others might see him.
I don’t think Venom has the best or highest opinion of himself as a person. I don’t just mean how he tells Kaz *when fully unaware of who he is outside of Big Boss 2.0*, “He’s already a demon’. But one does have to consider where Medic himself came from. A mercenary unit, the MSF. If we take the canon timeline we have for Venom, he was born in California in 1932. Making him around 42 years old when the MSF is sent to the bottom of the ocean in flames. This man was already in middle age and had an entire life before the hypnosis. Venom is 53 years old in 1984, and 63-4 when he dies in 1995. That’s 42 years of man that Ocelot had to spend nine years re-programming. Therefore, I don’t believe this was a fully innocent person before that. You don’t just come into a mercenary unit by chance.
(I am not including the kids, obviously). Venom also suggested to Kaz the idea of using the kids as soldiers, but tbh I don’t actually think he was all that serious about that. And I base this 1. On how pleased he was by Kaz disarming the kid and 2. The reassuring tiny lil half smile that follows. Does Venom have a slightly snarky side? Well, Big Boss did, and he’s been shown to be snarky a handful of short times. Not as much as Big Boss, but it’s there.
“Kaz, I’m having Deja Vu here” (About Huey, when he ‘shows’ them the Battle Gear).
“So what, we’re running a daycare now?” (About the aforementioned kids.)
“That was a fun story, it’d make a good movie.” (To Huey and the cloning story).
All that in turn, I don’t think Venom see’s himself as a terribly good person. He’s under no illusions about what they’re doing (a mercenary group in a growing war economy) and really isn’t pretending to be otherwise. I don’t quite think he goes into self-loathing, because to some degree this is his life and he’s not going to argue with facts. Self-loathing isn’t quite the same as having a low opinion of oneself, but that’s complicated to explain. Either way, I don’t think you’ll be hearing Venom call himself a hero.
But to me, that’s okay. There aren’t many heroes in MGS. I think the series, and it’s characters are too complex to narrow into boxes like that.
4. I don’t know if Venom likes kids, but he’s good with them.
Eli is a special case. Baby Liquid Snake is a very special case. but if we approach this from ‘children in general’ then I think Venom is pretty good with them overall. And were it a more..uhm..regular kid save Eli and very deeply traumatized child soldiers, he’d be quite popular with kids.
He is openly willing to help Eli right off the bat. He’ll bring him to earth (sometimes quite violently) and I don’t know that ‘dislocating a kids arm’ is a good way to get a point across, but when that’s also a kid that’s pulled a knife on you..as I said Eli is a special case.
In general, I think Venom respects kids, but understands that they aren’t adults, and they shouldn’t be handled like adults, but that they can’t quite be totally coddled either. I think he’d be quite willing to bond properly with Eli if Elli was willing and open to it. But we know Eli isn’t and Venom doesn’t (nor does he honestly have time) to force the issue.
This has always made me wonder how he’d be with David. I don’t know if David would be as aggressive as a teen as Eli is/was, but it’s one of those things that’ll pick at my brain sometimes.
5. He’s expressive, but subtly so. (Or not so, depending on how you see it)
Venom being all but nearly mute sometimes is one of the aforementioned in game and out of game controversies, arguments, complaints etc. I’m going to be speaking strictly of the Venom we see in game and pretend no real world exists outside of it here. Because I think the Medic probably wasn’t a hugely talkative kind of guy even pre-Big Bossification, but if one pays attention to Venom, they can see that he’s a lot more expressive and reactive than he’s given credit for. It’s just that he won’t always say so. Like Quiet, most of his emotions are in his face, his body language, how he reacts on a physical level.
Negating the times where the poor guy is visibly disassociating (something he can’t help) or hallucinating (also something he can’t help) and probably fighting off an absolute monster of a migraine (listen, I have chronic migraine, bad enough that there’s scarring on my brain from it, there is no way a guy with shrapnel lodged deep into his brain and said shrapnel getting jostled all the time isn’t having some monstrous headaches) he will be very reactive to things around him.
Little half smiles, tiny chuckles, side-ways smirks. Amused little huffs, tiny head shakes. Fond, exasperated sighs. Grunts, tiny comments, *some that aren’t even picked up by subtitles), scoffing, mumbling, moaning. Eye twitches. Venom has plenty of reactions to the world around him, and people can respond to things with more than just a tone of voice. Maybe he’s not about to give you an essay long poetic speech, but I bet a guy like him would give a fantastic hug. The kind that wraps you up, molds itself over all the tingles in your brain and envelopes your body in warmth and feeling. The kind you can feel even after the hug has broken.
Leaves a lasting impression he does, and I think there’s something to be said about that.
I do have more thoughts, I’m sure, but for now, this seems well rounded.
Thank you for sending in!
#venom snake#mgs#nates headcanons#OH HI ANOTHER NATE ESSAY#ocelots next!#anyway i really love venom a whole lot can you tell can you#mgsv#asks#answered asks#character posts: venom snake
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✨ fic recs ✨
ok so back in like 2014 i watched supernatural for a solid 3 years until they killed kevin and charlie and i got bored of the bmol storyline. now im here again let’s not talk about it. BUT during this time i accumulated a Lot of fic and in the past two months i’ve gone through all 213 of my bookmarks and gone through like every rec list made after s12 in order to read fic set during every specific season while i rewatch the show. because im insane <3 im on s8 rn and wanted to share my list of favourites from each season so far as well as my favourite aus ! they’re all generally nsfw so minors be careful, and also check the warnings ! and i will update this when i finish s15 <3
aus
asunder by rageprufrock (23.8k, e, background samruby)
obviously the most perfect thing to ever exist.
and this, your living kiss by opal_bullets (56k, m, background saileen)
poet dean fic need i say more. part dean studies if dean studies was elaborated on lovingly in detail for 56k words, part gorgeous and beautiful poetry, part incredibly clever commentary on meta and fan allusions, and part stunning exploration of the relationships in the show turned on their heads.
one white little lie by komodobits (11k, gen)
this is SOOO cute. cas is so embarrassing i was covering my face the entire time i was reading it. if u want to be cheered up. read this.
broadway musical by griftings (12k, m)
this is genuinely sooo funny. big “castiel did you fuck the michael sword” energy and jimmy novak as that “am not against gays” tweet, plus jo <3
c-s-t-l by komodobits (90k, m)
i haven't read this in a while but from what i remember it was incredible and also had cassie <3
rest is under the cut because it got long fhjfkfklf
pre-series/season 1-3*
a turn of the earth by microcomets (time travel, 95k, standford era, m)
i think everyone’s read this at this point but if u haven't. what are u doing. go read it. it’s absolutely everything i reread it in the week before the finale without remembering half of the stuff it talked about and i was a WRECK. if u think about standford era dean every day read this. cas punches john winchester in the FACE.
geography by aeli_kindara (3k, teen and up, warnings for discussion of rape/non-con and prostitution)
not dean/cas but a really wonderful and needed conversation with sam and dean during 2x02.
season 4
so says the sword by komodobits (85k, e)
yeah. i dont need to say anything.
consequences of falling by fayjay (37k, e, background samruby, warnings for rape/non-con)
THISSSS FIC. pls it’s perfect literally everything i wanted when i was watching s4 and obsessed with love as an act of worship + ruby and cas parallels. ruby and cas get drunk together! ruby says this: “dean and castiel sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes the fall from grace, then comes battling the hosts of hell and wishing that you’d managed to get your skinny ass laid before the freaking apocalypse”! what more could u want!
named by rc_machlan (94k, m)
literally the best fic in the world i am not going to say Anything if you love dean and angels and the mythology of s4-s5 that was promptly dropped, you absolutely have to read this.
four people ruby seduced & one she actually fell for (or: ruby's epic love affair with humanity in general and sam in specific) by tuesday (3.7k, e, samruby, ruby/jo)
this is more background deancas than anything else and does contain brief, not romantic in any way dean/ruby and dean/cas, but like. if u love ruby (which i do) u have to read this.
season 5
final fantasy by orange_crushed (1.9k, m)
endverse.....this made me want to die
the (mostly accidental) courtship of dean winchester by tuesday (11k, m)
a classic for a reason. really cute and soft and the handprint and cas beating dean up in 5x18 are angelic marriage rites. what more could you ask for.
the girlfriend experience by rageprufrock (15k, explicit)
of Course i mean of COURSE. thee s5 deancas fic.
strike me down and i’ll come back more powerful than you can possibly imagine by trinityofone (10k, gen)
post 5x22 dean and cas rescue sam from hell with the help of some special guests. PERFECT. the only valid good omens crossover.
season 6**
something stupid by zatnikatel (20k, e)
this broke my heart and put it back together. one of my favourite cas characterizations, takes place over s5-s6 and it’s just stunning.
a crash course in someone else’s history by annie d (11k, teen and up)
s4 cas ends up in the body of cas in 6x20. fucking life-ruining.
season 7
make known by domesticadventures (16k, teen and up)
this is a really heartbreaking look at dean’s headspace near the end of s6 and throughout s7, and it’s really wonderful with a hopeful ending.
redemption road by a whole bunch of people (652k, virtual season, explicit)
oh boy. ok. know ur herstory ! this was written from 2011 to 2012 and it is thee s7 fic, a virtual season written by 17 fans all together. it’s very very long and it suffers sometimes from having being written a decade ago, but im making my way through it right now and it still fucking holds up. i really do recommend reading at least some of it, you can stop around halfway through and you should be fine.
season 8***
rinse, repeat by ias (3k, teen and up)
exploration of cas when naomi forces him to kill copies of dean and then his perspective in goodbye stranger.
my keeper by whelvenwings (5k, gen)
another goodbye stranger fic, this time with bonus artist cas!
though the course may change by imogenbynight (51k, e)
au after 8x23. i love this fic so much. dean accidentally ends up making himself have to go undercover with cas and pretend to be fake engaged. also, charlie and kevin. do i need to say more.
apres by imogenbynight (24k, e)
au after 8x23 where dean goes to find cas after the angels fall in paris 🥺
*i have found exactly one bela fic that i loved, and zero henriksen fics that i loved, so IF u have recs for those. i would appreciate that.
**mostly the s6 fics i read were uh...vampire dean fics...
***have found one (1) good dean/aaron fic but im still searching for the perfect purgatory crew fics
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Let me tell y’all a quick story. The story of how I caught James Newton Howard plagiarizing his own music.
It is not Witcher related, but it is fandom related and hopefully it’ll make you laugh.
Picture this: The year is 2003. I am 7 years old and I have a mad case of undiagnosed ADHD that is beginning to rear its lovely head. This is the year the live action Peter Pan movie comes out, starring Jeremy Sumpter. I see it in theatres no less than three times because my life-long hyperfixation was/still is Peter Pan and all things Peter Pan related (if you want to hear me go buckwild… hmu about my boy Petey).
ANYWAY, I love the soundtrack so much that I absolutely beg my mother to buy it for me on iTunes so that I may 1) burn it onto a disc because it’s 2003 and 2) put it on my shitty Meijer-brand mp3 player. She is gracious enough to do so for me because sometimes she’s cool.
I listen to that soundtrack every. Fucking. Day. Every afternoon after having lunch I take my mp3 player and my aux-cord Hello Kitty speaker out to the trampoline, turn on that music, and pretend I’m Peter Pan by double-bouncing myself and landing flat on my back (a weird attempt at the sensation of flight).
Every. Day. All. Summer.
So by the time my eighth birthday rolled around that August I knew that shit by heart. Every single song.
Cut to 12 years later. My family goes to see Mockingjay Part 2 in theatres because I was 7 in 2003, which means I lived through PEAK Hunger Games popularity (yes I pre-ordered the last book in middle school. I hated the ending so much that I threw it across my bedroom and broke a lamp, but I digress).
As they tend to do, the movie ends, and we’re all standing up to get our shit together when… I hear it.
It’s one of my favorite orchestral pieces from the Peter Pan OST: “Learning to Fly”. I know it’s that song because Wendy and Peter have a whole little moment at this point in the music.
But it can’t be, because this is “Track 19 (Final Credits)” on the Mockingjay: Part 2 soundtrack.
But my ears have not deceived me in the slightest; the proof is still playing right in front of me. Blasting from way too many high definition speakers. James Newton Howard thought he could pull a fast one on his audience. He thought he could just copy one of his own pieces because 12 years is too long for anyone to remember that short 11 seconds worth of music. Right?
WRONG, JIMMY! I REMEMBER. This singular Midwestern bitch with a mad case of ADHD remembers.
And now the rest of you know, too.
#composer call out#james newton howard#bitch you thought#peter pan 2003#peter pan#peter pan ost#peter pan soundtrack#mockingjay#mockingjay movie#mockingjay part 2#mockingjay soundtrack#JIMMY LET'S FIGHT#MEET ME OUT BEHIND THE ARBY'S#bouncey rants#infodumping#it took me way too long to edit these clips together#not the witcher#bouncey talks#video#music
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Flufftober Day 1 - Winning a Tedddy Bear for the Other
This is the only October prompt fic I was able to write, so uh. Hopefully you enjoy it!
2.5k words, pairings are pre-Logince, Dukexiety, and pre-Moceit
Nobody actually wins a teddy bear for anyone, despite their best efforts
Truly have no idea if this is solely an American hick town thing or not, but where I'm from, all the summer drama took place at the county fair; the hook-ups and break-ups and all the stuff that people would gossip about at the beginning of the school year. Except! The crew have just graduated and this is kind of their last hurrah before college and work and what have you.
Roman closed his eyes and tried to focus. He turned the basketball over in his hands, privately grossed out by the weird, sticky texture beneath his fingertips. He let the ambient noise of the county fair fade into the background. Focus. He just had to focus.
Then Virgil's voice shattered his concentration: "You know this game is rigged, right?"
Roman opened his eyes and, catching an annoyed glance from the carnival worker, sighed and hurled the ball at the hoop. It soared a neat arc and fell neatly through the center of the hoop. Ha. "I'll have you know I played basketball in middle school." He puffed out his chest a little and raised his arms so Virgil could admire his killer delts.
"And how old are you now?" Virgil leaned into Remus, who was lurking over his shoulder like some kind of lanky cathedral goblin. How Remus had landed a boyfriend before he did, Roman would never know.
The worker handed Roman another ball, which Roman accepted with a half-hearted "Thanks."
"It's true, though," Remus said, placing his chin on Virgil's shoulder. "The hoops are ovals."
"Everybody knows that," Roman huffed, and threw the ball.
"Yeet!" said Remus. Idiot.
The ball bounced off the rim. "You distracted me!" Roman huffed. The carnival worker held out another ball, but Roman dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Oh, forget it!" Two baskets would only get him a stupid Minions keychain, and he definitely didn't want something that cursed in his possession. He turned and walked away, half-hoping Remus and Virgil wouldn't follow him.
"Dude, you paid for three tries," Virgil said.
Roman stopped and turned around and nearly got trampled by a herd of excited pre-teens. "You don't get it!" He gestured at Virgil and Remus' intertwined fingers, even now unable to fight back the wave of jealousy and longing that rose up inside him. "You guys already have your fairy--" He paused, corrected himself. "Your weird, creepy, Tim Burton fairytale dream. I have one shot to impress Logan tonight and I need to make the most of it!"
"Hold on, hold on, hold on!" Remus grabbed Roman by the wrist (ewww, Roman, just try not to think about where his hands have been) and dragged him over to a bench. "Your grand plan is to win Logan some lame carnival prize before he even gets here?"
"Oh, buddy." The mocking pity on Virgil's face was enough to make Roman blush. Jerk. All he'd had to do was sit around and wait for Remus to make the first move. "What makes you think that's even going to work?"
Roman stood up again, motioning for Virgil and Remus to stay seated. He'd had enough. "Because it's a grand, romantic gesture and I am a grand, romantic prince. Now leave me alone! You're wrecking my concentration and I'm supposed to meet Logan in an hour!" And he stalked off, soon getting lost in the crowd.
Virgil looked at Remus, who was wearing a look of undisguised masochistic glee. Still, Virgil ventured, more to soothe his own conscience than anything, "Should we try to help him?"
"Look!" Remus shot to his feet, pointing off into the distance. "Deep fried pickles!" He took off, nearly jerking Virgil's shoulder out of socket.
Virgil dodged an elderly woman and nearly tripped over his boots. "Roman?"
"No, I'm Remus."
"No, I mean, should we try-- Oh, forget it." Virgil wrapped his free hand around the back of Remus' and let Remus yank him through the crowd. There was a long line for the cart selling deep fried monstrosities because this was the county fair and people lost their humanity upon stepping through the gates. Not Virgil. He would sooner lick the door of the horse barn than consume anything from this horrorshow of a food cart. That was one thing Virgil and Roman could agree on: fair food was disgusting. Ah, poor Roman. "You do have to feel a little sorry for him, though," Virgil said, admiring the shiny piercings decorating the shell of Remus' ear.
"Who?" said Remus, standing on tiptoe and examining the crowd.
"Ro--"
"Oh, Roman?" Remus landed hard on his heels and nudged Virgil with his hip. "No I don't. A little heartbreak might take Sir Brags-a-Lot down a peg." Something caught his eye and he jerked his head away with a smile. "Hey. V. I'd like to dip my pickle in your deep fryer."
Virgil made a face, but soldiered on. "But he's had a crush on Logan since, what? As long as I've known him."
"Longer." Remus stuck out his tongue. "He and Logan were lab partners Freshman year. And I had to hear about him every single night." He lowered his voice into a passable imitation of Roman's, gesticulating with abandon. "'Ugh, Remus, this boy in my science class is so annoying; he knows about dumb shit like protons and covalent bonds. Who even cares about that? I don't. So I'm gonna keep talking about it for the entire bus ride home.' Nightmare."
"Exactly!" said Virgil, though he had kind of forgotten what he was getting at. What had he been getting at? He shuffled forward as the line moved and turned his fractured attention to the menu.
"Hey," said Remus, now drumming on Virgil's shoulder with his fingertips. "When was the last time you saw Pat and the Hat?"
"Who?"
"Come on, that was clever."
Virgil tapped his lower lip. "You mean Patton and Janus?" Remus just blinked at him. "I dunno, didn't they say they were buying tickets?"
"Yeah, like, 30 minutes ago.
The line moved forward again. Remus ordered his horrifying hell-pickle. Virgil ordered a lemonade, knowing full well that Remus would insist on paying anyway.
"Maybe," said Virgil, side-stepping away from the order window and deliberately ignoring the way Remus was running his tongue all up and down his deep-fried pickle, "they went to the petting zoo."
"Well, let's go get 'em," Remus said. "They don't get to ditch us just because Patton wanted to see the bunny rabbits."
The setting sun painted the clouds a brilliant orange. Patton sighed and stared out at the expanse of the fairgrounds beneath him. One by one, rides were starting to turn their lights on. It was exactly the most romantic time of evening, exactly how he'd wanted things to go when he suggested they take a quick ride on the Ferris wheel before tracking down the others.
Well.
Almost exactly.
"I should sue," Janus said. Again. He looked over the edge of their basket where it dangled almost exactly at the top of the Ferris wheel. "How long would you say we've been stuck up here?"
"Um," said Patton, trying to wiggle his phone out of his pocket.
"What if I was diabetic, hm? What if one of us needed to take life-saving medication and couldn't because we were stuck at the top of this death trap?"
"But Janus." Patton waited for Janus to meet his eyes, then smiled. "We don't."
The magic didn't last. "It's the principle of the thing!" Janus said explosively, looking away in obvious agitation.
Patton rallied and tried again. "You don't think it's kinda romantic? I mean, look out there." He gestured at the lit-up fairgrounds and the golden haloes of clouds.
Janus huffed and didn't look. "I don't see what's so romantic about a potential reckless endangerment lawsuit." And he was off again, ranting about confusing legal concepts and other things Patton wouldn't care about, except that they were important to Janus.
Oh, well. He sighed and watched the blinking lights of El Niño. If they got down soon, maybe he could win Janus a teddy bear or something and make his confession then.
"What color?"
Roman ran a hand through his hair. Of all the games to have a knack for, he hadn't expected darts. "Pink, I guess-- No, wait, the blue one."
The attendant nodded and handed Roman a flimsy acoustic guitar. "Congrats, man."
"Thanks." Roman turned to go. He had to meet Logan at the gates soon. At least he wasn't doing it empty-handed, not that a barely-playable guitar was a particularly romantic gift. Realy, who was he kidding? Logan didn't want the guitar and Logan didn't want him.
The fairground lights lit everything up a sickly green. Roman scanned the crowd at the midway, trying to determine the best way through, when his gaze fell on a familiar pair of glasses.
He was still trying to decide how to react when Logan reached him, his arms full of brightly-colored stuffed lemurs. "Hello, Roman."
"How long have you been here?" Roman demanded. The idea that Logan had been sneaking around, avoiding him, sat heavy in his stomach.
But to Roman's surprise, Logan blushed. "Not long," he said, shifting his weight. "I wanted-- Well, it seems foolish now."
Roman forgot his anger in an instant. "What? C'mon, Lo, I don't think you're even capable of being foolish."
"I had thought," Logan dropped his gaze to the stuffed lemurs in his arms, "I had thought that if I came early, I might be able to win something big and--" He cleared his throat. "And give it to you."
"Why?" Roman demanded. Why would Logan copy his plan?
"Well, Roman," Logan said in such a clipped, professional voice that he might have been delivering the weather report, "traditionally, winning a large prize for your sweetheart at the county fair is a romantic gesture."
"But I'm not your sw-- Oh." Roman's jaw dropped. The guitar's strings dug into his fingers. Then he started to laugh. Logan's expression hardened, but he stayed put, staring intently at Roman. "I'm sorry!" Roman choked out, brandishing the guitar at Logan as some sort of peace offering, though Logan didn't have a free hand to take it. "I was--" Tears streamed hot and ticklish down Roman's cheeks, his entire body still spasming with stifled laughs. "I was trying to do the same thing! That's how I got this stupid guitar."
"Oh," said Logan. "Oh, dear."
"Come on, let's sort this out." Roman stood on his tiptoes, spotted an empty bench, and led Logan to it.
"This is terribly awkward," Logan said, adjusting the lemurs in his arms. "Do you even want these?"
"Not really," Roman said. He held up the guitar. "Do you want this?"
"I don't."
They smiled at each other. "You know," said Roman, hurriedly counting Logan's stuffed lemurs. "You can trade six of those in for a kiss."
"Piercings!" Remus tugged on Virgil's sleeve and gestured at the booth.
"I thought we were looking for Patton and Janus," Virgil said, already trying to think of a way to keep Remus from getting an ill-advised piercing.
"Forget them! I wanna get my tongue done."
"Here?" Virgil asked as Remus tugged him closer and closer to the piercing booth. "We're, like, six feet away from a horse barn. You're gonna get an infection."
"Damn, V, it's not like I'm gonna French kiss the horses."
Virgil bit his lip and made a second attempt. "Don't you have enough holes punched in yourself?"
"Nope!" They reached the booth and Remus bounced on his toes while he studied the laminated photographs pinned to one of the tent walls.
"Fine, but don't expect any kisses until that piercing is fully healed," Virgil said, struck by an eleventh-hour moment of genius.
"Hold up." Remus turned around and stared at Virgil. "What?"
"You heard me." Advantage secured, Virgil relaxed a little and even managed a sneer. "No kisses until I'm 100% sure you're not gonna get blood or anything else in my mouth."
"Baaaabe." Remus wrapped his arms around Virgil's shoulders and let Virgil take some of his weight. "You're killing me! What about my self-expression?"
"You can get your tongue pierced," Virgil said, "just not at some shady horse barn-adjacent piercing booth run by a bunch of traveling randos."
"I'm an American," Remus mumbled into Virg's collarbone. "It's my God-given right to die of a horse infection because I got my tongue pierced at a-- Whatever you said."
"C'mon." Virgil stood Remus upright and took him by the hand. "I'll pay for you to get your tongue pierced at that nice place downtown. Or I'll get Janus to pay for it. Next birthday. I promise."
"Thanks, I guess," Remus muttered. He was obviously trying to pout, but his face kept cracking into a smile.
"And as for your self-expression…" Face-painting booths were a dime a dozen at the fair; you practically couldn't turn a corner without running into some kid with their face painted to look like Spider-Man. Virgil pointed to the closest one and continued to lead Remus toward it. "I'm thinking spider eyes for me, kraken for you?" Remus took a breath, but Virgil knew better. "There's no way anyone is going to paint a photorealistic dick on your face."
"Alriiiiight," Remus said. "Kraken it is."
The sun was now nearly gone over the horizon, only visible as a faint golden line. Janus had finally worn himself out and gone silent, though even in the darkness, Patton could see the annoyance smoldering in his eyes.
Oh, he was so cute. Even when he was annoyed. Which, granted, seemed to be most of them time, although some of it had to be an act. He smiled sometimes, when he thought Patton wasn't looking.
It was those secret smiles that had given Patton the courage to make this plan. He jiggled his leg and swallowed as nerves sent flutters of nausea through his belly. "Um, Janus?"
"Hm?"
"I mean," Patton started, "since we're stuck up here and everything."
"Don't remind me."
"I mean, you know, It's not all bad. If I have to be stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel, I'm glad it's with you. I… I'm glad it's us."
For a moment, Janus was silent. Then he said, in a tone of suspicion: "You're trying to cheer me up."
Patton sighed. As smart as Janus was, he just didn't seem to be putting the pieces together. Although, that was as much Patton's fault as it was Janus'. Well, it was mostly Patton's fault. He just had to be brave. "Look, Janus, I had this whole plan where we were gonna ride the Ferris wheel together and it was gonna pause at the top and while we were looking out over the fairground, I--" His breath hitched.
"...Was going to push me over the edge?" Janus asked.
"I was gonna do this." Rainbow lights from the Ferris wheel spokes danced across Janus' face. Patton leaned over and took his hands. "Janus, I really like you. And I want--"
"Yes," said Janus. "Whatever you're about to say, yes."
So Patton kissed him.
#queuing this for later today as well#i truly have no idea when you people are online#spicypost#sanders sides#sanders sides fanfiction#moceit#logince#dukexiety#spicywrites
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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! or Days of Summer
Hello all you happy scottaholics! Welcome back to those of you who’ve read the rest of this retrospective and welcome to those of you just joining us. This is the Scottrospective, my look at all 6 volumes of Scott Pilgrim, the game and the movie. It’s all the video game refrenes, slice of life story telling and boob punches you can handle!
It’s been three months since I left off with “The Infinite Sadness” , and while I intended to cover this one for Valentine’s Day, my schedule got away from me and with March being full up, this ended taking till April
I”m not too put off by it though as the hiatus between these two reviews is fitting for this one both in story and out. In story there’s a couple month time skip between books, while out.. this book got delayed a few times.
This is notable to me at least because this was the first volume of the series I bought when it came out. As i’ve brought up before I came into the series via the Free Comic Book Day Issue and the second and third volumes, picking one up later. I still have my original copies despite no longer really needing them thanks to having the color editions in general. Always will provided something dosne’t happen to them. So this was my first instalment that I got to read fresh and got to wait for and be hyped about and i’d saved enough money that I was able to pre-order it. So the experince of waiting and waiting for the book only to keep seeing it slide back is vivid in my mind as is the frustration I felt having the one thing I COULD NOT WAIT FOR, keep going further and further back.
So with this long wait and the fact I bought this one when it came out, as I would for the next two which didn’t get delayed thank god, this volume naturally means a lot for me. When I wrote Scott Pilgrim fanfiction, this volume’s status quo is what I based it on. It was the coolest to me and the one I loved to reread the most. It has the most contained story, the most character growth at the time, and the best art due to Bryan’s style having finally hit it’s stride. Not that the art for volumes 1-3 is bad mind you, but it’s very clear his style was changing and shaping into what it is now with each one and while it’d change a bit more, this volume is where the style and quality everyone thinks of when they think of this series and the kind you see on various art done from it comes from.
So as you can tell i’m excited for this one. Before we get started there WERE two shorter comics released between this one both for Free Comic Book day, the first of which, Free Scott Pilgrim, is the reason I got into the series and the second, the Wonderful World of Kim Pine .. was both delightful and sets up Kim moving in with Hollie for this volume. Originally I intended to cover these in this review.. but I realized they wouldn’t of helped the pacing and this review is going to be way longer than my standard as is.
So instead I came up with the compromise. I did review them.. but as bonus reviews on my patreon. For just one buck a month you can read them and help me reach my stretch goals which now include reviews of Lost at Sea, Seconds and SnotGirl, aka Bryan’s OTHER comics. You can find my patreon THROUGH THIS LINK HERE if your intrested in the exclusives or helping me reach my reviews. I also intend to do an exclusive of Monica Beetle, a short comic Bryan did starring Scott’s dad in the 70s at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as the three strips he did of Style, the comic that gave us the prototypes for Lisa and Kim.
I will talk about their connections and setups for this volume briefly: FSP sets up the next ex as a ninja, with Roxy having a bunch of posters come to live and pummel our boy, while Wonderful World has Hollie tell Kim she can move in with her. It’s not much, hence why i made these exclusives but they are good stories, so check them out. And with that JOIN ME UNDER THE CUT, as we enter Scott’s world once more as he grapples with the past, employment, and saying the L-Word... which might be Lesbians. I don’t know. Find out bellow!
So we open Two Months after Volume 3 with a beach birthday party! Complete with Kim in a swim suit!
But it’s for Julie who lobs a volley ball at Scott’s head when he and Ramona try to make out.
I also dont’ know if “Manfiesting out of all the world’s collectives sorrows” counts as a “birth” necessarily but whatever. I love a good beach story. It’s just a fun setitng for swimming, romance and battling a giant crab with the help of the bird what lives in your backpack.
So after the beach our heroes get dinner and Ramona sweetly calls Scott the nicest guy she’s ever dated. He responds with “That’s sad”. Blunt, but entirely accruate. Julie calls it pathetic and tries to counter Ramona RIGHTFULLY saying “who the hell asked you?” something that really should come after EVERYTHING Julie said with “Back off bitch i’ts my birthday”
So later that night Sex Bomb-Omb has a beach sing along, and I can’t help but notice Neil’s hairy legs.
I mean yes it does make since for a 19 year old to have leg hair, but of all the characters besides Stephen, the ONLY other character we’ve seen it with to give it to, why the character you specifically single out as “Young” it’s just a weird choice I never noticed before.
But anyways Julie has to whine about it because she’s Julie, she can’t stand other people being happy and complains the song...
One of my faviorite moments of the series. Knives puts a nicer spin on it, she’s here too and not over with Neil because, as we’ll find out later they broke up, but she just asks if Knives should be drinking. She shouldn’t but for fucks sake lady she was just trying to talk. I also do like that despite Julie trying to control Ramona’s love life, you know the thing the VILLIANS are doing, Ramona cannot stand her now.. and honestly probably never did.
But Julie, SOMEHOW turns out to be right for once as Kim and Knives have disappeared later that night, and Scott elects to go look for them. Also Ramona says she wants to marry kim while drunk after Julie asks if she does. The throuple is strong with these three... serioulsy that’s my one true pairing for all three now. I mean it ballances out their collective flaws, it’s cute and Ramona is just as into her boyfriends ex as she is her actual boyfriend even when she’s not hamered. Why the fuck not?
Scott instead finds the two making out. I will confess I shipped these two when I was younger.. but I don’t. Not because their gay or anything or because I found another ship for them but because the age gap is still just as wide as it was for Scott. The game did not get this memo and made them a couple which is... ehhhhhhhhh. I mean I wouldn’t mind either being bi, but it just brings up the same problems even if their both hammered. I also question why this scene exists. No really outside of one face punchingly dickish comment from Scott later, this never comes up again and it doesn’t effect Kim’s or Knives character any. Why have this? it’s clearly not fanservice, it’s just a thing that happened. And while Scott Pilgrim as a series does have some of those, as does life and that’s fine.. this is a bit too major, i.e. Kim and Knives, two of the main cast, making out, drunkenly or not, to just.. gloss over you know? I feel Kim would feel majorly guilty for this, as she has the most active moral compass of the main group, and Knives would be massively confused but it’s just.. forgotten because I dunno. In a story that’s otherwise pretty stellar this stands out as an utter waste of potential. I’m not saying have them hook up, gay or not it’s still not better than what Scott did, but have them at least talk about it and have both grow or something from it. Sheesh.
So we cut to.. another day. Maybe the next day I dunno but it’s August. Point is Scott and Wallace are grocery shopping and Wallace notes they can’t get fancy mayo as their barely in budget. I would’ve glossed over this scene... but @panur pointed out back around the Infinite Sadness review that this scene reveals something very intrestng: Scott.. is kind of a fincial burdern to Wallace. Before this while Scott mooched off him it wasn’t all that clear that Wallace was struggling.
But here we notice that outside of some Havarti, it’s just the simplest stuff imaginable: turkey, bread, boxed mac and cheese ramen noodles... it’s nto BAD stuff, I have all of that in my house and it’s good stuff... but it’s not the kind of thing that you need to carefully budget for. Now granted part of this probably is Wallace as he likely spends a LOT on drinks, condoms and two 2 liters of diet soda a day.. but while he really needs to adress his alcohol issues, the rest is fair. He should be allowed to have as much sex and diet coke as he wants it’s his money. Same with the havarti. He earned it if he wants some really delcious cheese with herbs, seriously Havarati is the best, then that’s his bidness. But the rest of the time he’s barely managing to get a basketfull of cheap food.. because he has to provide for Scott. It’s clearly something Scott dosen’t get and something I can relate to not getting. It took me a while to get how hard it is to budget for a full family, let alone two people on one income like Wallace has to. But Wallace is working on a nice job... but still a call center or something. He can’t pay for everything and the finccial stress is about to give as their landlord wants to meet with them. And as we’re about to learn things were even worse than we thought.
Our heroes head home where we get a truly iconic conversation when, over margeritas (again proving my point that while Scott certainly isn’t HELPIGN wallace’s finacials, it’s not all on him)
This will be imporant later.. both the Lesbians part and Scott’s struggle saying it. he tried earlier on the beach but couldn’t get it out and Ramona clearly didn’t want to hear it as she kapt sshhhhing him.. playfully of course but still.
So some time later it’s moving day! Kim is moving into Hollie and Josephs, and Scott, Stephen and Jason are helping. You might be wondeirng who the hell Jason is. He’s Kim’s boyfriend. I do not likes him. Not because he’s kim’s boyfriend, getting upset because a fictional character you fancy is dating is just patently stupid. I’ts like getting upset a celebrity crush is in a relationship: you had no chance anyway why. I wasn’t even bothered as a kid. I don’t really like him.. because he has no real personaliy and no real baring on the plot and I struggle to think why Bryan included him other than for a really annoying plot twist next time, which does not help my liking him knowing what’s coming.
But while our heroes help our heroine move in, and Scott is suprised Hollie is there despite Kim having told him a minute ago she was moving in with her, something I can relate to sadly, we get something vitally plot important; Stephen passes Joseph’s room.. and notices he has a small recording setup in his room. Stephen quickly begs him to record the band’s album and Joseph agrees if only because he finds Stephen hot. Eh i’ve seen better relationships start on less, fair enough. And yes I said relationship more on that in a bit.
So after a brief scene of Scott and Ramona having lunch where Scott fails to know her age and when Ramona says he could just ask.. hea sks and she dosen’t tell, not a bad scene character wise just not very plot important and probably should’ve bene swapped in order with the previous scene, we get to the next day. There’s a heat wave so Wallace orders Scott to go to the mall maybe find a job. He emphasises that.
Instead Scott just sorta bums around thirst but nto having any money.. until an old face shows up.
For those who forgot like Scott has, it’s Lisa Miller from the Volume 2 flashback, the girl who had a crush on Scott and was close friends with him and Kim. After a tackle hug and some panic Scott eventually remembers.... if in a curiously unique and self serving way
At the time this was just hilarous. Now it’s very clear foreshadowing for the big twist in Volume 6. The two catch up while Scott is very clearly attracted to her but very clearly dosen’t want to be, with Lisa wondering where kim is, finding about Ramona, etc, before offering Scott lunch as the two catch up and Scott is very conflicted about how he feels. It’s nice visual stuff as he’s blushing, something more clear in the color version and trying to desperatley sort things out. As for why Lisa’s here she’s moving to the states soon, but is staying with her sister for now.
So after an incdental scene with Wallace we catch up with Knives, who has broken up with Neil. And after some talk about Clash at the Demonhead, Tamra notes Knives apparently put a big x on her shrine of Scott... which baffles Knifves as she sure as hell didn’t do it and is still, sadly, obessed with Scott as ever. Granted Tamra isn’t at all helpful here claiming she did it even when she says she didn’t, is clearly confused and while yes we don’t know who else would care Tams, that just makes it all the more creepy. Stop gaslighting your bestie, she’s already got enoguh issues. She dosen’t need thinking she might have a split personality on top of the stalking, obession over a guy who has no intrest in loving her back, and attempted stabbings. Knives dosesn’t get a ton of focus in this one sadly. She kind of takes a back seat, and while sh’es not GONE from the volumle and someone close to her does impact it, she dosen’t really have any personal progression, negative or positive, like she does in every other volume, a shame since her personal jouney is one of the most intresting of the main cast.
Anyways that night Scott hangs out with Lisa, having not gotten around to telling Ramona she exists yet and plays a game of find the Kim Pine. She goes to Neil’ and Stephen’s place for practice, but finds no one there and Neil being a dick... get used to that it’s going to get about 80 times worse soon enough. Though we do get this classic panel i’ve gotten some use out of
He goes to Kim’s place, but she , Hollie and Satan’s Misterss have all left to Sneaky Dee’s, the local mexican place, for something to eat and Stephen is either high or doing.. something with Joseph.
Yeah i’m not hiding that Stephen turns out to be gay in the final volume or cheating on Bitch and a Half with Joseph. And even if I hate Julie with the power of a frozen sun, I still dont’ think cheating on her is kosher. He could’ve just broken up with her and while part of it was likely confusion, and he could also be bi and not decided which one he wanted to be with, it’s still a dick move.. and later makes him a hypocrite but that’s a rant for next volume.
So our heroes FINALLY find Kim, along with Hollie and Mouthface. And a nice thing I like is that Kim and Lisa are just.. increidbly close, happily catching up and making plans to hang before Lisa leaves, that despite Lisa having feelings for Scott the two ended up as close and She and Scott did and i’ts sweet to see. it’s also just.. rare to see Kim GENUINELY happy. I mean look at her
It’s not like she HASN’T smiled across the series but normally she’s just so miserable, likely because her best friends are a grumbly asshole who forces them to hang out with a raging typhoon of bitchiness, and an insenitive asshat who she never got closure with. This is the first decent human being whose not Ramona or Hollie, and that last one’s not going to last, in a while. It’s genuinely sweet to just see her.. enjoy the moment for once, honestly engaged with someone. Ramona shows up and finally meets Lisa, who apparently was on Degrassi.. I mean she says candaian show no one ever watched, and I watched that plenty but i’d like to think she was on there for a season or two. I liked Degrassi.. I honeslty miss it and think it could use some form of revivial and think porting it to netflix was a smart decision.. what wasn’t so smart was not having the other seasons leading into it on there. Need to watch more of it.
So the next day Ramona stumbles into Scott’s dreams and both are annoyed, with Ramona suggesting he get a job. This finally gets him to try. He asks about Wallace’s work but understandably, he dosen’t really want scott there and asks if he even knows. So Scott sets out to ask his other friends for jobs, while Knives shows up saying she’s “totally not stalking him” but someone is following HER, a mysterious spiky haired dude in a black leather jacket, shades and with a sword on his back. Whu-oh.
He tries Second Cup, with Julie annoyed that Stephen’s recording.. it’s hard to tell if she’s annoyed because she’s a bitch or because Stephen is both gneuinely annoying right now and clearly screwing around behind her back. My take?
But Scott realizes maybe getting a job at his Sister’s place of work who also works with his arch enemy might be stupid and backs out. He next tries Kim’s, but backs out of that too, admitting to kim it’d be stupid and Kim lists off all the reasons (His lack of resume, the fact them working together would be stresful and his ountain of late fees) why that’d be stupid, but in a jovial way. For once i’ts clear that while she’s still taking the piss out of them she isn’t mad at Scott.
In fact she genuinely helps him get a job, taking him to Stephen’s work since hers is dead right now anyway, a vegan place. While Scott naturally compares things to a job system as he’d start as dishwasher while Stephen taught him prep, Scott agrees to genuinely take this seriously and Stephen’s boss decides “eh why not” when he asks her to employ him. Scott is gainfully employed baby! God I miss that. Seriously i’m not pimping my patreon for shits and giggles.
But as he celebrates and Kim wishes she could punch his life in the face, they run into some trouble on the way home: Katana man who slices a motherfucking bus in half and chases them, with Scott reluctnat to fight because he has a sword and Scott does not, which is valid. He does escape though using subspace. He and Kim part awkardly and he returns home to Wallace throwing a party with two intresting charcters, a woman and a man of color, one of the few in the entire work, who are never seen again.
The next night is practice.. or rather recording, and we start to see Neil get edged out, with him unable to come due to exams and clearly not happy about it, and Stephen just kind of ignoring anything he cares about like the dickhead he is. It dosen’t get any better as “recording” ends up just being Scott, Ramona, and Ratfaced Knacker watching bored with Joseph and Stephen work. Eventaully Scott and Ramona decide to get out of there as things are getting tensed between thing one and thing bitch, and leave.. and take Julie with them for some reason.
So the three have dinner with Lisa, Kim, and Jason before The Mummies Curse thankfully leaves. Jason thought they were friends.
We also get this exchange.
I mean.. she is the better option. She his THE option. But before we can get the obvious answer of
Stephen comes in with Knives. He smuggled her in. This leads to problems when Scott returns from the bathroom to find Queen Bitch throwing a bitch fit about him having brought her and screechs at her when she dares to talk to him “How do you even know my name?” Well Ted Cruz, you see when someone is an actually thoughtful and likes other people, they keep track of things about them and don’t constnatly tear them down or assume their partneer is automatically bonking a 17 year old instead of you know, actually forming something of a friendship and not shutting her out sensing she needs this friend group. Some people are not vacous piles of vitriol who care about nothing but themself and seem to go off at the slightest thing.
Scott takes Ramona home but finds a drunken barely awake wallace so no sexy times. Not that he could anyway as the next day is the meeting with Peter their landlord.
Peter reveals they’ll have to clear out by the 27th as their lease was for one year and their paid up.. as in only the first and last month. The two part melacholy knowing this sucks and isn’t a great situation. Then it’s time for Scott to work work, angelica, work work, eliza and peggy. After grueling day, can relate, he runs into a wisp on teh wend and steels himself for a fight.. okay he bitches about it being too hot but it’s Scott. so it’s expected. He does get a hit in on his mysterious persuer.. and that’s when we meet Roxy.
Via boob punch, something Scott’s not proud of but in his defense, as Roxy keeps complaning about it, he was blindly struggling for a hit and din’t know the next Ex, or any of them, were female.. not that Ramona didn’t suggest it loudly enough by empahsising “exes” but scott’s a bit of a fuckwit. She mentions “everyone allways remmebers you”.. which is kind of ominus and tells me she tried to hook back up with ramona despite her having a boyfriend and she rejected her. Still on good terms though. But this confusing encounter ends with Roxy vowing she’ll get him next time gadget, next time.
So we get some assorted slice of life scenes with the band, lisa and what have you as Scott tries to get in touch with Ramona but she keeps avoiding him. THat’s not worrysome at all. And Lisa brings up high school while drunk and clearly hits on Scott. He sidesteps it with her drunkness.. but this clearly isn’t over or going to stop being a problem.
Speaking of problems Wallace makes Scott confront the truth: He either needs to find a new place to live or commit to staying, though Wallace is trying to nudge him toward asking Ramona to move into her place. Scott starts thinking it over, it being very hard especially since, as Stephen points out this was his very first place of his own.. but Stephen also points out these things are temoporary.. right before Scott ducks from katana guy.
At work Scott wonders who it could be, though it turns out Stephen’s met him before, as he’s brought his family in here. So he’s PROBABLY not one of the exes.. but it leaves the question why he wants to cut Scott in half like Dewey Cox’s brother. But it turns out he’s nto the only enemy Scott’s casually running into as Roxy is there too.. with Ramona.
The two talk, clearly about Scott and Lisa with Roxy trying to convince her he’s cheating and Ramona rightfully trusting Scott: while he IS attracted to her, he’s been fighting it every step of the way. Scott storms over to find out what’s going on and while Ramona is more distracted by his new job, she eventually realizes Roxy did attack him and he simply dscribed her poorly when he mentioned the incident over the phone. Scott is confused as he dosen’t get it. Is she with one of the exes what? After some hiinting from both parties, and Roxy rightfully mocking him for not getting the obvious... he finallyg ets it in the grandest way possible.
So Roxy gets ready to fight and Scott can’t because sword, and gets fired in the background as he hides in Ramona’s bag and Ramona prepares to step in. Roxy screams at her for trusting him and defending him when Ramona.. just dosen’t her boyfriend to be bisected by her ex. A fight insues and a damn cool one at that. I honestly wish the movie had taken more from this, but simply didn’t have time leading it to instead be more like the envy fight with a bit of the Winfried Hailey fight from Free Scott Pilgrim.
Roxy chases her and Ramona rightly points out Scott can’t run forever but takes him into Subspace.. where Roxy heads them off, having “taught you everything you know bitch” leading to a cool fight in the wintery version of subspace. Again why THIS wasn’t used instead I have no real idea. We also find out she’s a half ninja but she eventually leaves afer Ramona presses that button.. but Rammy is actually apologetic about it and Roxy’s “I hope you and your 24 children are happy together comment” is telling.
Upon this readthrough of the volume.. I realized Roxy is the most layered and intresting of the exes next to Gideon himself. None of them are out and out terrible, but most of them have pretty simple motives: to kill Scott, ???, profit. Or in Todd’s case to kill scott, bang around and be a dick. But Roxy.. genuinely wants Ramona back. She’s the ONLY one who does: Gideon kinda does, but only in the sense that he wants her for his collection. But Roxy geninely still loves her, admitting so during this fight. And it’s not like she has no chance: out of the 7 exes she’s the ONLY one who parted with Ramona on anything resembling good terms. While intrestingly we don’t find out WHY they broke up, Ramona didn’t cheat on her like she did everyone else she was with. The two have coffee and hang out and Ramona geninely dosen’t even consider until Roxy tries to attack Scott that she’d really try killing him and tries her best to talk her out of it. But what holds Roxy back is her anger: She’s so bitter about the fact Ramona is bi or pan, so dedicated to viewing Ramona’s very orintation as a betryal (though Ramona calling it a phase dosen’t help and the movie RIGHTLY has Roxie comment on it and fly into a rage over it), and so driven to make sure the woman she loves dosen’t get hurt again that it blinds her to the fact Ramona dosen’t love her the same way anymore, and that while Scott is objectively a dick, and a cheater, and a greasy buttcrack pooflap, he is not a terrible person. A meh one sure, but he’s got good to him. She’s so biophobic she simply can’t see he’s a harmless moron.. well harmless to Ramona even with the cheating. He’s killed two people at this point and will kill again. Also she apparently has issues with only being a half ninja but this is never adressed. Point is Roxy’s really grown on me and is now probably my faviorite ex.
Scott and Ramona talk it over on their way to Sneaky Dees and Scott finally asks to move in and gets a yes. His response is downright adorable.
So at Sneaky Dee’s Young Neil is just a bit absolutely irate with Scott.. which isn’t fair as them not playing things is entirely on the blocky face asshole. Yell at him.. which he does, pointing out that they haven’t played shows in forever, and that the lady who owns Sneaky Dees not only runs shows, in the upstairs space, but has been asking them to play. Kim is rightly curious about this and to both Stephen just keeps saying “We’re recording right now.” And some of you may of wondered why I hate him. Well while he’s not exctly stellar in the first half in the second Stephen becomes goddman insufferable, slowly destroying the band for his affair and not giving one iota of a shit what anyone else wants. He’s a selfish, egomanical cheating prick. And yes I get it their recording an album.. but doing live shows would give them extra practice, MONEY, even if likely not a lot and exposure for said album. I get professoinal bands stop touring for a bit to do an album but you are not a professional band, and said bands still often iron out the album on the road. God you suck.
But while Scott sidesteps this argument he walks into another where Ramona confronts him about lisa about liking her.. and he rightly says if there was anything, which there was not it’s in the past. And while yes he is a cheater, she does not know this yet. This plot honestly would’ve worked better if she learned about the knives thing sooner, but instead she just comes off as paranoid for listening to Roxy about something that isn’t happening. Yes Scott’s been shown to be attracted to her.. but he’s been ashamed of it, fighting it and in denial about it, and is clealry all in with Ramona. Being attracted to someone else on a phsyical level does NOT mean your relationship is doomed.
Things get worse as he goes home to ruminate.. and instead sees a man’s Penis. And Wallace..is at his second most unsymapthetic, not letting Scott get a shirt or a bus pass or something like a decent human being for no goddamn reason. Usually when Wallace is a dick to Scott, Scott’s earned it and badly needs a slap in the face. Here he’s just being a prick because.. the plot needs him to? I dunno it dosen’t work for me. It’s in character, I just don’t have to like it.
So with no other options.. Scott ends up at Lisa’s. And so we get the last temptation of Scott. Lisa admits, embarassed that she’s been wearing sexy dresses and what not specifically to attract him, with Scott also mentioning how things are rough, Lisa tries to fight it herself pointing out he’s with ramona.. and when Scott points out they didn’t do anything in the past Lisa points out they should’ve.. and maybe they should now.
We fade to black as Scott ends up in a dream and finds Roxy, who naturally has the same skill and tries to Freddy Kruger him before he wakes. He finds Lisa but they didn’t do anything: Scott pushed her away and babbled about how much he loved Ramona instead. As i’ve said.... his heart was never with LIsa... and even when he was so close to giving in he couldn’t. It’s a tangible sign of growth: He screwed around on Knives with Ramona, and given how bad things were getting with Ramona, it would be oh so easy to once again ditch a relationship the minute he found something else and oh so understandable. But... he dosen’t. He loves Ramona even if he hasn’t said it, he wants to make this work, and he’s changed. She’s changed him. He’s not quite a good man yet.. bu he’s getting to be good enough. Love turned him from a skeezy dumbass into a far more loveable dumbass. Ramona’s gotten him to stop dating a teenager (even if again he cheated), face his past with envy to finally move on and now get a job. He’s realized just hwo much she means to his life and world and so he goes to tell her.
Riggghtttt after going to get his job back and works a shift, with steven wanting to punch his life in the balls. Stephen shut the fuck up. Just because Scott is lucky and your stuck dating satan’s scrotum does not mean you get to punch his life int he balls. Kim does, because he’s put her through more shit but not you.
He goes to second cup to talk to Stacey.. only to end up at the wrong one where Knives also now has a job... and we finally get an answer to who the mystery katana guy is...
Yup turns out wielding giant weapons in vengance runs in the family. As for how he knows about Scott her aunt mentioned her boyfriend, everyone freaked out and obviously while her mom was mentioned as knowing in volume 1, they did not tell her dad whose brain turned into an engine of vengance and defaced the shrine. While part of it is apparnetly racisim for Scott being white the fact is he clearly saw Scott’s photograph. The guy is 5 years older. I get him being protective. Still dosen’t justify cutting off his head. His balls maybe but not his head.
And then Scott ran, once agian finding a subspace entracne.. and this time we see inside ramona’s head and well...
Yeah.. that’s.. kind of fucked, and Ramona isn’t happy scott saw that, though she backs down once Scott explains..a nd then gets upset over him staying at Lisa’s but before SCott can tell her he loves her it turns out Roxy stayed over. So yeah, Ramona might of cheated, she tells him to alk it off and he runs around in a psycadelic haze of emtoinal confusion. And meets.. someone new...
Scott snaps out of his funk and ignores his doppleganger heading back for Ramona... whose fighting Mr. Chau. Scott left the door to Ramona’s head open and he followed him through Subspace. Scott lures him into the house and away from her only to run into Roxy. This leads to both of his attackers fighting and her wondering if Gideons ent him “Why does no one ever belivie in me?!”
She soon realize no i’ts just unrelated and calls Scotto ut on hiding behind not having a sword and behind her being a woman, caling it a flimsy excuse. I mean she’s tring to kil lhim. It’s okay to hit an enemy combatant. Scott realizes he has to stop running... and get real with ramona leading to a truly epic, romantic and heartfelt speech and given how far he’s come and just how heartfelt it is it’s a real sign of how deep he feels. Sure we’ve seen genuine chemstiry between the two.. but htis moment is a shit.. from a simple relationship.. into true love.
I may of only had a few but Relationships are not easy, They take work, they take time, they take patience and theyt ake love.. but if your willing to work with someone, look past some flaws and help them with the rest.. then it’s worth it. And Scott has finally realized it and for the first time in a while is running TOWARDS something difficult, actually working on this relationship and talking with his partner instead of running finding someone else or wallowing. He’s truly grown up. While he still has miles to go.. he��s taken about 50 steps forward with this. And as such given the kind of unvierse we’re in, as Ramona is genuinely touched by it he levels up a glowing sword with a heart shaped hilt coming out of his chest.. and realizing what’s happening he pulls it out....
So Scott faces off with roxy and in an awesomly short battle, their sords clash.. and he bisects her.
Scott then honestly talks down Mr Chau who leaves after a nod, and Ramona tells Scott she loves him two. The two make out and all is well.
One make out fades into another, as we cut to Scott moving in with Kim and Blockhead’s help. Well kinda they only had one box but they owed him one. He and wallace comiserate over the end of their time as roomies. They’ll always be friend but it’s truly the end of an era. Also Wallace gets off another bit of dickery as he’’s very glad it all worked out for scott...
Now there’s the Wallace I know and love. Dickish but just the right loveable kind of douchebag with that swagger.
Back at Knives house she’s apparenlty into somebody though who I have no idea, Mr Chau give sher his blessing and she.. apparenlty doesen’t know chinese. I dunno. As I said her subplot this go round was her weakest overall.
And so we end with the whole gang gathered to see Lisa off. It’s a REALLY nice shot, and one of the only times Wallace is seen with the Sex Bomb omb side of the group. Oh sure he goes to their shows and what not, but generally their never in the same vincinity so while there’s no interaction I still find this neat. Seriously the whole main cast is there, it’s a really lovely shot
Also Jason and Hollie.. who are getting awfully chummy. Whu Oh. And of course Craphole and Mouth Face are as likeable as ever.
So we jsut get a genuinely nice sene. Except Stephen and Julie reconciling. Fuck that. Please move on. And as everyone fondly wishes Lisa adeu and wish she stuck arond the res tof the series we end on Scott and Ramona snuggling, Scott asking her her birthday and finding out she’s 24, and they both will be come september. Scott wishes this moment could last.
They probperly snuggle as the volume ends on a high.
Final Thoughts:
Yeah.. Gets it Together is, on rexamination, DEFINTELY my faviorite of the 6. Besides personal value i’ts hte best contained story, contaning lots of character development, great character moments, jokes, and EASILY the best art so far, with goregouness and creativty abounding.
There is a problem here or there: Stephen and Julie’s subplot feels underbaked, and not just because I hates them, and there are several scenes that don’t further plot or character stuff. Ther’es also stuff that could’ve been expanded on.. but given this is still a pretty meaty graphic novel, it’s understandable why it wasn’t.. though it is why I’d love a streaming series since while the movie is excellent, a full series could expand on stuff from the books more Brian simply didn’t have time for. Knives also didn’t get a lot to do.
But their drowned out by tons of great decisions: Lisa was a wonderful additoin to the cast and I genuinely wish she’d stuck around, adding in some energy, blending well with the Sex Bomb Omb crowd, and having great dynamics with everyone and her arc with Scott is heartbreaking,knowing she can’t have him but wanting him anyway having never gottne proper closure on the man she’s always wanted. She’s a heartbreaking character and its nice to see her end in a decent place and on good terms with Scott, having let him go for both thier sakes.
And while Lisa is a highlight everyone is on their a game here for the most part apart from knives, girl hitler, and captain dumbass: Scott grows signfigantly but is funny as hell, Wallace has an intresting arc trying to nudge Scott out without being overt about it, scared to really confront him, Kim is in a happy and serene place for once and it shows. The villians are also intresting: While Mr Chau is a tad underbaked, he’s sitll a cool imposing presence. I do think he shoudl’ve had more to do with the plot.. but is still just so freaking cool it papers over that and him just.. disappearing after this like poor Lisa.
Roxy is far more intresting, having clearly more going on than we see and while I wish we’d got her backstory, she’s easily the most engaging of the exes, being the only one to actively compete with Scott (All her and ramona end up doing is making out a little it turned out), and have bigger stakes than just “The glasses wearing douche asked me to beat up my exes boyfriend and I was like alright.
All in all Gets it Together is really magical, the series high point, and just damn fun and it was a pleasure to go through
Next Month on Scott Pilgrim: It all falls down as we take a look into what once was my least faviorite Album, vs the unvierse. Two perfect assholes try and murder scott with Robutts, his relationship and band crumble and things get sad so very very sad.
Next on this blog: More LIlo and Stitch! The Proud Family come to Kauai and get into a fight with our heroes. Also wizard kelly... who if nothing else is now far more tolerable now i’ve had to spend another volume with the wicked bitch of the west. Touche universe touche. See you at the next rainbow.
#scott pilgrim#ramona flowers#wallace wells#roxanne richter#knives chau#stephen stills#julie power#mr chau#stacey pilgrim#neil nordgraf#young neil#comics#oni press#scotrospective#lisa miller#kim pine#jospeh
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My DVD player gave up on me just before the scene were Anastasia and her grandmother reunite and talk. And won't play anything for now:')
So these are my notes so far, some things will change, others will be decided. And theres quite a few notes based around what @bokettochild wrote (Hope you don't mind me tagging you). This is basically a part 1, intill I can get my DVD player working (or access one of the consoles at the earliest point) for the rest.
Never thought this au would become that big of a thing but here we are with no regrets:D
(Pre warning there's kinda alot and my notes are pretty bad, also copied and pasted strait from my phone's notes sooo)
• The lulaby music box plays a once opon a december as a Zeldas lulaby adapt which was for the twins.
• It was the 10,000 year anniversary of the hero of time on the day ganon arose.
• When Ravio helped them escape, the music box was dropped by Fable and left behind with him. And the key was kept with Legend.
• The twins were split up in the whole mess, and Fable made it to the train, with Impa, Time and Twilight (the pair being close guards and friends of the royal family). Where as Legend was driven out and lost in the woods. Passing out to hyperthermia, burns, and head injury. Being taken in when found.
• When found is given the name Link:)
• 10 years after the attack, Fable puts out a reward for her brothers return. Around the same time he's sent off to become a knight (which he doesn't want and goes of to the right side path instead of left like told when leaving). And Ravio devises a plan with Marin to fake a prince to claim the reward.
• Runs into Wolfie when deciding weither or not to in the first place.
• When trying to get a ticket to Hytopia and gets denied is sent to Ravio the con for help.
• Mean while Ravio and Marin are taking tryouts for someone to play the part of the prince.
• They give up and go back to the old palace. Where Legend was told to meet them.
• Legend in the ball room sees the ghosts of people has the hallucinations of people dancing around.
• And so Ravio sees him walking around tries to chase him but when Legend turns around beside the old family portrait. Ravio makes the connection of pink hair and looks and goes 'oh you'd play the part perfectly:D'
• Ravio and Marin try to convince Legend that he's the missing prince and he half believes them. He tags along with them either way in order to go to Hytopia
• Ghirahim is in the old palace as a blade on display and overhears/sees the whole thing, and ganon is notified that Legend is not dead.
• On the train blue ink instead of red joke for the train tickets. Also "the mutt gets the window seat"
• Ganon attempts to kill Legend on the train by cutting the baggage cart off, speeding it up and breaking the bridge.
• Maybe Sophie is Warriors and Linkle and Marin are his sisters.
• While on the boat the music box comes out it is not played, but discovered.
• The dream is of a pink bunny leading him to the outside of the boat to try and kill him during a storm. Considering (just an idea not sure weither or not to do it or not yet) the idea of when Ganon fails to get him to jump when Ravio saves him. Ganons anger causes thunder to rain down. (To implement the idea of thunder scars:) and possibly the idea that Wolfie calls Apon Hyrule who's chillin in Hytopia with the rest of the chain via howling the song of healing, to heal him before leaving again)
• Fable and Warriors see the last person who claims to be Legend before deciding no more.
• They reach Warriors who asks the questions to claim Legend is the missing prince and when asked how he escaped, he remembers correctly and Ravio realizes that he is the real missing prince.
• Warriors takes em all shopping to the dismay of Legend. In order to dress them all properly for meeting Fable during the play.
• Ravio and Marin realize they've fallen in love with legend (and likewise:)) and that after they hand him over to Fable they won't ever see him again. Legend does not realize or know this.
• Fable is not happy when Ravio claims to have found her brother, and neither is Legend when he finds out they originally planed to fake him as the prince, after everything they went through and fell in love. He's heartbroken.
All the notes are based strait from the movie, and most will be changed, there just here more so for guidance
#Anastasia Legend au#lu legend#lu twilight#wolfie#lu time#lu warriors#lu hyrule#lu ravio#lu marin#lu fable#lu linkle#ganon and ghirahim#i just tagged them all and i dont think i should have#legend of zelda#linked universe au#i dont know how to tag#long as hell post#long as hell tags
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Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 annotations & additional pages/art compilation
Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 is a hardcover collection of some pre-existing Dragon Age comics that was released in 2014. It comprises of all issues of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. In places, it includes additional annotations/commentaries by the illustrators and authors, as well as a few additional pages with additional art. iirc these additional annotations and pages/art aren’t featured or available anywhere else (in the franchise I mean; other people have probably put them online at some point I’m sure).
From what I can see at least, Library Edition Volume 1 is no longer in print, and as such listings for it on resale sites etc are.. price-inflated & prohibitively expensive (~£100+, which I’m sure we can all agree is just not reasonable or accessible to most people). Due to this, I’ve compiled the additional annotations and pages here in this post. Thank you and credit to @artevalentinapaz, who kindly shared the material with me. This post has been made with their permission. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.
These commentaries are in the context of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. If you notice any errors or annotations missing, or need anything clarified, just let me know. I think the annotations are in chronological order. In places I elaborated in square brackets to help explain which part of the comics an annotation is referring to. A note before you proceed further: some of the topics referenced in the annotations/additional pages are heavy or uncomfortable. The quotes here are word-for-word transcriptions of dev/creator commentaries, not my personal opinions or phrasings.
(Also, I do recommend always supporting comic creators by purchasing their comics legitimately. I own each issue of these comics having bought other editions of them all legitimately. The reason I put this post together is because this specific Library Edition volume has been discontinued and the consequently-inflated cost is so high, rendering the additional material inaccessible to most.)
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The Silent Grove annotations
Illustrator Chad Hardin: “I used to be an environmental artist for video games, so I built a 3-D model of Antiva City using the program Silo. Many of the buildings are simple cubes, but a few are more detailed. Overall, I spent the better part of a day building it, but I used it again and again throughout The Silent Grove to maintain continuity in the backgrounds.”
Script Writer Alexander Freed: “Even working with David Gaider, it took me several drafts to find Alistair’s voice. His narrative had to convey his humor and self-doubt from Dragon Age: Origins while suggesting a newfound weariness earned during his years on the throne. For readers familiar with the character, he needed to seem like a changed Alistair - but Alistair nonetheless.”
Chad Hardin: “If you read a lot of comics, you might wonder why the majority of the heroes wear skin-tight suits. Well, I can tell you: they are easy and quick to draw. In video games, you build the model once and then animate it, so details don’t slow you down. In comics, everything has to be rendered by hand. Varric and Alistair’s outfits were quite detailed. It took me a long time to get used to them, and even longer to memorize the designs until drawing them was second nature - Varric’s knee armor in particular! Oy vey!”
David Gaider: “One of my favorite scenes in the entire series [when Varric and Isabela are disarming traps and picking locks together while Alistair looks on]. Isabela and Varric, doing what rogues do. I had a suggestion for how to put it together, but Alex managed to make it fit and did a great job with it.”
Chad Hardin: “I never used to keep any of the artwork I created for comics. I would just hand the pages over to my agent to sell. This page [when Alistair, Varric and Isabela are in a tavern together, with hookah in the foreground] I kept for myself. I love the hookah-smoking elves in the second panel and Isabela’s face in the last panel. I rendered the first four chapters of The Silent Grove in grayscale using ink washes, gouache and Copie markers.”
David Gaider: “For a little while, Varric [in these comic stories] was supposed to be Zevran from Dragon Age: Origins, which would have made sense, Zevran being Antivan and all. I know that some fans would have loved to see him, but the dynamics of the group just didn’t work as well. Then a planned cameo later had to be cut for space. Ah well, Zev, another time.”
Alexander Freed: “Isabela at her most dangerous [climbing up the side of the cliff]. This scene - featuring a scantily clad, dripping-wet woman who tends to flaunt her sexuality - could easily have come across as exploitative, but Chad did a lovely drop portraying Isabela as purely focused and deadly.”
Chad Hardin: “Isabela rising out of the water and scaling the cliff with the knife in her mouth is one of my favorite parts of The Silent Grove. It is one of those moments where the writing really inspired the art. Hats off to Alex and David. This is another page I kept for myself.”
Colorist Michael Atiyeh: “This is one of my favorite Dragon Age pages. Chad is such an amazing artist; I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him.”
Chad Hardin: “I love that this page [when a guard spots Varric and shouts ‘Intruder!’] made it in uncensored. So many times in comics, I draw something and some stuffy lawyers come out of the woodwork and tell me to tone it down. Dark Horse and BioWare always let me have fun, and this turned out to be one of my favorite pages with Varric and Bianca. Any guesses to which word he is mouthing in the second panel?”
Alexander Freed: “Note the simple decency of Alistair as he gives his cloak, without comment, to Isabela. For all his flaws, he’s genuinely kind at heart - a rare enough trait in Isabela’s world that I think it’s much of what she values in him.”
Chad Hardin: “I love the opening panel to this chapter [the opening panels to Chapter 3, when the team are on a ship at sea]. It’s the image I use on the homepage of my website. This page was a gift to my cousin Wendy, who loves pirates. Seascapes with sailing ships might be clichéd in fine art, but for me it was a first.”
David Gaider: “I wanted to have this story center on the group travelling to a Witch of the Wilds other than Flemeth, and originally I had set it somewhere else - until I remembered a Codex entry from Dragon: Age Origins that offhandedly mentioned a witch in the Tellari Swamps. Brilliant! It’d look like I planned it all along. I didn’t.”
Michael Atiyeh: “I love opportunities where I can show a change in the time of day as you move from panel to panel [when the ship heads towards and the team arrive in the Tellari Swamps]. I feel the palette of each panel is very distinct and beautiful.”
Alexander Freed: “Why did Alistair choose two people he barely knows to be his companions on this quest? We never make this explicit, but of course Varric is on the right track. Alistair wants to surround himself with people who don’t know him and won’t judge him, yet it’s Alistair’s idealism that Isabela and Varric work to preserve.”
Chad Hardin: “Another page where the writing inspired the art [when the group suddenly encounter a dragon]. I love the dragon bursting onto the scene and Isabela’s stare. Some writers will try to cram six or seven panels on a page like this and the pacing just doesn’t allow the artist to give each moment the right punch. Can you imagine if the first panel was crammed into a single square inch?”
Chad Hardin: “Yavana was one of the only characters that we did no preliminary sketches for. I don’t know how that happened, but thankfully it worked out.”
David Gaider: “I love how Yavana looks like a cross between Flemeth and Morrigan. Flemmigan? She’s totally Chad’s design, and it’s great. Typical for these witches, she never says things straight. In my mind, this Alistair is the one who did the Dark Ritual in Dragon Age: Origins - and I was half-tempted to have him lose his cool in this first scene [opening panels of Chapter 4] with her. Too early, though.”
Alexander Freed: “Through this whole sequence [the page when Varric aims Bianca at Yavana], Yavana is dropping cryptic hints and Alistair is refusing to play along. He’s met Flemeth and Morrigan - he knows Yavana won’t give him a straight answer, and he won’t give her the satisfaction of asking needlessly.”
Michael Atiyeh: “Sometimes it’s the little things on a page that spark my interest. Here [when the team navigate vines and mud to get to the temple], the sunset panel came out great and the mud looks really thick and gooey. It’s fun to focus on these details and make them stand out.”
Chad Hardin: “I hated drawing this scene [when Isabela gets kicked] where Isabela gets the boot to the face. Call me old fashioned, but I was raised to believe that only a coward would ever hit a woman (even a battle-hardened pirate adventurer). I draw at home, and my girls often watch me work in my studio. This was a page I didn’t want them watching me draw. I do like, though, that Isabela gets up, yanks the arrow out, and then soldiers on (and later extracts brutal revenge).”
Michael Atiyeh: “Poor Isabela. It seems I gave her more bruises and black eyes than any of the other characters. [when Isabela is yanking the arrow out]”
Chad Hardin: “It’s always interesting to go back and look at artwork because it reminds me of what was going on in my life at the time. I inked this page [opening panels of Chapter 5] at a ‘draw night’ session at an anime convention in St. George, Utah. I was one of the special guests, but I missed the first day because I was at my grandfather’s funeral in Las Vegas, Nevada. Seeing this page brought back those memories.”
David Gaider: “‘Bianca says hello.’ [quoting the panels being referenced] I adore Varric. I was tempted to have him narrate the entire series [in reference to these three comics], but then again I liked the idea of having each series center on one of the trio’s viewpoints. This book belongs to Alistair, but that doesn’t stop Varric from getting all the best lines.”
Alexander Freed: “Claudio, of course, is not a terribly sympathetic figure. But I wanted to emphasize that he takes this fight as personally as Isabela - he sincerely loved Luis and blames Isabela for the man’s death. I think it’s important to give every character, even the most loathsome, some dignity. [when Isabela and Claudio are fighting]”
Chad Hardin: “Payback! Here is where Isabela extracts her revenge on Claudio [when Isabela stabs Claudio]. I never enjoyed killing off a character so much. I particularly enjoyed putting the look of shock in his eyes. He had it coming. There is something satisfying about killing a ‘made man’.”
Chad Hardin: “Every now and then when drawing comics, I wish I could animate some panels and watch them as a cartoon. It would be great to see this sequence [when Yavana catches Claudio’s soul] in full motion as Yavana snatches Claudio’s soul, makes it reenter his corpse and then extracts information from him until he bursts into flame. It was a very Hellboy-ish moment. I enjoyed the movie that played in my mind while drawing this scene. Hope everyone liked the result.”
Chad Hardin: “As I mentioned on page 17, I rendered the first four chapters in grayscale, which made the black-and-white art look great, but had a neutralizing effect when it came to colors. By the time I drew chapter 4, I had seen the effect it was having and decided to stop using the grayscale so the colors would pop. When I saw this page [when Alistair says to Yavana ‘And we helped you find it’] in print, it confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I honestly feel this art was the best of The Silent Grove.”
Chad Hardin: “I practically painted these pages [when Yavana says ‘It is permitted. Tonight and only tonight’] in thumbnails hoping it would help me choose how to render them in ink. It is so hard trying to figure out how to get a full range of value out of just black and white. There are some artists and inkers that make this look easy. Mark Schultz comes to mind. Michael saved my bacon. Colorists really do so much work when it comes to rendering; this page came out awesome because of him.”
David Gaider: “Here we reveal the existence of Great Dragons (as opposed to High Dragons), and also that Yavana was the source of the return of dragons to Thedas after their departure for so many centuries. But why? There’s the rub, and not even Alistair can trust that she’s telling him the truth.”
David Gaider: “Here’s the controversial scene [Alistair killing Yavana]. I think some fans don’t like that Alistair did this, and have said they consider it out of character. I don’t. From his perspective, Flemeth and her daughters have been toying with the world for reasons that can’t be trusted. They dragged Maric away from his family, from him. One might think his judgement foolish, but considering what Alistair was capable of deciding even back in Dragon Age: Origins, it’s certainly not out of character.”
Chad Hardin: “[same scene as above] This was a controversial page, and there were a lot of people who thought it was out of character for Alistair to kill Yavana (I didn’t see it coming - I mean, you just don’t kill a Witch of the Wild), but here is the thing: this page is Alistair acting as a king. Yavana has been manipulating him, trying to play him like a pawn, and he just can’t allow that. There’s too much at stake, for himself and for his subjects.”
Alexander Freed: “The end? An end, at least [the trio walking off into the distance]. The series needed a note of closure while leading into Those Who Speak (which wouldn’t arrive until many months later). David tweaked the ending in the outline several times, and I did my best to balance resolving Alistair’s emotional journey without resolving the quest. It’s not as clean as I’d have liked, but fortunately, now it’s all in one volume...”
Those Who Speak annotations
Alexander Freed: “Capturing Isabela’s narrative voice was much easier for me than capturing Alistair’s - partly because I’d already written The Silent Grove, and partly because of my own writing proclivities. Rereading now, I wonder if I laid on the (mild) profanity a bit too thick. I’ll leave you to judge.”
David Gaider: “I like the additional detail Alex and Chad put in, letting us see more of Qarinus and more of Isabela’s crew. Alex wanted to give her crew more of a presence, and let her first mate have some face time, so they weren’t just parts of the scenery. Good call on his part.”
David Gaider: “I’m really fond of the formal getups Chad made for the party. Isabela’s actually comes from a concept we didn’t use from the cancelled Dragon Age 2 expansion, if I remember right. And Maevaris came from me asking for ‘someone who looks like Mae West’ - with the wonderful outfit all Chad’s doing.
Chad Hardin: “Maevaris. I love Mae. When David and Dragon Age art director Matthew Goldman spoke to me about designing Mae, they wanted her to be fully female with the exception of her biology. They told me to think ‘Mae West’. Well, when I think of Mae West, I think of her... womanly shape. So, drawing Maevaris was always walking a fine line between portraying Mae’s identity and her biology. The process endeared her to me.”
Michael Atiyeh: “Just like in The Silent Grove, we are introduced to another gentleman from Isabela’s past [when the team meet Lord Devon and Isabela threatens him]. As was the case with Claudio, he will meet his fate at her hands.”
Chad Hardin: “When I was drawing Titus, my kids asked me why I was drawing ‘angry Jesus’ or ‘evil Jesus’. I can’t remember which term they used exactly, but it made me chuckle. I was going for a mix of Rapustin and Joe Stalin, but ‘evil Jesus’ would do.”
David Gaider: “I’m not sure it’s apparent here [when Alistair says ‘I’d really rather not’], but Alistair was supposed to be using one of his Templar powers on Titus (that’s why Titus recognizes what he is on the next page) and disrupting his magic.”
Alexander Freed: “Isabela is witty and charming enough that it can be easy to forget that she’s not, in fact, a nice person. Even after finishing the outline, David was concerned about making her too unsympathetic - but I loved his approach in this series. The dark deeds Isabela commits - this murder included [Isabela killing Lord Devon] - are what make her guilt tangible and no easy matter to overcome.”
Alexander Freed: “I thought the notions of Isabela’s pride in her captaincy and dedication to her crew were some of the most interesting aspects of her character in David’s story. In scenes here [when Isabela is on her ship saying ‘Keep them focused and keep them sober’] and elsewhere, I did my best to emphasize their place at the core of Isabela’s world.”
Chad Hardin: “Most of the time I draw from imagination, but because of the complexity of this page [Qunari trying to board Isabela’s ship] I decided it would work better if I had photo reference. On this page are my nephews Jared (Varric) and Adam, my niece Melissa, my kids Erica, Tasey Michaela (Isabela) and Chad (Alistair), my friend’s daughter Amy, my wife Joy, and the neighborhood kids as Isabela’s pirate crew. (The crew member mooning the Qunari is out of my ol’ noodle.) I paid their modelling fee in pizza and root beer. Also, I had originally drawn cannons on Isabela’s ship, so if there are parts of it that look slightly wonky, chances are there was a cannon there.”
David Gaider: “Ever since the BioWare artists finally did a concept for female Qunari, I’ve been itching to include one in the game. It’s always slipped through my fingers, so I was going to be damned if I’d have a Qunari plot in a comic - without the same technical limitations - and not have one present.
Chad Hardin: “I had no idea this was the first time anyone outside of BioWare had seen a female Qunari.”
Michael Atiyeh: “I really like the lighting in this sequence [Isabela in her cell thinking ‘I haven’t eaten in days’], especially the strong white light and the characters in shadow.”
David Gaider: “The entire sequence of Rasaan interrogating Isabela was something I plotted out in detail when this series began. Here they discuss names - something treated in a manner peculiar to the Qunari, considering how much importance they apply to what things are called (and not called), because it forms the core of their identity. Isabela brushes it off, but as we find out later it’s also at the core of her identity. I liked that parallel.”
Alexander Freed: “To balance out the relatively static talking pages elsewhere in the issue, I hoped to make the interrogation and flashback sequences beautiful and full of information. I proposed an approach to Chad, and he wisely reshaped it into what you see here [the page with the scene where Isabela says ‘I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes’]. Anything that succeeds on these pages should be credited to him; anything that fails is my fault.”
Chad Hardin: “Probably the most challenging spread I have ever done. My friend Stacie Pitt was the model for Isabela on this page, and my wife Joy was Rasaan. I saved these pages [around the scene when Rasaan says ‘Mistakes can be corrected’] for myself.”
David Gaider: “Sten from Dragon Age: Origins becoming the new Arishok of the Qunari was something we'd planned even during Dragon Age 2. This was a great opportunity to show that, and also to show that Sten didn’t acquire horns even despite the makeover the Qunari received in DA2. Hornless Qunari are considered special, and Sten is no exception.”
Michael Atiyeh: “I think that David, Alex and Chad handled Isabela’s flashback [to when she was sold by her mother] in an interesting way, and it created a nice flow to the story.”
David Gaider: “This was a controversial scene [what happened to the slaves Isabela was transporting], the end result of a lot of discussions between me and Isabela’s original writer on the team, and it went through a lot of revisions over that time. It needed to fit with the story Isabela told the player in DA2, but fill in the blanks of what she didn’t tell. We didn’t want Isabela to be someone who became who she is because she was ‘broken’ but instead as a result of her own actions - yet also not be completely beyond redemption.”
Chad Hardin: “These were hard pages [as above] to draw. It was difficult knowing that events such as this are part of human history, such as the Zong massacre in 1781, where the British courts ordered the insurers to reimburse the crew of the Zong for financial losses caused by throwing slaves overboard when faced with a lack of water. Horrifying beyond words.”
Michael Atiyeh: “Here, Isabela visits here crew, and I wanted to play up that she was in the light and they were in a dark cell. The light streaming through the bars gave me the opportunity to highlight Brand, who also had dialogue in the scene.”
Alexander Freed: “I struggled to find a way for Varric to contribute to victory without distracting from Alistair and Sten’s big fight. I’m happy with the solution: a brazen lie seemed appropriate to the character without taking away from the main show.”
David Gaider: “I believe my original plan had Isabela’s and Alistair’s fight scenes happening separately, but I like how Alex intertwined them in the script and I especially like how this ends up highlighting the differences between their characters when their fights are resolved. Isabela is defiant, revealing her name not because Rasaan demands it but because it’s her choice. In both cases, mercy is strength.”
Michael Atiyeh: “The brush I created for the clouds really gave them a nice watercolor effect here [on the deck of the ship, Sten calling Alistair ‘kadan’]. That brush has become a staple in my toolbox.”
Alexander Freed: “With the strong theme of names running through these issues, I liked the notion that Isabela had outgrown being, well, ‘Isabela’. When her name comes up in Until We Sleep, it’s largely played with ambiguity.”
Until We Sleep annotations
Alexander Freed: “The story of ‘Arthur’ is one of my favorite minor sequences [Varric infiltrating and fighting his way into the fortress]. It tells us something about Varric and it delivers plot information - and it’s also a reminder that our heroes kill an awful lot of people during these series and cope with it in their own ways. In general, writing Varric let me skirt the edge of metacommentary, which I greatly enjoyed.”
David Gaider: “Varric, as always, is my ‘voice of the narrator’. Here he’s expressing some of my own amusement at Alistair’s growing list of peculiarities [‘Your majesty is quite the special snowflake’]. To think, back at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins he was just the player’s goofy sidekick who grew up in a barn.”
Michael Atiyeh: “By the third series, Until We Sleep, I really started to have a complete feel for what I wanted the final art to look like. As an artist, it’s important to continue to evolve and grow. The close-up of Sten’s face [same page as above] is a perfect example of how I wanted the rendering on the characters to look.”
Alexander Freed: “David’s outline called for a short, somber reveal of the Calenhad story by Sten. Fueled by my desire to avoid ‘talking heads’ sequences, I scripted it as a full-on storytelling flashback. David made sure the history worked (at least from the Qunari point of view), and Chad did a beautiful job handling it in a mere two pages.”
David Gaider: “Blood is important in Dragon Age, as a theme. Here we tie in the dragon blood that was mentioned all the way back in The Silent Grove and explain what it means at last. I was a bit hesitant to tarnish the legend of Calenhad the Great in this way, but I comfort myself with the knowledge this tale is but a viewpoint and not necessarily the entire truth.”
Michael Atiyeh: “Titus melting the attacker is a great example of classic comicbook storytelling and exactly what made me fall in love with the medium.”
David Gaider: “I was really happy with how Chad handled the reveal of Mae as transgender [the scene with Mae in the cell]. My worry was that Varric finding her disrobed might be potentially titillating, but I think he handled it nicely. I only wish there was more time to have Mae properly respond to being exposed in this manner, even to a friend.”
Chad Hardin: “I originally drew Mae as female [same scene as above], then changed her anatomy, so the psychological violation and humiliation she felt would be the focus. Hope that came across.”
Chad Hardin: “When in doubt, have Bianca shoot it [Varric shooting the artifact].”
David Gaider: “This scene [Varric and Bianca the dwarf] with Varric was one I wanted to do for a very long time. We’ve hinted that Varric’s crossbow was named after a real person, someone he never wants to talk about. Now I finally had the chance to show why.”
Chad Hardin: “Of all my Dragon Age pages, this scene was hands down my favorite, because Varric is my favorite. It was awesome to get to draw Bianca in her dwarven form. These scenes give you a glimpse of the love Varric and Bianca shared. It doesn’t tell you the whole story, but you can assume plenty from what is shown. You get to see Varric mostly naked (you’re welcome), but most of all you witness Varric’s heartbreak. I felt privileged to draw it. I got so obsessed with drawing this page I did an entire watercolor painting based on the last panel [Varric gets up to leave, ‘This isn’t right’ - ? or perhaps the scene where he opens the door to leave].”
Alexander Freed: “Unreliable narrators are always tricky - done wrong, they can just confuse the reader. But I’m fairly happy with Varric’s lies throughout this series, most of which are used to downplay the emotional cost of events rather than whitewash the events themselves.”
Michael Atiyeh: “This palette worked perfectly [Varric standing in front of the doorway/portal in the Fade proper], but I can’t take all the credit because BioWare provided reference for the Fade. I added the hot orange energy for the doorway, which looks great with the sickly green sky.”
David Gaider: “This scene [Isabela’s Fade nightmare] was actually inspired by a fan named Allegra who did a cosplay as a Qunari version of Isabela. I knew I wanted something like this for Isabela’s Fade section of the comic, but it didn’t really solidify until I saw the cosplay.”
Chad Hardin: “Isabela is more affected by her encounter with Rasaan than we were led to believe. A portent of things to come?”
Michael Atiyeh: “I love this shot of Mae in the fourth panel [on the page where Isabela is affected by vines]. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what a great character she is in the series, and Chad captures her beautifully in this shot.”
Alexander Freed: “I saw this issue as a sort of downbeat victory lap. Over the course of the previous series, our protagonists largely came to terms with the inner demons the Fade confronts them with here. The fact they’ve come so far lets them win this last battle... but they still have scars that will never completely disappear.”
David Gaider: “Maric was in the first two novels I wrote for Dragon Age. Seeing Chad’s rendering of him as a regal, grown-up version of Alistair made me incredibly nostalgic. Some characters you just never let go of.”
Alexander Freed: “I feel Varric’s lines (‘tell yourself the stories you need to tell’ but ‘never live your own lies’) are the natural endpoint of all the exchanges he’s had with Alistair, starting from the end of Chapter 1 of The Silent Grove. And of course it plays off the story of ‘Arthur’, as well.’’
Chad Hardin: “I’m happy with the way Titus came off in these pages [Titus attacking and saying ‘The last magisters of Tevinter were so close’]. He looks threatening and powerful when fighting Alistair, Isabela and Varric, but genuinely confused by his inability to defeat Maric. Bye-bye, evil Jesus.”
Alexander Freed: “I can’t help but feel for Titus. He was unthinkably corrupt, but I see him as genuinely motivated by Tevinter’s glory. (The fact Alistair reads zealous ideology as a lust for power says a lot about both characters.)”
Michael Atiyeh: “I love the seamless transition of color from Titus’ magic to the dragon breath and then back into the orange remnants of his magic in the smoke. This was a really fun panel to color [Titus saying ‘Die by what wrought you’].”
David Gaider: “‘You are not the dreamer here. I am.’ I always have a scene or a line that’s in my head when I begin a tale, and this line of Maric’s was one I wanted all the way back when I started working on The Silent Grove.”
Chad Hardin: “I love this page [Maric and Alistair clasping hands]; Mike’s colors are spot on. We get to see all our heroes in an ideal state for the last time. This is the last Dragon Age page I saved for myself.”
David Gaider: “This scene kills me [Alistair destroying the Magrallen]. I knew it needed to happen; I knew I wanted it to happen even back when I began the story. Alistair lets Maric remain in the Fade rather than dragging him back to a world which has moved on. Alistair’s ready to move on, but forcing him to give up that hope... it makes me feel like a bad person.”
Chad Hardin: “Heartbreak for Alistair as he realizes that once again, as a king, he must kill: this time, his own father (granted, the Magrallen did most of the work). I really like how Maric crumbles away in the end. This was my last page, and the emotions on the page and in my studio were very final. Altogether, this was a year of my life in the making. On my last page, I wrote a thank you to everyone involved, the crew at Dark Horse and the crew at BioWare. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them again. It was a thrill. Finally, a huge thank-you to the Dragon Age fan community, whose support was overwhelmingly awesome.”
Michael Atiyeh: “As the story came to an end, I knew I was going to miss these characters. Writing these annotations reinforces the fact that I hope to work with this great creative team again one day. Many thanks to Dark Horse and BioWare for the opportunity to work on Dragon Age.”
Alexander Freed: “The tension between the art and the narration on this page [the one with Alistair sitting on his throne while nobles argue] is something you can only pull off in comics. Neither tells the full, bittersweet story alone. Similarly, these issues wouldn’t have been possible without everyone on the team; thanks to David, Chad, Michael, and everyone I lack space to list!”
Additional pages / art
Library Edition Volume 1 also came with some additional pages, with additional art and commentary. These are as follows (I’m including them for the sake of completion, click the links to see):
1. Alistair and dragon concepts
2. Rasaan and Maevaris concepts
3. Sten, Titus and Yavana concepts
4. A series of cover pages 1
5. A series of cover pages 2
In case anyone has trouble reading the notes that accompany these images, I’ve transcribed them below:
1. Dragon Age Sketch Book
Alistair Concept
Dragon Age / Dark Horse
Chad Hardin: “The headshot of Alistair is from a finished sketch with a rejected armor design. In order to save time, the redrawing was completed on the computer, where tweaks and changes are quick and easy, if somewhat less glorious.”
[Dragon] Head #1 / Head #2
Chad Hardin: “Everyone liked this dragon sketch so much that Dark Horse printed it for signings at conventions. You can see I did multiple proposals for the dragon’s head. It was more effective than drawing the body over and over.”
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2. [arrow pointing to Mae’s sleeve] concealed [I think that’s what it says anyway] daggers / shurikens?
Chad Hardin: “When designing Rasaan and Maevaris, I wasn’t exactly sure how their roles would play out in the series. Maevaris’ outfit was inspired by brothel madams of the Wild West. I thought it would be cool to have some weapons concealed in the formal wear. These never came into play in the series, but they were there in my mind.”
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3. Chad Hardin: “Although we only see Titus in his battle garb in one issue, I really liked the design of his armor. The sketch of Yavana was done on the fly and served as both a rough preliminary sketch and as a panel layout. You have to work hard and smart in comics to keep up with the deadlines.”
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4. Cover Artist Anthony Palumbo: “This was my first assignment for Dark Horse, and I was both excited and nervous. I drew pencil sketches of the main characters, scanned them and played with different arrangements, poses and color schemes in Photoshop.”
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5. Anthony Palumbo: “Fellow illustrator Winona Nelson helped me by sitting for photo reference. I created the mock-jewelry with gold-painted Sculpey. That’s a quick photo of my own gaping maw, to help with the image of Varric.”
#dragon age#bioware#video games#artevalentinapaz#alistair theirin#fav warden#morrigan#queen of my heart#long post#longpost
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Return to Hatchetfield-Town – The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals Part 1
Alright settle down kiddos. Get comfy, find a warm blanket and hug your favourite fwendy-wend as we start our Return to Hatchetfield-Town series.
I’ll be rewatching all the Hatchetfield scripted content (i.e. not livestreams or interviews) and jotting down what happens, explaining some concepts and delving into some of the key theories in the series (and using the word “implications” that often it will cease to have meaning).
Even though I’ll be doing the rewatch by show in order they came out, there will be spoilers for all Hatchetfield content that is available as of the rewatch.
I’ve also linked to a number of other blog’s theories here because they are amazing, but if you aren’t happy with your theory being included I will be more than happy to remove it! Just let me know.
[Part 2]
The Guy Who Really Hated Brigadoon
TGWDLM starts off with the greatest song ever to feature dancing zombies… at least I can’t think of any other notable ones.
In the title song, the cast of singing and dancing zombies explain to us that all great stories have to have a hero, someone who knows right and wrong and that the best way to do this is through singing and dancing in musicals. This with the later line of “they evoke the philosophical” make me think that Pokey took a class in Campbell’s Hero Myth in College and became that guy.
Hatchetfield Challenge: try not to shrug your shoulders along with the music at the chorus. Its impossible. No wonder the Hive spread so quickly. Literally killer dance moves.
So then they introduce us to an awful Grinch named Paul and we hit the first point in the show where I laugh out loud every single time I watch.
I know TGWDLM was not originally intended to be the first Hatchetfield show but starting this series with a song which sets up the story so well is truly spectacular. And is there anything more Starkid than introducing your main character by having other characters sing about how awful they are?
One thing I have noticed while writing, reading and collating Hatchetfield theories is that while most Black Friday and Nightmare Time theories are usually about the overall Hatchetfield lore, most TGWDLM theories are usually quite self-contained and focused on this one show. TGWDLM – while so fully within the Hatchetfield extended universe, is definitely the show that can best stand-alone without the others.
It’s the end of the world, Paul
If you don’t sing
This is the bridge, Paul
Where we globalize everything
And the words will come to you
We swear we will teach you
What it means to love
What it means to obey, Paul!
On a first watch this is very funny. On your 10th watch this is terrifying.
CCRP Technical: No-one here knows how to use their printer
Following the absolute bop of a title song we find ourselves in CCRP Technical and all feels very… normal. It’s very weird following all the revelations in subsequent Hatchetfield media, to be watching a show where there was genuinely nothing obviously fishy about CCRP. We’ll obviously discuss CCRP more when we get to Nightmare Time, but for now all we know is that Paul works in the technical department of CCRP – an unknown corporation, with some key characters, Charlotte, Bill and Ted.
We also find out more about Grinch Paul’s personality and honestly, Paul is me pre-pandemic just outright avoiding social interactions and suddenly going for coffee in the middle of the work day. (I have become a changed woman in lockdown – someone please invite me somewhere… anywhere!)
For all the dark humour and death in the Hatchetfield series, Starkid do know how to bring the joy – I love how excited the town of Hatchetfield are for a touring production of Mamma Mia.
Fake Fact: TGWDLM is actually an allegory for Europe in the 1970s, when we all became mind-controlled by Abba’s Waterloo. (Find me a better explanation for Eurovision, I dare you! The sequins were just too shiny!)
“The idea of sitting there… trapped in a musical. That is my own personal hell.”
Two words: Emma Perkins – need I explain any more?
Ah Hot Chocolate Boy. I really look forward to finding out more about him. Where does he come from? He just appears out of the ether. What’s his story? How old is he? How many hot chocolates does he have per day? I know we have since had some confirmation on who he is, but they raise more questions than answers. For now I will just point you to a gorgeous Mood Board by @hatchetfieldmoodboards which features a bit of a spoiler.
For real though – is it just me who would love a full version of “I’ve been brewing up your coffee”?
Hatchetfield Challenge: Try not to sing “Shut the f*ck up” along with Emma.
“Watching people sing and dance makes me very uncomfortable”- oh boy Paul… you’re not going to enjoy the next hour and 40 minutes. Also, Paul, you’re making me uncomfortable watching you throw your brand new coffee around as if you’ve just been given an empty cup. There’s imaginary coffee everywhere. Hopefully, HCB won’t slip on it before it’s cleaned up… he’s already having a bad day.
“Thunder and Lightning… very very frightening. But a big rock hurtling through the clouds is no biggie.” – all the residents of Hatchetfield apparently.
The next sequence happens so fast and we get introduced to a lot of characters. Notably Greenpeace Girl, Alice and Deb, Sam, and Hidgens (though we don’t find out his name until much later). This scene impresses me because they do such a great job of very quickly bringing out so many characters who nonetheless are memorable when they return later in the show.
Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel is an Eldritch Being. I won’t go into Peanuts theories here as that could be a whole post in itself – and many a person more brilliant than I have written some fantastic theories on this. You can learn all about how a Squirrel took over the fandom in the following posts:
@dahlialupine : x
@frombothofmyhearts: x
@abiimaryy: x
And finally mine which is definitely a serious theory: x
It’s… A… Musical!
Now to remember we are actually watching a musical. La Dee Da Da Day is such a happy joyful song performed spectacularly by a throng of the undead.
The song is about the Hive singing about how much of a great time they are having now they are tap-dancing zombies, and trying to find ways to convince Paul he should join them too. So the grins on all their faces are not at all terrifying.
It’s worth noting also that according to the laws of the TGWDLM world, only those infected by the Hive can hear the music in the background. This becomes important later when it becomes clear some characters have started being infected before they are fully turned into zombies, but for now it just paints quite a funny picture of what Paul must be witnessing. I definitely think for him, this whole scene just sounds like this clip of Greased Lightning without the music: x
The important thing here however, besides Mariah’s singing, is that the Hive leave Paul alone. They don’t actually attempt to turn him at this point. I have a theory on the implications of this, but note this has big spoilers for the end of the show and Black Friday. It was written before we knew that the Hive (Pokey) was related to Wiggly but the content still stands: x
Charlotte, Honey, you don’t need that much sugar – you’re sweet enough
For reference:
@melchron noted that the lyrics for La Dee Dah sound very similar to the incantation for soul transferal read out in Jane’s a Car, which leads me to two possible implications.
The Freaky Furbies have a language other than English that they use for their incantations so this is why they sound similar.
There is soul transference happening to the souls of the bodies the Hive take over.
Or it’s just Starkid using similar sounding words for their content…. Three! There are three possible implications…
Paul – just print off another copy of the report
From this point on the musical numbers really do come thick and fast. We move on to the first instance of Jeff Blim encouraging Paul to talk about his feelings, which I am sure is not important and isn’t worth discussing. Paul goes through a musical rendition of a promotion interview, which is actually the Hive attempting to find out if he will be the “hero” of their story. They picked out Paul for the role from the start. That he was chosen was inevitable.
What do you see for this company? I'm looking for someone with strong ambition Someone to sell their specific vision Someone to share with precise precision their thoughts 'Cause I want you to want…To want
So it turns out these will be looooong, so I will end here and see you in part 2! I’m not sure yet what the upload frequency will be. It takes quite a while to go through the show like this but it is a lot of fun!
Hatchetfield High Homework:
Where do you stand on the Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel debate?
Why do you think that the Soul Transference Spell and La Dee Dah sound so similar?
Go follow all the lovely people mentioned in this post!
Bonus points if you know the reference in the post title.
[Part 2]
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Chapter 24: “Seeing is Believing” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” random favorite lines and commentary. Not a full list or full commentary, but longer commentary than usual to talk about quest construction.
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AN: This was... a weird chapter to write. When I started outlining, I had... the conversation with Shen Qingqiu planned... the conversation with Shen Yuan planned... the fact that SQH, SY, LQG, and LFL was the quest party... and the fact that they get the Eye at the end of it. That was everything.
The entire rest of this chapter came together FRIDAY LAST WEEK.
Huan Hua Palace wasn’t going to be there. The Weeper didn’t exist. The Eye or its previous owner wasn’t at all connected to the Garden Master. The Shadow Cave Wolf Spiders didn’t exist. The murder plant didn’t exist. The mysterious monster showing up at the end wasn’t originally planned either.
I mean, I had a lot of pre-existing plot threads to tie in and weave with, but ohhh boy! Picture someone lying facedown on a floor like, “I forgot to plan the contents of the super important quest...”
I was originally going to have the Eye quest a lot simpler, but given the weight “Death of the Author” had when I finally reached this part of the story, that wasn’t really going to do! It had to be bigger than that! It needed oomph! This also felt like a good opportunity to really establish the new SQH-SY dynamic. To explore SY fumbling to find a place in this world without strict character role, especially in relation to settled and well-supported SQH.
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“One attempts to remain dignified,” Shen Qingqiu agrees. “As there is little point in kicking and screaming about how such ignobility isn’t fair.”
“Ha! Is there ever?”
“Not in my experience.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely not cute when I do it,” Shang Qinghua jokes.
Shen Qingqiu’s lips actually twitch at that.
Success?!
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AN: I wasn’t going into this fic with the intention of writing any Shang Qinghua and Original Shen Qingqiu almost friendship! But it started developing and it seemed a shame not to explore Shang Qinghua developing a real relationship with Shen Qingqiu (though not a particularly close one) when the man is suppose to be the scum villain (and the readers know that the man might get replaced by Shen Yuan).
I can see myself writing more Shang Qinghua and Original Shen Qingqiu content in the future. Someone dropped a particularly nice prompt for them in my inbox that I’m looking forward to exploring at some point.
(I mean, not to say that Shang Qinghua has a type, but Shang Qinghua has a type and it’s handsome, deadly, intimidating, frosty men with a villainous character design and trust/abandonment and communication issues. I could make it work.)
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“Ah, well, two ‘ideal’ situations come to mind: severing the personal relationship for good… or, ah, talking about how to do better and trying that. You don’t have to forget or even forgive if you don’t want to! But, ah… there’s got to be a difference between totally swallowing your anger and cutting ties forever, right?” Shang Qinghua says awkwardly. “If there’s… ever going to be anything good afterwards…”
Shen Qingqiu stares at him for a sweat-inducing length of time.
“Ah, fuck,” Shang Qinghua thinks.
“Sorry,” he says. “Ahhh, I’m just… thinking about something someone told me… in… in regards to some of my own problems. Never mind! Never mind!”
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AN: Luo Jiahui really is out here making Moshang and Qijiu get their fucking act together just by setting a better example.
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“Shizun, my apologies for the interruption, but I came to ask Shizun if he would be willing to join our music lesson today? The disciples have missed his playing and are eager to present their improvements.”
“...Very well, unless anyone here would disagree…?” Shen Qingqiu looks directly at the Qian Cao Peak cultivator, as though daring her to object and die.
“It’s an excellent suggestion!” the Qian Cao Peak cultivator says quickly.
The young woman smiles. “And perhaps Shizun could sit in on the calligraphy lesson afterwards? In order to offer his opinion on my progress as a teacher?”
“Fishing for compliments is unbecoming,” Shen Qingqiu says dryly.
“Wait, what?” Shang Qinghua thinks.
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AN: So, this has all been happening in the background, but Shen Qingqiu accepted this House of Rejuvenation woman onto his Peak about... 6-ish years ago now? This is kind of meant to parallel Shang Qinghua’s once-secret relationship with Luo Jiahui.
Shang Qinghua was out here trying to be a better person and Shen Qingqiu noticed; now Shen Qingqiu has his own positive (platonic) relationship with a nameless background character who was meant to die for plot reasons. What a thing, huh? If the story was saved because Shang Qinghua started a domino effect of saving random people who went on to change things?
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After all, as Shang Qinghua said to the kid, besides Peerless Cucumber’s apparent talent for cultivation, he knows that his fellow transmigrator has three very important skills that will serve him well on An Ding Peak! 1) An encyclopedia knowledge for even seemingly pointless bullshit (which is kind of flattering, honestly). 2) The willingness to fight total strangers over seemingly pointless bullshit. And 3) a sharp enough tongue to win.
Peerless Cucumber didn’t find these points as funny as Shang Qinghua did.
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AN: Shen Yuan was always going to end up on An Ding Peak. I thought about sending him to Qing Jing or Qian Cao or Qiong Ding... or any other Peak... but that would take him too far away from Shang Qinghua to really explore their relationship and to move him around conveniently in the story. And SY sticking to An Ding seemed to best illustrate the fact that SY is lost and doesn’t know what to do except cling to SQH.
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“It’s not much, sure, but it’s yours,” Shang Qinghua says finally. “You’ll be joining the talisman classes soon, so don’t try anything from a book and then need to request some home repairs.”
Peerless Cucumber nods and puts his stack of manuals down on the table.
“How’s your tutorial mission going?”
“Fine,” the kid says shortly. “Have you found anything for the other one yet?”
“Ah, not yet.”
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AN: “Are you winning, son?” meme energy here.
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Ah, now Shang Qinghua recognizes his fellow transmigrator’s expression! That’s the same stunned expression one of his Huan Hua not-disciples, Yu Chaonan, made upon meeting the Bai Zhan Peak War God for the first time. Shang Qinghua assumes that Peerless Cucumber was expecting a man who looked more like a musclebound giant and less like a pop idol (if one with amazingly muscular arms), which is a super common and never-not-funny misconception people have about Liu Qingge.
“Brother of one of the most beautiful women in this world, bro,” Shang Qinghua reminds his fellow transmigrator, amused. Aha! Now Peerless Cucumber’s vehement disinterest in the harem stuff is making even more sense than before!
Shang Qinghua’s assumption gets 100% confirmed when it comes time for Peerless Cucumber to fly with Liu Qingge for the next leg of the journey. The other transmigrator is so embarrassed and awkward about it that Shang Qinghua’s super direct brother-in-law asks if the young man is alright.
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AN: This was so fun to write. Shang Qinghua really can use the Liu siblings to gauge people’s sexual/romantic orientation.
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The map (or rather, the copy Shang Qinghua made of the delicate original map) takes them to a green and grey landscape of leafy trees crawling over a wide network of tall cliffs and deep gorges. Gurgling rivers cut through twisting rock formations. Shang Qinghua can’t see any of these rivers on the map. Or these deathly drop ravines. From the outside, the whole thing looks like a natural maze (holy shit, there could be so many monsters and death-traps in there!), and Shang Qinghua would know those golden robes flying low over the hanging trees anywhere.
“Huan Hua,” Liu Qingge mutters.
“Do you think they’re looking for what we’re looking for?” Luo Fanli asks.
“That’s usually how it goes,” Peerless Cucumber says, before Shang Qinghua can.
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AN: I came up with the skeleton idea first. Then I was like... “I should give it three eyes.” And then I was like... “But who IS this dead author? A god? A spirit? What grander implications am I spinning here?”
And THEN I remembered that I had some ambiguous powerful being force the Garden Master into exile due to a flood. This was because, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the immortal man Gilgamesh meets in the abyss is the survivor of a great flood. So I was like, “Reduce! Re-use! Recycle! There’s my skeleton!”
So I wanted to relate the skeleton to water because of the flood angle. Water as a symbol of cleansing/reincarnation is a big thing throughout many cultures. I can’t remember exactly how the crying aspect came up, but I knew there was going to be water in the temple now, so at some point my brain like was, “Bro, this skeleton should totally be crying because mythology vibes.”
So I built the surrounding land off the idea that there was water flowing from or around this temple. At this point, I had decided that Huan Hua Palace should also be looking for this artifact, so I had to come up with a way to hide the temple, yet have a way for SQH’s party to track it down.
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The damage to the doors is worse: someone once upon a time collapsed a part of the cliff face around the entrance, essentially leaving only the top fourth of the utterly smashed stone doors visible. It’s a wall now and has been for ages. It looks like it would take days to dig through the rubble. Someone has even super helpfully carved, “These doors will never open again,” just above the wreck.
“Guess we’ll have to go in as intruders rather than guests!” Luo Fanli says.
“What would be welcoming us inside a lost temple exactly?” Shang Qinghua asks vaguely, inwardly cursing the fact that explosive mining techniques will definitely attract the Huan Hua Palace Sect cultivators’ attention and also probably collapse the whole cliff on them.
“We only have to clear a passage for us, not the whole door,” Peerless Cucumber says optimistically. “Is there a special technique for this kind of thing?”
“Aha, not really.”
“Oh.”
“Why don’t we just keep following the water?” Luo Fanli says.
“...How so?” Shang Qinghua asks.
“Some of those waterfalls could be passages inside,” Liu Qingge explains, because he and the little sister-in-law apparently share the same brain. He’s already eyeing the waterfall wearing down the giant statue on the left.
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AN: Temples in quests need to have traps and obstacles and monsters! Well, not ALL of the did, but this one did. I based the obstacles they faced as much as I could around the whole “Death of the Author” theme, while using this whole quest to explore Shen Yuan, Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua, Shang Qinghua and Liu Qingge and Luo Fanli, and so on.
The idea here with the door is that the “author” is not going to let them inside the temple to take the interpretation of the narrative (the Eye) for themselves. The story is over (the temple is closed for business)! The author is dead! If they want to get inside, they have to break inside or slip inside as intruders.
This also creates a convenient obstacle to hold up the Huan Hua Palace Sect cultivators so that our party can be nearly caught later! And shows off Shang Qinghua, Liu Qingge, and Luo Fanli’s twisty lines of thinking.
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Luo Fanli is holding the light and Shang Qinghua passes the other transmigrator to her, while accepting Liu Qingge’s hand for help getting out of the water.
“Ahhh, that was fun,” Shang Qinghua mutters.
Then he notices that Liu Qingge has the Cheng Luan sword out and ready. Shang Qinghua looks through the surrounding darkness, but all he can see are columns and water. For a moment, he thinks he sees something, a prowling shadow at the other end of the cavernous room, but he wipes the water out of his eyes and it’s gone.
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AN: The water in Shang Qinghua’s eyes briefly lets him see a flash of the invisible monsters who show up later! It helps up the tension.
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Another low growl rips through the darkness and Peerless Cucumber shuffles a little closer to Shang Qinghua. Because that sounded really fucking close and yet Shang Qinghua still can’t see the thing that’s making that sound.
He doesn’t see Liu Qingge lunge at him either. He only feels his brother-in-law shove him into Peerless Cucumber, knocking them into the water, out of the way of something that howls when Liu Qingge slashes at it with his sword. Shang Qinghua rolls off Peerless Cucumber and looks up just in time to see dark blood splatter across the watery floor. Liu Qingge pursues the attacker with a second slash, but only seems to meet thin air this time.
“It’s invisible!” Luo Fanli cries. “Fuck!”
“Behind you!” Liu Qingge snaps, and spins to slash at the thin air beside him. Dark droplets of blood hit the water again and something hisses at him.
Luo Fanli whirls and slashes, searching for an opponent.
“They’re reflected in the water!” Liu Qingge yells at her, standing guard over Shang Qinghua as he gets to his feet again. “Listen for their footsteps and vocalizations! Feel the demonic energy and air displacement!”
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AN: I got this from a list of Dungeons and Dragons puzzles. The idea is that there’s some puzzle that must be solved, but the truth of the room can only be seen in the reflection of the nearby water (or mirror or whatever).
Which felt fitting for a “Death of the Author” quest! Whatever an author’s intentions, the story is what they actually wrote, so the audience interprets a text without the context of the author’s insight. The truth (of the story) is in the reflection (audience interpretation)! It felt like a fun idea.
It also allows Shen Yuan to actually contribute to the quest via monster lore and bring up his impaired vision problem. And to confront Shen Yuan with the reality of this world. And to show off Luo Fanli’s fighting skills. And to show off LIU QINGGE’S legendary fighting skills, instincts as a warrior who fights many dangerous beasts, and the fact that he’s clever and observant!
Liu Qingge is good at what he does! And this is what he does!
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Someone has… angrily… or desperately… carved a lopsided message into the wall.
“‘If I go blind, so does the world,’” Peerless Cucumber reads.
“...That’s probably not good,” Shang Qinghua says.
“Nooo…” Fanli agrees.
The messages continue as they climb, carved into the walls, the ceilings, the floors. Most of it is illegible. Some of it is just nonsense. Some of it looks like the same kind of historical records carved into the broken tablets. Some of it looks like someone attacked the walls after reading what was written there. There are deep gouges in the walls and cracked marks that would match a giant’s hands.
“‘The water cleans the lies,’” Peerless Cucumber reads. “‘I am the only one who can see.’ ‘Lies everywhere, lies everywhere, lies everywhere.’ ‘The water cleans the evil.’ ‘I do not have enough tears.’ ‘Everything is nothing now. Everything in vain.’”
“You really don’t need to read them!” Shang Qinghua tells the kid. “It’s fine. It's totally fine.”
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AN: This is mostly here to up the tension, but it’s also here to try and give insight into this being and relate them more to the “Death of the Author” and the “Seeing is Believing” themes.
I also saw the phrase “If I go blind, so does the world” while I was browsing a list of riddles for D&D campaigns and I was like, “THAT’S SICK, I’M USING THAT.” Really brings the “an eye for an eye” and vengeance vibes. (The riddle was longer than that one phrase, but the answer was “the sun”.)
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The top of the temple reveals one massive room that looks like someone was alternatively scratching their insanity into the walls and tearing chunks out of the interior design with their bare hands. Overtop of the rubble is that eerie overgrowth. There’s a fine layer of water over the floor. At the center of it all is an incredibly enormous desk, cracked in half, with a robed skeleton sitting behind it, slumped over the top. It’s a little too large to be an ordinary human.
Plus, its skull is a little too long, probably to accommodate the third eye socket in the forehead. There’s something gleaming softly yellow in the third eye socket.
“Is… there water dripping from its eyes?” Luo Fanli whispers.
“It looks like it…” Peerless Cucumber whispers back. “Like it's crying…?”
“Still…? Is it dead or not?”
“Holy shit,” Shang Qinghua thinks, slightly nauseated. “System, bro, the worst bro I’ve ever known, tell me that we have not been swimming in a three-eyed skeleton’s magical undead tears or something this whole time.”
The shitty, no-good System stays unsurprisingly silent.
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AN: Okay, so the idea here is that this being was someone who recorded history and shared their knowledge freely. This being had the ability to discern the truth of a person - they were extremely perceptive. (The Weeper is either female or doesn’t have a gender, by the way.)
The Weeper met the Garden Master at some point. The Garden Master was an asshole, a liar, arrogant, etc.. The Weeper and the Garden Master clashed badly, until the Weeper sent the cleansing flood that nearly destroyed the sect and the Garden Master essentially had to flee to a personal abyss.
The Garden Master sent the plant as a final “fuck you” to the Weeper. The plant caused the Weeper to slowly go mad. The smashed tablets and destroyed temple are the Weeper’s work. The Weeper (not in a great state of mind) had the temple closed themselves once they realized they and their work had been corrupted. This was a “you destroy my (embellished) reputation, I destroy yours (and your entire life)” plot by the Garden Master.
The idea behind the tears is the whole “water is cleansing” thing. The Weeper tried to clean away the madness using their magical water-related abilities... and it actually worked for a long time. But eventually the madness began to overpower the effects of the magical water. The Weeper’s tears are from frustration and helplessness at losing control.
The water inside the temple combats the plant’s physical effects. Also stabbing the root killed the plant and essentially broke its mental/spiritual powers.
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Unfortunately, to get the fuck out of here, they have to go back through the temple. But hey! That’s still a lot better than an extended hike through an underground, haunted desert in darkness! The battle with the now-dead plant caused its growth to writhe around the temple. The vines need to be hacked through sometimes as they travel down through the rooms of broken shelves and shattered tablets.
“So much history lost…” Peerless Cucumber murmurs.
“He still thinks of himself as a reader - an observer, a visitor, separate from the flow of fate.”
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AN: This is... absolutely based on the Heart from the Dishonored franchise. But this sort of item didn’t originate with Dishonored and I need it! It’s a surprise/mystery tool that will help us later!
The Eye isn’t exactly a mind-reading object. I mean, it kind of is, but it works in a very specific way that I’m looking forward to getting into.
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From there, their path back out of the natural maze is even more careful and stressful than before, now that the Huan Hua Palace Sect cultivators are actively looking for them rather than the temple. It’s slow-going and stressful and silent, except for when the Weeper’s Eye presses too close against his chest.
“He is afraid that if he starts screaming, he will never stop,” it tells him, when he’s looking at a pale-faced Peerless Cucumber, as they fly over a particularly deathly-looking drop.
“Oh, me too, bro!” Shang Qinghua thinks. “Seriously! Tell me something I don’t know!”
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AN: Having Shang Qinghua be totally unimpressed by an object like this was very funny to me. He’s the author! He’s a transmigrator! He knows these people well! He already has insight into their situations.
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Shang Qinghua groans, but supposes that Peerless Cucumber would have at least been disguising Liu Qingge from the back. “You tell them that you were tracking thieves who stole something from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect,” he says quickly. “Rule of embarrassment! Admitting something that makes us look bad to a rival makes it sound true. Don’t tell them what was stolen and act really offended if they try to poke into Cang Qiong business. I’ll come back as soon as I get these two out!”
Liu Qingge nods and launches forward into the fight.
“We’re just leaving him?” Peerless Cucumber says, as they do exactly that.
“I’ll get changed and come back ‘looking for him for urgent sect business’ as soon as I’ve dropped you two off in the last town,” Shang Qinghua says. “I’m really good at acting stressed and confused, and at desperately needing an unstoppable wandering Liu Qingge back at Cang Qiong Mountain Sect immediately. Now let’s go! Let’s go! Mission isn’t over yet!”
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AN: Shang Qinghua is, at heart, a liar. I love him.
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Accolades such as “greatest single long-playing achievement since Sgt. Pepper” and “the most important record album ever made” fall over Queen’s latest album as easily as butter melting on a hot potato—but few realize what a hot potato the album actually was in its pre-release days. It took a bevy of high-powered attorneys, some low-life finagling, and more than the usual amount of wheelerdealing just to get the album out without its being hacked to death by defamation-of-character suits.
Guitarist Brian May explains: “I’m in real difficulty here because I’ve been threatened with libel because our old management had a good go at stopping the album coming out. They thought “Death on Two Legs’’ was about them. They wanted us to take the track off and we nearly had to, and in fact they got a load of money out of our publishing company because it supposedly was libelous, but it’s never been proven. It’s all very stupid—they wanted to sue Freddie, the band, the publishing company, and the record company.”
All very dramatic stuff, but a band like Queen survives not on operatic finesse alone, but on gut-level melo- dramatics in the business department as well. When you produce your records, write the songs, play all the instruments, and do everything yourself, chances are you’re going to have to pay some legal dues, too. But ah! the rewards—such as the single, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” hanging into the #1 spot in the British charts for seven weeks in a row!
“We’re a bit more in the public eye now, we’re starting to get recognized a lot more,” says Brian May. “We’re carrying on working just as we did before, but obviously we’re very pleased with how the record’s doing. It’s sold more than a million copies in England— can’t believe it.” But it’s true: Queen’s stature in England has risen from that of The #1 teenage hard rock band to that of the-group- that-made-the-single-that-every-house- wife-knows-by-heart”.
What propelled Queen in that direction is their Night at the Opera album, a slight departure from what Queen fans know to be the Queen sound. The hard rock screams have temporarily subsided, replaced by experimentation with different voicings of instruments and production tricks. Those who found Queen’s approach overdecibelled can relax to the quiet “ ‘39” or “Good Company” and tap their feet to “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon” without fear of being gui- tarred to death. “It’s just what came out,” says Brian. “They’re offshoots of our main direction. There’s plenty of time for the rock.”
“The album wasn’t really supposed to go in the direction that it did, it was just the songs we had. While we were making it we were thinking, ‘Yeah, it is getting a bit light,’ but rather than fight against it we decided to do it properly and then think again afterwards. So instead of trying to heavy up the lighter things, we pressed on. We had a few things we didn’t use, but we’re getting more demanding of ourselves. There are a few heavy things kicking around, but we may use them on the next record.”
The two strongest forces in Queen have always been Brian and Freddie. With A Night at the Opera, where experimentation and branching out in new directions are the most obvious characteristics, the personalities of the band are often obscured by the newly emerging elements. “Sometimes I feel that Freddie and I are going in different directions, but then he’ll come up with something and I’ll think, ‘My God—we do think alike.’ When I’m working on one of his things I can tune in very easily to what guitar part he wants, and vice-versa. In terms of what we’re trying to do in songs, we are moving in different directions, but I think that could be a good thing.”
QUEEN II: Critical response to the band is now almost unanimously favorable in both Great Britain and the United States, which is quite phenomenal when you stop and think of how anxious many critics were to pan them two years ago.“I’m not going to take it too seriously,” Brian says, “because I remember what the critics said about Queen II. It would seem that everybody is beginning to like us. … very much. I can take it at that level, but there’s no doubt in my mind that sometime in the future there’ll come a time when we get slagged for everything. Queen II is still my favorite of the Queen albums, certainly the most daring. Especially for the time. I think we’re still finding our feet now, and the way I feel about the new album is that we’re searching for new directions and most of them are sort of half-formed. We’ve got the Queen II feel in some places, and in others we’ve got the Sheer Heart Attack polish. I don’t think we’re quite sure where we’re going”.
“This album, at the very least, negates all the comparisons to Led Zeppelin that we’ve been living with for the past three years. I think Physical Graffiti is amazing, by the way. I saw Zeppelin at Earls Court, and I met Pagey afterward, for the first time. It was great, he was very nice and gentle. I respect him a tremendous amount for “Kashmir” and “The Light,” for being able to put his brain on record—- it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t play a note.”
Economic criticism has been less favorable, however. A Night at the Opera was widely rumored to be “the most expensive album ever made” when it was released, a point which Queen’s management denies. Nevertheless, Queen has been taken to task by quite a few English journalists for spending so much money estimated at £30-40,000—making one record. Brian has a retort: “We wouldn’t have spent so much money if the studios weren’t so bloody expensive!
The album was recorded in seven of them, sometimes three at once.” We weren’t mucking about for any of it, it was four months of solid work. It came down to having the equipment available for four months, and we didn’t begrudge the amount of time spent in the studios, but it comes to a fair amount of money. There’s a lot of things that seem light, like “Good Company,” which actually took a great deal of time and care. All those trumpets and clarinets being fashioned from guitar sounds—I took it quite seriously because I wanted to do it right, even though it was a lighthearted thing. We worked too hard for our own health, we got a bit down and depressed.”
While Queen was laying about England between record and tour, a few of them got going on some independent projects. Brian and Roger produced an R&B group’s single, but there were some record company hassles and it may be some time before the record gets released. And on the eve of the American tour, Freddie Mercury went into the studios with a singer/songwriter managed by the Rocket Organization (which manages Queen as well) to try his hand at production. “Eddie Howells is the guy’s name, and he’s managed by David Mead, and they’re doing a single for Warners. I’m playing some guitar on it.” Brian restrained himself from going out on any limbs before the American tour in order to get himself physically fit. His health had been a crucial problem on an earlier American tour, and he’s not particularly anxious to spend time in hospitals when he could be onstage instead. “I actually get more tired offtour than ontour,”he admits. But I am in good health.”
HAIRY LEGS: Once the English leg of the tour did get started, word started to flow very quickly back to the States about Queen’s dramatic stage show—a stage show to end all stage shows, with Mercury donning short-shorts to add a bit of the hairy leg to Queen’s otherwise pristeen presentation. “The show is the same, but different,” Brian says confusedly. “We’ve merely developed what we did before with some new material from the new album. It’s a bit of reshuffling. Plus we do “Doing All- right” from the first album, which we’ve never done onstage before. And “Seven Seas of Rhye,” which we’d do in England but never in America before. It’s quite a lot different, actually.”
American audiences got their first chance to sample the new presentation on January 27 in Waterbury, Conn., when the first concert of Queen’s scheduled 32-date, 21-city American tour got underway in the Palace Theatre. After arriving in the States at Kennedy International on January 20 and spending a couple of days in New York for interviews, Queen began five days of rehearsals at the Palace to ready their show for American fans across the country.
After Waterbury they dove headfirst into the intensive six-week tour, which featured extended runs in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles before its scheduled end March 12 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Despite the novel direction of the new album, onstage Queen proved to be the same rocking outfit they’ve always been, letting loose with the same kind of guitar-bass-drums-piano barrage they’ve delivered in the past. “We don’t do “39” or “Lazing on aSunday Afternoon” in our show,“ Brian explains. He seems a bit defensive of Queen’s rock spirit, which is kept intact in the live set by “BohemianRhapsody,” “Sweet Lady,” “Prophet Song” and the deletion of the “experimental tunes” from A Night At the Opera.
By the by, those who missed Queenon earlier tours but want to see how they’ve changed now have the means. Queen bave joined the prestigious ranks of the Zeppelins, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones whereby sorne illegal entrepreneur has issued a boot leg album of one of their American concerts. “I hate those things-they rarely give an accurate picture of the group,” Brian states unequivocally, and in this case he’s right. The Queen bootleg has transistor radio fidelity, and the only truly audible members of the band are Brian and Freddie. Yet the fact that a bootleg exists confirms the fact that Queen is now well on their way to the top.
CIRCUS MAGAZINE, APRIL 1975
@natromanxoff, @mephisto92, @moviestorian, @x5vale, @39-brian, @onegoldenglance, @crosmopolitan, @an-abyss-called-life, @his-majesty-king-mercury, @i-live-for-queen, @brian-39-may, @toomuchlove-willkillyou, @brimaymay, @sail-away-sweet-sister, @drummerqueenrmt, @old-fashioned-roger-boy-deactiv, @briianmaay, @l-over-bo-y, @inui-mycroft, @deacytits, @iminlovewithrogscar, @drowseoftaylor, @brianmayislongaway, @balticlover, @astrophysicist-guitar-god, @miez-lakatz, @brianmayoucease, @jesus-in-a-life-boat, @roger-taylors-car, @silapril, @sherrifanciesfriskyfreddie, @tenderbri, @brianmydear, @thosequeenboys, @millionairewaltz-carpediem, @painandpleasure86, @bribrifrenchfry, @xlucylennonx, @a-night-at-the-abbey-road, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew, @madformeddowstaylor, @queenrogertaylorfan, @let-roger-get-a-lunch, @queen-for-life, @rethought, @darlinginnuendo, @mymakeupmaybeflaking, @old-but-still-a-child, @let-roger-get-a-lunch, @warriorteam1924, @funnydressesweirdhairanddance, @painkiller80, @thefanhuman13, @yourtieddownmother, @hgmercury39, @brimi-stardust, @thefairyfellermercury, @retroromantics, @foxmonkey, @sophiaintheskywithdiamonds, @holybrianmaywritingbear, @lydiannode, @39-yellow-daffodils , @ure-gonna-loveme-when-u-seeme, @kaykaybeachgirl, @rhysjoejoshtomfarisblog @redspecialandclogsandcurls, @briansrainbowsocks, @delilahmay39, @ohmybribri, @bless-the-queen, @infunitehearbeat, @sketchiesscketches, @everythingaboutfreddie, @doitforthevine67, @recordsoftheseventies, @tenementfunsterwithpurpleshoes, @drummah-in-a-rocknroll-band, @beatlegirl1968, @maylorsqueen, @shearrehartatacc, @gralto, @alittlepeoplemagic, @rainbowsockbrian, @sailawaysweetbrimi
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most recent bookmarks (5/8/21)
bnha
5 Times Midoriya Taught Class 1A about Memes and 1 Time they Found a Villain that Understood Them by MaddCatter (1.2k, G, gen) After being diagnosed as quirkless, Midoriya gets into pre-guirk media and finds memes. He shares them with Class 1A. Aizawa doesn't get paid enough for this.
a glimpse of tomorrow (looking back) by achievingelysium (7.9k, T, gen, bullying) Subject: Aldera Time Capsule Ceremony Forwarded Message— This year marks ten years for the Aldera Middle School graduating class of 20XX.To celebrate, we would like to invite pro heroes Kingpin and Deku, Aldera alumni, to participate in a public time-capsule opening. We are incredibly proud to have helped them on their journeys to becoming heroes, and would be most honored to receive them as guests and for them to speak at the ceremony. [...]"Well," Deku says, leaning over to turn the monitor towards him. His eyes flick over the contents of the email one more time. "If they haven't changed, then I guess we could return the favor."Ten years down the line, Bakugou and Midoriya are invited to a time capsule ceremony at their middle school to read letters from their past selves, and look back on their past and how it shaped their future. For anyone else, it would have been a celebration.For the two of them, it's an opportunity.A look into Bakugou and Midoriya's past—through a future neither of them imagined—as pro heroes, agency partners, and friends. (Written for NWA: Prompts for All Event.)
Watch The World Burn by Quisanne (33k, T, gen, bullying) Shouta and Toshinori were successful in their attempt to gather evidence about the wrongdoings of Aldera Middle School. It doesn't take long, though, to realize that there are many more things out there in hero society that need fixing. Fixing as in throwing a feral Yagi Toshinori at the problem and hoping everything turns out fine, that is.
Razzmatazz by xylophones (168.5k, T, gen) Izuku has plans for everything.He plans out what to say to the cashier when ordering coffee, he plans out his homework before even opening his textbook. He has a whole ten-year plan for how he’s going to get into UA’s hero course and get his hero license fully quirkless. He plans for every wild, unlikely scenario he can think of because his anxiety gets so bad if he doesn’t go through every possible outcome, every way his life could landslide into disaster–– but Izuku never planned for this.For once, he doesn’t have a plan and he doesn’t have time to think of one. All he can see is Yagi-san’s lined, kind face looking resigned as he stares down the villain in his shop. Yagi-san, who is the closest thing to a father figure Izuku has ever had.Izuku doesn’t think. He just moves.(Or: Izuku saves the number one hero, gets a hero license way earlier than anyone wanted, realizes that maybe hero society isn’t as great as he thought it was, and everything just kind of falls apart from there.)
almost never losing by blueh (4.6k, T, gen) It’s been five years since Izuku has last stepped foot there, but the words Aldera Middle School still bring him an unprecedented amount of dread. It’s accompanied by middle school reunion scribbled underneath which has the added bonus of making Izuku want to go hide under Iida’s desk and not come out.He puts the letter, unopened, on his desk and resolves not to think about it.“You’re just going to let them win?”… Izuku resolves to not think about it for the two seconds that Kacchan allows him not to think about it.or: Two year after graduating UA, Aldera Middle School hosts its first middle school reunion in honor of not one, but two former students graduating and becoming pros.Izuku’s not quite sure he even wants to go, until suddenly he does.
Putting Infinity into Words by redrobin1989 (8.3k, G, gen) Soul Mates have evolved with quirks to become Soul Bonds in which one feels the entire emotional spectrum and a fact about their future relationship. Or so Izuku had heard, he'd only ever two Soul Bonds and they both caused him pain. Until All Might and Yuuei and he finally learned what it was like to have a loving, thriving Bond.
an old friend or two by neon_air (8.3k, G, gen) When Midoriya Izuku began hearing whispers in his head after gaining One for All, he didn't think much of it. When the whispering escalated to full thoughts, suggestions, and that somehow escalated to a couple of ghosts tailing him around, then he began to think much of it.Or, how Midoriya Izuku and the vestiges of One for All become one big mish-mash of a family.
New Discoveries by deafmic (826, G, erasermic) Eri has never seen a cat in her life and when coming home for the first time, is terrified of Aizawa's.
Father's Day by Fallende (2.7k, G, gen) “T-this is for you!” His successor says. "For me?" Toshinori Yagi asks. "What's the occasion?" "No occasion!" The boy insists. It's a lie.
One Step by GEMoore990 (5.2k, T, gen) Doctors and Izuku don’t mix.Which was why it felt like the floor fell under him when Aizawa-sensei announced they would be going to the hospital for checkups.Or just because Izuku has a quirk now doesn’t mean that his body physically isn’t quirkless anymore.
possession is only one-ninth of a quirk by PachiiRiisu (9.2k, T, gen) “You’re right on the money; to be more accurate, I’m in Midoriya’s body. In truth, I’m… one of the previous holders,” The words “of One For All” are left unsaid.What.“What the fuck,” Katsuki eloquently says. He can already feel a headache forming, if it hadn’t begun already.Or: 5 times Bakugou covers for Deku’s weird quirk, and 1 time he doesn't.
hp
Official by BeeDaily (1k, T, jily) James is caught eavesdropping in the library.
mcu
the little things by crowkag (4.2k, T, gen, kidnapping) Minutes tick away, and by the time Tony finishes the three emails Pepper had copied him into, Peter is a snoring ball in his lap. Shutting his laptop, he carefully leans forward to place it on the coffee table, drawing back with the forgotten can of root beer in his hands. Peter prefers his sodas flat when he drinks them—probably because he’s weird and has no sense of taste—so Tony pops the tab open with a soft hiss and settles it on the side table.Tipping his head back on the couch, he lowers his fingers to run absentminded tracks through Peter’s curls.He’s my weird kid, though, he thinks with a smile, already drifting into sleep himself.(or: Ten little instances of love between Tony and Peter.)
i know who his dad is (it's you) by imeanthatsprettysnazzy (3.6k, gen, spideychelle) “Spider-Man, as in the guy that stops robberies in Queens?” Pepper asked slowly. “That kid — that little tiny baby kid — is Spider-Man?”“Yeah…” Tony stared at her, still not really understanding what the hell was happening here. “As far as I can tell. All signs point to yes, and all that. Who did you think he was?”Pepper blinked again, slower. She shook her head hurriedly. “No, I — I thought he was your kid.”“What?”“Well, what else was I meant to think?” Pepper exclaimed, looking at him like he was insane. “You’re sitting there, very clearly pretending like you’re okay, with information on a kid that was born during the middle of your crazy years!” [People think that Peter is Tony's kid.]
atla
Three-Body Problem by JustGettingBy (6.3k, T, gen) In this world, the war ends early.Events ripple out from there.AKA The Hakoda and Zuko arranged marriage turned adoption au
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Ditch a Glitch #26 Prompt: Aspen’s Restaurant Adventure
I thought I was going to write something short for the Friday prompt Ditch a Glitch #26 from @storyhole, and it turned into something so cute I can’t stand it myself.
For the prompt, I used the words: chef, chair, flowers, notion, open, and pierce.
Aspen’s Restaurant Adventure
Word Count: 915
TW/CW: food
(Post book-1, pre book-2, some book spoilers.)
Emry stopped walking as soon as the entrance to the restaurant came into view.
“Cal, are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Of course.” Cal squeezed his arm. “Aspen’s been talking about this for a week now. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“Worst that can happen?” Emry repeated- but Cal started to lead him along again, forcing him to rush his words with his steps. “Are you forgetting the flower debacle from two days ago?”
“Your neighbor didn’t mind the new shrubs all that much-“
“Or the dog Aspen kidnapped because they thought it was cute?”
“We returned it an hour later.”
“Please tell me you at least recall the bamboo incident-“
“It was cleared up eventually.” Cal stopped and set a hand on the door handle. “Regular exposure to human society is only going to help them. And both of us are here to help them avoid any more disasters.”
Emry ran a hand through his hair.
“You promise I won’t have any newspaper reporters asking me for quotes on forest spirit behavior after this?”
“Well, this is Aspen we’re talking about. I’m not sure I can promise that.” Cal turned around and called down the street. “Aspen, we’re here!’
“Coming!”
The spirit had paused at the corner to inspect a flowerpot hanging from a streetlamp. Realizing how far behind they were, they quickly morphed into their terrier form and raced down to the restaurant, their ears flapping with each hurried step. At the last second, they shifted back into human form, copying Emry’s coat and boots exactly.
“Sorry, sorry,” they breathed, green eyes sparkling. “Can we go in now?”
“We can indeed.” Cal smiled and opened the door for them.
The dinner started off…fine. Emry pulled out the chair for Cal, then for Aspen. Aspen sat in it- cross-legged, as always- and settled for commenting on everything in the room from their vantage point, rather than bounding up to inspect it all in person.
“Who’s that?”
“The waiter. They take our order and bring us the food.”
“And who’s that?”
“Another patron.”
“And what’s that?”
“The door to the kitchen, I imagine.”
Emry handed Aspen the menu to give Cal a moment to breathe.
“Here, take a look at this and pick what you want me to eat.”
Aspen’s eyes went wide.
“What, pick just one thing from all this?”
“Two things,” Cal corrected. “You can pick my meal as well.”
“Very brave of you, love,” Emry muttered under his breath. Cal lightly slapped his arm.
Aspen was only halfway through the menu when the waiter, still operating under the naive notion that she was going to have a normal day of work, wandered over.
“What can I get for you today?”
“Hm. I don’t know yet…” Aspen frowned at the menu. As they thought hard, the flower placed at the center of the table opened and closed as if breathing. The waiter went pale.
“Are you…Aspen? The forest spirit?”
Aspen’s head whipped up, and they beamed.
“Yes, I am!”
A nervous smile crossed her face.
“And that means you must be Ms. Breslin and Mr. Karic? Of- of the Auric Guild?”
Emry swallowed.
“That’s us.”
“Will you give me one moment?” The waiter held up a finger, side-stepped away, then frantically speed-walked through the kitchen doors. Emry turned to Cal.
“I knew it, they know about the bamboo incident-“
“Emry-“
“And they knew my name, too, I don’t like that-“
“Emry, you’re a part of the Guild now, you’re going to have to get used to it.”
“What’s happening?” Aspen closed the menu. “I haven’t told them what I want yet.”
Before Cal could reassure them, the waiter reappeared at the back of the restaurant, with a burly, apron-clad woman in tow. Emry stiffened.
“They don’t usually call the chef to kick people out, do they?” he murmured to Cal.
Panic made him stand once the chef and her piercing brown eyes reached the table.
“Ma’am, I hope there’s not a problem-“
“Where’s the spirit?” she said. The same booming voice that commanded sous chefs made Emry sit back down in another bout of panic. Aspen just smiled.
“Hello!” They waved. “I’m Aspen.”
Emry looked at Cal. Cal looked at him.
Then the chef pulled out a chair, sat, and leaned forward onto the table with a grin.
“I hear you like food.”
“Yes!” Aspen got up, ran to another table, dragged a new chair over right next to the chef, and sat down with the menu open in front of them. “I have questions. Emry hates asparagus, but I want to know what it tastes like, so could you please explain that to me? And I’m not entirely sure what it means when something is swimming in butter. Ducks and fish swim in things, of course, but I don’t think you can fit a pond of butter on this table, so if you could please elaborate on that-“
“Of course, of course.” The chef waved the waiter over, muttered something in her ear, and hunched down to begin the sought-after explanations. The waiter straightened and nodded to Emry and Cal.
“I’ll be right back with a few samples for the table,” she said, and rushed off. Cal glanced at Emry and took his hand under the table. He squeezed her fingers.
“You did this, didn’t you?” he whispered.
“I told you no disasters today.” She bit back a smile. “Though you might run up a decent tab.”
#the stray spirit#ditch a glitch#word prompt#my wip#writeblr#aspen the spirit#emry karic#cal breslin#tw: food
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The Force Awakens Chapter 1: Secret Ties || P.D.
| The Force Awakens Masterlist |
Warnings: TFA Spoilers
Word Count: 2.7k
After following Poe Dameron to the planet of Jakku in order to retrieve a map that supposedly leads to Luke Skywalker, a series of unthinkable events ensues and you’re left, stranded on a planet you know next to nothing about. After finding Finn, the stormtrooper you and Poe escaped with, BB-8, the droid who holds the map, and Rey, a girl who is surprisingly strong with he Force, you four embark on a mission full of long-lost family members, life-threatening situations, and tricks played by the Force. A mission that will change the fate of the galaxy.
[A/N]: The cliffhanger I leave you guys on is arguably worse than “I’ll Come Back” ch3 but anyway-
A light knocking jolts you out of your serene state of sleep. Stealing a quick glance at your alarm clock, it shines a bright 01:57 back at you. Probably just the new recruits playing pranks. Again. You’re too tired to tell them off, instead burying your head back into your pillow and allowing sleep to overcome you once more.
But there’s more knocking, and this time, harder.
“These kids are really pushing the fucking limit,” you mutter, tiredly getting out of bed and slamming your combination panel, ready to yell at a bunch of rookies while they scurry away. Instead, you see Poe, which brings a smile to your face.
That smile doesn’t even last a second, the expression on his face wiping it off yours almost immediately.
“I know that look. What happened?” you question, grabbing his hand to pull him into your room. He steps back as if you’re a stranger and not his best friend of four years.
Awkwardly dropping your hand back to your side, you take a step towards him and rest your weight on the doorframe, trying to read his expression to get a clue as to what he was about to say next.
“I just came to say goodbye.” Your raised eyebrows cause him to elaborate. “Leia briefed me an hour ago. We have intel on the map that leads to Luke Skywalker.”
“Luke?” you blurt out, eyes widening. “All right, give me ten.”
“For what?” You scoff at his question, motioning to the shirt and shorts you were wearing.
“Does it look like I’m going to be flying in this?” He shakes his head in confusion, and you automatically know you’re missing something.
“You’re not coming.”
“Says who?”
“Leia.” You groan at the mention of her name, massaging your forehead.
“You’re listening to Leia? Where’s Poe and what have you done with him?” He doesn’t even crack a smile, which causes alarms to go off in your head. “Exactly how dangerous is this mission, Dameron?” you inquire, standing up a bit straighter than you had been before.
“Either I come back in a couple of days… or I don’t come back at all.” You inhale sharply at the last part of his sentence, already starting to feel your anxiety heighten.
“And why the hell am I not allowed to go?”
“She said that you’re in more danger than I am there, or else she would’ve sent the both of us.” You roll your eyes, growing increasingly frustrated with Leia.
“Of course she did,” you mumble under your breath.
“I know there’s something you two are hiding from me.” Oh. So that’s why he’s being so moody. You wait for him to say something, but apparently he’s waiting for you to address his theory—which isn’t entirely incorrect—because you two just stand in an uncomfortable silence. “Okay then. I’ll be back soon.”
You’re at a loss for words as he walks off without anything else. No hugs, no promises, no jokes. He just… leaves.
Deep in your thoughts, you retreat back into your room and sit down on the edge of your bed, holding your head in your hands and bouncing your leg anxiously.
You have to go. You have to go help him and make sure he doesn’t fucking die.
But Leia said you couldn’t.
Fuck what Leia said. Since when do you listen to her, anyway? Isn’t Poe more important than a decision you know is wrong?
You could die. He won’t do anything to Poe, but only the Maker knows what will happen if he gets his hands on you.
Poe wouldn’t let him do anything to you, and that’s just a fact.
He’d kill Poe if he tried to protect you. Think about that.
Your emotional and logical sides battle it out in your head as you clench your fists, sighing and letting your emotions win over. Taking off your shorts and slipping on a pair of pants, you leave your quarters and head down to Leia’s office.
You don’t even bother to knock, typing in the combination and nearly barging into her office. She gives you one glance up from one of her many datapads strewn across her desk, almost literally buried in work.
“This is about Poe—”
“No.” She raises her eyebrows, shifting her attention from her reports and other general duties to you, leaning back in her chair. “This is about why you won’t let me go with him.” She groans, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
“You know why you can’t go.”
“What, do we not even take his name anymore?” You’re not quite sure why you snapped, but maybe it was because of the fact that she was sheltering you. And you weren’t one to enjoy that.
“He could hurt you.”
“He could hurt Poe,” you point out, unwilling to lose this argument. “He could hurt anyone. I’m not at any more risk than anyone else is.” That’s a lie.
“Have you lost your mind? If you encounter him, you’re at more risk than anyone else in this galaxy is.”
“You mean my loyalty is.” She starts to talk but closes her mouth, realizing you weren’t wrong. “My loyalty is strong with the Resistance. Both you and I know that.”
“The Dark Side is tempting.”
“I’ve been trained.”
“You quit in the middle of your training!” The way she retorts shuts you up for a moment, because she’s not wrong.
“I’m stronger with the Force than him. We both know that,” you counter, tired from lack of sleep and the fact that she’s restricting you from this when it’s quite literally your right. Whatever she said, you were going. That was final.
“He’s had more training than you.”
“That evens it out!” Your breathing is quick from how swiftly you two are throwing remarks back at each other.
“You’re not going.”
“Whatever you say,” you mutter, throwing your hands up in fake defeat. Getting up from the chair, you make it one step away from her desk before she calls out to you.
“I just said you’re not going.” You stop in your tracks, glancing wearily over your shoulder.
“I’m not,” you lie straight through your teeth, shaking your head.
“You lie like your father.” You crack a smile but pull your lower lip in between your teeth, willing it away.
“You know I can’t just let him go alone,” you try to explain, turning around to face her. “Plus, I may lie like my father—which is actually a compliment—but I’m my mother’s daughter.” She smiles at your last sentence, waving you away hurriedly.
“Get out of here.” You grin, grabbing one of the spare datapads on her desk before leaving.
Exiting her office, you turn your attention to the datapad in your hands, typing in BB-8’s callsign and chewing your lip impatiently, already starting to feel the blood coursing through your veins. The ‘pre-mission high’, as most Resistance members had dubbed it. Lots of them hated it. But you?
You lived for it.
“General?” you hear him beep through the datapad.
“No Beebee, it’s me. I need a favor.”
“I’m about to leave for a mission with Poe. He didn’t tell you?”
“No, no, he did,” you cut him off hurriedly, needing to cut to the chase. “Listen. I need the coordinates.”
“Poe told me you’d try this. General Leia strictly instruc—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Forget about that. Transmit his graph coordinates, at least.”
“Well, right now, his graph coordinates are the Resistance base which is located on the planet of D’Qar—”
“Just shut up with your wiseassery and just send me his grid coordinates, will you? We’re really rubbing off on you,” you remark with a groan, even though you’re smiling in real life. Damn, he was becoming a carbon copy of you both. Wouldn’t it just be easier to find the coordinates from Leia’s files? “You and I are most of his impulse control. Do you really want him to be reckless on a mission this dangerous?” You hear silence over the line and silently pray that he’ll give in.
“Jakku. I-Thirteen in the Western Reaches, Inner System. I just sent the exact coordinates to your X-Wing.” A wide grin spreads across your face and you repeat the planet name a couple of times to make sure you’ve got it.
“I’ll see you there, buddy,” you tell him before ending the call.
You land your X-Wing right next to Poe’s, scanning the makeshift camp and deciding to check out the main tent first. Slamming the button to open your cockpit top, you hop out of your ship and land effortlessly on the coarse sand, quickly dusting it off of your pants and heading towards the camp, blaster ready to engage within a second.
Peeking around the corner of the tent and through the torn-up curtains, you breathe a sigh of relief when you see Poe and run in, catching him off guard with first, you being there, and second, a bone-crushing hug.
“You fucking idiot,” you mutter, pulling back and giving him a light slap upside the head while holstering your blaster with the other hand. “Giving me all that last words shit and then telling me not to come with you.”
“Wh—I didn’t give you any last words! How the hell did you even get here?”
“Oh, I don’t have an X-Wing. I used a speeder.” He shakes his head and you wink at Beebee, watching him nod back eagerly. If droids could convey facial expressions, you’re sure he’d be grinning right now.
“Now is not the time for sarcasm. And I’m the idiot? You’re the one who somehow managed to make it here against Leia’s orders!”
“Forget about Leia’s orders,” you mutter, shifting your attention to Poe’s hand. “That’s the map, isn’t it?” The data drive encased in cloth heightens your worry for some reason, but it takes a couple of seconds for you to realize that it’s not the drive worrying you.
It’s him.
He’s here. He’s here, and he knows you are, too.
Fuck.
“We have to go,” you state resolutely, feeling like you’d just been punched in the gut.
“We’re going,” Poe tells you mildly, concerned at your sudden change of emotions.
“No, I mean we need to go. They’re here.”
“Who’s here?” The older man who had presumably given Poe the map asks, gaining both of you two’s attention. Before either of you can answer, the roaring of a transport catches all four of you off guard.
“They’re here.” You run outside with Poe and BB-8 on your heels, only being able to see faint lights. Poe whips out his macrobinoculars, observing the lights for a second before grabbing your hand and making a run for it, catching you completely off guard. “We gotta go!”
“Wow, I definitely didn’t understand that from the sound of the fucking transports!” you scream back, matching his pace and ridding your hand of his when you both break away to get to your respective X-Wings. Before you can even reach yours, a blast catches the center cockpit, making the entire thing burst into flames before your very eyes.
“Fuck. Fuck!” you scream, turning back around and sprinting for Poe’s, but the Maker nor the Force must be on you three’s side tonight, because a blast hits his left engine perfectly. You don’t know what to do now, trying to bury your panic under the fact that you needed to get the three of you out of here or else the galaxy would have no hope.
The connection has gotten stronger; so strong, in fact, that you can feel his emotions. Anger. Anger clouded his mind and when it got to you, it turned to unruliness in the heat of the moment.
Running scenario after scenario through your mind, you can’t find a single one that allows you three to escape safely with the map in the Resistance’s hold. The only thing you can think of is sending BB-8 off with the drive.
While you two get taken as war prisoners.
“What the hell are we going to do now?” Poe yells at you, practically tripping over his own feet because of how fast he’s running towards you, trying to get away from the flames that now coat Black One. Adrenaline is rushing through your bloodstream and you use it to your advantage, knowing exactly how to manipulate your emotions in such a high-risk scenario because this is the millionth time you’ve been in one. You note the blaster sniper rifle at his side, knowing you two would have to fight as hard as you could even though it would do no good in the end.
“Give me the map!” He throws it to you and you catch it dexterously, dropping to your knees next to BB-8 and motioning for him to open a compartment. He rolls back, a bit surprised at what you’re doing. “You take this! You take this and you get as far away from here as you can! Do you hear me?”
“What about you guys?” he chimes, watching you place the drive in the compartment he’s ejected.
“We’ll come back for you! Go!” Poe yells from beside you. You give BB-8 a reassuring little scuff, smiling sadly.
“So much for impulse control,” he beeps, rolling off as fast as he can. You snicker a little bit, getting back up and biting your tongue when the gravity of the situation hits you yet again.
There was no way you two were making it out now.
“What the hell does he mean by imp—” A blast whizzing right in between you both causes you both to duck to the ground.
“That doesn’t matter right now! Let’s take these troopers out!” He nods in agreement and you both crawl up just behind a sand dune. You grab your blaster from your holster and prop your arms up, beginning to aim for stormtroopers and shoot them. Poe does the same thing with his blaster sniper, obviously having more luck than you.
A black suit catches your eye and you’re pretty sure you’re imagining things until the figure turns around and you see the helmet.
It’s him.
You’re so shocked the grip on your blaster loosens and your jaw drops just at the sheer sight of him, even though he’s masked. You can feel him sense your surprise and he starts scanning the area because he knows you’ve seen him.
You never did learn how to control your emotions through the Force.
“What is it?” You don’t answer Poe’s question, too deep in shock to even register it. It’s been years. “Listen to me. What is it?” He shakes your shoulders with one hand, pulling you out of your momentary trance. His eyes dart all over your face as he tries to read your expression, tries to figure out what you’re thinking.
“It’s him,” you whisper, pointing to the figure who was now circling the man who had given Poe the map. You two are too far away to hear what they’re saying, but in an instant, the older man is struck down by the raw lightning of the Dark Jedi’s lightsaber.
All you do is flinch, knowing he can do a lot worse than that. Poe jumps up and over the dune with his sniper, bewildering you for a second before you’re right on his heels and yelling at him not to shoot.
But you’re too late.
Kylo whips around with an outstretched hand, stopping the blast mid-air and immobilizing both you and Poe. Four stormtroopers run towards the both of you, breaking off into groups of two and kicking out your legs from underneath you, Poe’s two guards doing the same with him. They cuff you and presumably do the same with Poe, and even though you know it’s impossible to shake out of First Order Cuffs, you still sure as hell try.
You both are led to Kylo and forced to your knees in front of him, only making your anger and fear increase and mix together to make a lethal poison, ready for you to unleash on anyone.
He removes the Force Hold and finally allows you both to breathe correctly, earning heaves of effort from both you and Poe. You don’t even give him the satisfaction of a look from you and Poe does the same, eyes fixated on the sand. Kylo crouches down in front of Poe, and you can see Poe glare up at Kylo out of the corner of your eye.
“So… who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?” You would’ve laughed had it not been for the shock of the situation, knowing you both are either going to die or be taken aboard the dreadnought in the outer atmosphere. Most likely the latter.
“The old man gave it to you,” Kylo speaks from his helmet, voice sounding almost mechanical.
“It’s just very hard to understand you with all the—”
“Search him.”
“—apparatus.” He groans as the stormtroopers pull him up rather roughly, and you hold back a wince. They begin to pat him down but obviously find nothing.
“Nothing, sir.”
“Put him on board. Keep her here,” Kylo instructs, immediately alarming Poe.
“No. No. Not without her.” The stormtroopers give no heed to his demands, forcing him to the transport. “What are you going to do with her?! Let her go!” he yells back, trying so hard to break from their hold that you’re scared he’s going to dislocate a shoulder. His yells fade as they take him into the transport, leaving just you and Kylo. You’re still on the ground, but you decide to look up at him and give him a glare of defiance just for the sake of making sure he knows you’re not going to break.
He crouches down once more, his head becoming level with yours. There’s silence for a few moments, like he’s making sure it’s really you. As if the biological connection through the Force isn’t enough.
“It’s been a while. How’s mom?”
Masterlist
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Poe Dameron: @yougottakeeponkeepinon, @seekerofmagnificentmysteries, @poe-damnnn-eron, @lapilark, @peterhollandkait, @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol, @ghoullflower, @twomoonstwosuns, @writefightandflightclub, @lady-sloan, @poes-stardust, @legamelo, @xremember-me-notx, @softly-sad, @imtheoutgoingsidekick-baby, @yourbucky084, @fanfiction-trashpile-replies
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#poe dameron x reader#poe dameron x you#poe dameron x y/n#poe dameron fic#poe dameron imagine#star wars fic#star wars imagine#my writing#100
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