#i originally was gonna skip but then i did her trial and she’s so fun 😭😭😭 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zafirosreverie · 4 years ago

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can you please write this: agatha have a love/hate relationship with y/n, she put her through what she did to wanda (living difficult moments of her past) and during the scene where yn was with her ex gf she gets a bit jealous watching it and makes comments about it

I loved this ask! Thank you so much for it. I hope you like what i did with it, dear! ^ - ^

The universe between your hands (Agatha x Fem!reader)

You growled as Agatha’s voice came behind you. She had you trapped in her basement and used her magic to keep you from using yours. You were totally gonna kill her.

This has been your relationship with her since the very beginning. You two hated each other, always fighting and trying to be the best witch. That led to nights staying awake together, reading the spellbooks as fast as you could, fights in the forest that usually ended with one of you having to carry the other, just to avoid being scolded by the older witches, and flirting. So much flirting (at what, you had to admit, Agatha was better). It wasn’t anything serious, but the older witches didn’t want to hear the two of you arguing, so you ended covering your arguments with sarcasm and flirting. It was natural for you both at this point.

“Ready to talk, dear?” she asked, walking around you like a lion playing with her prey. You rolled your eyes.

“You haven’t even offered me a cup of tea” you answered. “You’re losing your touch with your guests, Aggie”.

She chuckled at the name and grabbed your face with her right hand while playing with your hair with the other. Her baby blue eyes locked with your e/c ones. You always found her eyes really beautiful.

“My guests usually don’t try to kill me, darling” she whispered “the best you deserve is coffee”

“two spoons of sugar, please” you growled and Agatha smirked.

She caressed your cheek before she let your face and hair and started walking behind you. You blushed when she wrapped an arm around your waist and pressed you against herself.

“Tell me what you learnt and I’ll let you go” she whispered in your ear “You’ll be free to play in the stars, love” she promised.

The stars. That was the reason you were here right now. You always knew you could be better, always knew there was so much more to learn. Just, not here on earth. You found a way to travel across the universe, and you learnt so much from the magic on other planets.

You were on Antares when you felt the chaos magic and it felt like a good time to visit your old home. The plan was simple: go to earth, learn chaos magic, go back to your studies on Antares. But travel across the universe took so much of your power and you always ended tired and almost knocked out when you did it. By the time you arrived at Westview, you could barely stand on your feet. That was the only reason Agatha was able to capture you. She wanted the power you got from the stars.

“I thought you were not interested in it, Aggie” you said and cursed yourself for feeling butterflies on your stomach when she giggled on your ear and used her free hand to play again with your hair.

“You know I’m interested in anything you do, Y/N” she said and you blushed.

That was true. She was always asking for you around the coven, wanting to know whatever you were doing, that was how she managed to be a step ahead of you sometimes.

That’s why she was the one having a trial and not you, a voice in your head said and you felt guilty. You had been the one planning to steal the books, to learn dark magic. It was your idea. You were the one who planned to break the rules. Agatha just did it first because you lost a fight against her and she read your mind.

“I’m a little busy, hon” she whispered in your ear, interrupting your thoughts “so, let me save both of our time”.

You gasped when she released you, allowing you to stand on your feet. Too bad your knees were too weak because of her proximity. You would have hit the floor if it wasn’t because of Agatha’s arm that was still around you.

“Careful, dear. I haven’t even taken you up stairs” she joked and you rolled your eyes, feeling your cheeks a little warm.

“fuck you” you mumbled as you stepped away from her. You just heard her chuckling. You weren’t sutpid, you knew she put some runes around the room to avoid your magic. Smart ass.

You felt her approach you from behind again, and suddenly, everything was black. You blinked before you noticed the new scene. You were in the forest. What the hell? Agatha stood beside you and you two watched your memory. It was that time when you sent a poor girl through a bunch of trees.

She was a younger witch that tried to make fun of Agatha. You remembered being angry at her, because it was your thing. No one else was allowed to talk like that about the brunette, just you. It was common knowledge in the coven. So, you just were defending that privilege, it wasn’t because of Agatha’s eyes being filled with tears.

Then, the real Agatha made a move with her hand and the memory changed. This time it was her who was defending you from hunters. You had made a mistake and the men from the village saw your magic before you could hide it. You ran but you were still young and you couldn’t control your magic like you do now. When they were too close to you, you felt a magic that wasn’t yours and suddenly a wind too strong took the men away from you. You would later learn to identify that magic as Agatha’s.

“You were pretty stupid back then” you heard Agatha whisper and you frowned before you turned to her.

“look who’s talking” you rolled your eyes. She only giggled and changed the memory again, to the one when she saved your ass from the older witches by saying you were with her all the time. You were actually outside the forest, which was not allowed to younger witches, but Agatha lied for you.

“How am I going to beat your ass myself if you’re expelled?” she had said when you asked her why she did it.

The memories kept changing for a while and you felt something strange inside your chest. Some of them were always present in your mind, but some were almost forgotten. What you noticed while watching them, was that you and Agatha acted like an old married couple most of the time. But no, you hated each other and that was the only truth you knew.

You didn’t say anything when Agatha skipped the memory of her trial. It was a silent pact you both made a long time ago. That night...never happened.

The memories changed to ones from a closer time. Both of you were older, you knew more about the world, your goals changed. You took different paths, but would find each other from time to time. Even then, your dynamic remained the same. It was almost comical, now that you had the chance to watch it from the outside. It seemed like you’ve always had complete faith in Agatha surviving, while she seemed to have (well founded) doubts about your ability to stay alive.

“Just take what you want, Aggie” you suddenly said when you recognised the memory that was playing now. Your reaction seemed to be interesting for her, because she giggled and hugged you from behind.

“Where’s the fun in that?” she whispered in your ear. She seemed to like doing that, you noticed.

However, you just wanted to stop the memory right there. “I’ll tell you what i learnt, we don’t need to keep watching this” you said, but she ignored you. She now definitely wanted to see this.

You tensed when another voice came from the memory.

“Y/N? Love, where are you?” a female said. It was your ex girlfriend. Agatha was still behind you, so you didn’t see her frowning.

“oh, there you are, silly. Are you ready?” your ex asked and you watched yourself nodding and taking her hand. She kissed you and you stared at her with love. It made you sick because you knew how this memory was going to end.

“You’ve been busy, Y/N” you heard Agatha saying, but there was something else in her tone. You just couldn’t put your finger on it.

You watched as your past self and your ex went on your date. Agatha’s arms pressed you more against her when the memory showed your ex doing the same while looking at pictures in the museum. It was the same position, but you couldn’t help but notice it felt better with Agatha.

“She took you to see the same boring paintings you’ve known for centuries? how original” Agatha said and there was that tone again. As if she wanted you to notice how bad of a match your ex was. Well, she didn’t need to do it, you knew now.

The older witch couldn’t help herself, but she felt...something. It was strange. She planned to watch your memories just to steal the knowledge you had from the stars (even when a little voice in her head said that she also wanted to see what was going on in your life. She didn’t see you in a long time, after all), but now that plan was quickly being forgotten.

She frowned when she heard someone else calling you “love”, watching this woman taking your hand, playing with your hair and kissing you lips, was too much for her. With the exception of the kissing part, those were the things she usually did with you. It was normal for her to play with your hair, to grab your hand and even hug you (for lord’s sake, she was holding you in her arms right now!), it was her thing, something she always thought that was special for you both, and watching someone else doing it, felt like an insult to her. As if that woman was stealing what was hers by right.

That annoyed her. So she did what she always does when something annoys her. She tried to get rid of it. These were your memories, so she couldn’t actually do anything to the woman, but her brilliant sarcasm should be enough.

“Really? a fancy restaurant? how cliché” she said, trying to get a reaction from you. But you seemed lost in your thoughts.

You watched the scene and the moment your past self walked on that restaurant, you wanted to stop yourself, you wanted to yell, to tell yourself to walk away from there. But what happened, happened, and there was nothing you could do about it. So you just kept hearing as Agatha kept making sarcastic comments about your ex.

When you watched your ex offering you a drink and your past self smiling lovingly at her, you felt Agatha’s hold tightening around your waist and unconsciously leaned against her. For someone who has spent the past 300 years trying to kill you, Agatha surely knew how to make you feel safe.

Agatha felt you leaning more into her embrace and some of her rage faded away. However, she decided to stop the memory when she saw the woman pulling out a small box from her jacket. No, she didn’t want to see that.

You blinked as you two went back to Agatha’s basement. What happened? She didn’t even get the memory she was looking for, the one about your new powers. Instead, she pressed her lips in your temple and remained quiet. Almost as if she wanted to stay this way for as long as she could, not that you were complaining.

You stared at her hands around your waist and took want of them in yours. You watched it carefully, noticing every vein, spot, freckle and wrinkle it had. You watched how your own fingers slowly intertwined with hers. It felt good. But you couldn’t remain silent. Not when your mind wanted an answer.

“Why did you stop?” you asked softly. Agatha didn’t answer right away, too lost on the feeling of your fingers.

“I don’t need to watch the proposal. Nor the wedding” she finally whispered in your hair and you frowned. There was that tone again, the same she kept in her comments all the time she watched your memory of your ex. This time, you knew what it was. Jealously.

The thought made you blush. In another time, it would have been enough for you to start a war and laugh at her. But something felt different this time.

It was strange. There was nothing that was different from your previous encounters. There was nothing different from the way you acted with each other, and still, it didn’t feel the same. This time, it felt more intimate, more dangerous. There was a line you didn’t know you were walking to, and now, it was time to decide whether to cross it or not.

“There was no wedding” you said and slowly turned around in her arms to look at her. She frowned, confused and you couldn’t help but notice how cute it was. You noticed the passage of time on her face. She seemed wiser, but also tired. Stronger but broken.

But she was as beautiful as always.

“She did propose” you continued, sighing “but it was a lie. She worked for HYDRA, and wanted my powers” you said, playing with a stray of her hair “so i killed her”

That made Agatha blink, and she stared at you for a moment before a small smile appeared on her face. “Really? The great and always right Y/N, murdered someone?” she joked and you chuckled. You were as naughty as her, and you both knew it, but there was a time when you would have preferred to let yourself be killed than to kill someone.

“I had to. I think that, if someone who isn’t you, kills me, we’ll both be very disappointed” you said and she giggled. Has her laugh always been this cute?

“Good to know that you still hold me in high esteem, love” she said and it was your turn to laugh.

You stared at each other’s eyes and you knew that the time was over. The line was right there and you had to cross it or walk away from it. The way she brought her face close to yours and the silent question in her eyes was all it took to happily jump the fucking line as you gently kissed her, wrapping your arms aroun her neck.

You came to earth thinking you’d be gone quickly. But suddenly, the stars were not as interesting as this universe between your hands.

#x reader #reader insert #imagine #wandavision imagine #agnes x reader #agnes imagine #agatha harkness imagine #agatha harkness x reader #agatha harkness #agatha harkness x you #agatha harkness x y/n #mcu imagine #mcu x reader

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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years ago

Text

Sidequests are part of the story so it’s still my ballpark shut up it’s time for

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2 || Part 3

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

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Side quests, side quests, side quests. What are they? And what are they doing here, on an Age of Calamity rewrite? I must admit, game design is not an inherent forte of mine, and I like to think that my only “expertise” would be on writing and storytelling. So what the fuck is a fool like me doing here

Well my dear ladies, lads, and gentlefolk, if your memory does serve, I did say that the format of Age of Calamity was one that served the major plot and story beats for it’s cutscenes, and its worldbuilding and good parts of it’s character development for its gameplay and side quests. It’s actually a concept that can be seen in shows and movies too, although obviously it’s origins are in TTRPGs and videogames. Definition wise, a side quest is any deviation from the main story and plot that serves to flesh out an optional/overseen aspect of the game. So there’s out perfect outlet for worldbuilding, characters, and even a bit of humour. Side quests, by definition, can’t simply be just XP grinders, because otherwise you could…..just make an XP grinder. It’s like saying you’re getting your kids a bike, but then you get them a stationary exercise one. Sure it’s functionally the same and gives the same benefits, but it could be so much more.

Does Age of Calamity have good side quests? I’d actually argue, yes. I mean sure, it’s not exactly gonna hold a candle to Fallout or Witcher 3, but there are great memorable side quests that do serve their purposes in this game.

A fan favourite is “The So-Called Knight,” in which Link spars Mipha, Teba, Sidon, and Revali, a conflict of the Sidon’s confidence and belief in Link, with Revali’s skepticism and grudge against him. Not only is it great fandom content, but it explores the carrying POVs of several characters in a fun way. We also have Hestu’s Dance Competition, and the Miss Vai Battle Pageant. What they lack in serious character tone, they make up for in humour and world building. Even the quests that have nothing to do with the main cast of characters, like the Questionable Escort Mission, still provide funny and interesting details about the world, like how the Yiga Clan is still ever persistent in trying to take down Link with monsters and Windcleavers alike.

It’s not like those side quests were functionally useless either, all of them still provided great amounts of exp and materials. What specifically made them great and memorable was their small little stories and character/world details. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t have the occasional plotless boss rush every now and again, those are fun in their own right and it’s good to have variety. But just thinking about it...what were everyone’s least favourite sidequests? The timed Yiga Escape? The ones where you sit around defending strongholds? The one hit death Hair-Width Trials? Ah...so all the least enjoyable side quests were the ones that were difficult, with no enjoyable character or worldbuilding to back it up….interesting interesting….interesting pattern indeed.

So, let’s improve the game a bit further. I do need to pace out my future character arcs somehow. I tried to make use of the existing quests where I could, but it’s just eaaaasier to just not think about it and do it from scratch. Just shove these in place of all those quests whose only description is “monsters have been spotted here! Take Mipha and go to work!” and stuff like that. Alrighty then! Here’s my take on cool side quests for every single character thus far, along with their paired gambit attacks. Prepare for heists! Drama! Simping! And Bananas!

Link: Mastering Stasis

Ok I have no idea when this quest unlocks so just for my purposes assume this only becomes available after Link pulls the Master Sword.

Engage the hordes of monsters that have been spotted in Hyrule Field. Now is a great time to master the use of the Stasis Rune. Impa and Zelda accompany you, but it seems stasised monsters aren’t the only thing coming to a tense standstill…

This isn’t anything that special, I just want to further highlight this tension that Zelda and Link have, as it’s something touched upon in Botw, but never really mentioned or used ever in Hwaoc. Now more than ever, Zelda has an excuse to have a rocky relationship with him because she could actively see just how far he’s coming in such a short amount of time. Classic “he probably hates me so I guess I’ll hate him” thing.

You play as Link, the game gives you your little prompts on how to use Stasis, you take out a few hordes of Bokoblins and blah blah blah. I wanted to use an earlier level to establish Zelda’s relationship sooner as obviously it’s gonna be important to the story. But of course like all side quests it won’t kill you to skip out. Text dialogue can be Zelda saying science shit like “This will be a good opportunity to test out the full limits of the Stasis rune” and then Impa’s all “Yep! We got your back, Princess! We’ll clear out these monsters in no time.”Then Link the little angsty shit that he is says nothing, and as you play you clear out more and more bokoblins Zelda just says “...” and then we can toss in a Moblin or two in there for gambit voice stuff.

Gambit dialogue with Impa would be supportive, her usual spunky dialogue. I had two ideas for Gambit attacks with Link: One where Impa does that thing where she cuts a giant laser through the air, but it’s aimed towards Link and he parries it right in a monster’s FACE because I think it’s badass and also a good way to show trust and stuff. The second thing was Impa’s giant bomb barrels, but Link is the one to somehow ignite them, because he is an arsonist after all. He can even have a chaotic Sheikah blue glint in his eyes like blue flame, I can already picture it so clearly given how anime/dramatic Impa’s movements are. Impa sets bombs, Link *teleports behind Moblin* nothin personal, kid.

Also right at the end of their gambit attacks, Impa and Link should try to fist bump or something (cause the whole “cool guys don’t look at explosions” thing that Impa usually does on her own) but are interrupted by eggbot jumping up to try and join in. And then Impa can be annoyed and try to punt it or something. That’s not just self-indulgent that’s in her character she totally would and I want to make use of the fact that eggbot travels around with Link. The success of her attempts to punt him can vary.

If Link does a gambit with Zelda, her dialogue can just be her usual monotone Princess stuff, “Thanks for lending your strength,” or “There is still much more to do!” just purely professional, we’re not at a stage yet where she’s buddy buddy with Link. Their gambit attacks can still be cool though. One idea I had was Zelda using stasis, and you know how when you use it in botw everything lights up with that sonar effect? So Link stands besides Zelda, and she activates stasis, the first “sonar” light wave reveals the stasised monster, and you see it from the view of the Sheikah Slate. Then with each additional flash of sonar you just see this silhouette of Link going absolute ham on a monster. And then when the stasis “ding ding ding ding ding” is done, everything’s just dead. Can you see my inspiration from Persona 5 yet? Second idea was Zelda using cryonis and makes an ice ramp for Link to shield surf on and ram into a monster. For entertainment purposes Zelda should also be putting frogs on said slide. (Also also the reason I’m putting Link as the main focus for those gambit attacks is because I want to juxtapose it with future gambits where Zelda may or may not be more powerful…)

Anyhow anyhow, so this side quest, you beat some bokoblins, theres a moblin or two. However as you progress Zelda’s dialogue because a bit more passive aggressive, maybe Zelda can be a bit irritated at how quickly Link is defeating everything before she can even contribute. Impa can comment on this like “She hasn’t exactly been warming up to you, has she…” and then the last point of the side quest, Zelda runs off, there’s a...let’s say a big horde of blue or black Moblins. Or a horde of Wizzrobes, I’m not too picky on it. Link can save her and do a gambit or whatever, but the point of importance is that Zelda leaves with the clear mindset off, “You don’t need to keep coddling me, I can handle my own” to Link, but is “Thank you, I’m glad you’re here,” to Impa.

Now I stole was inspired to use this based on this comic by @novellanova, and you should check it out here. But basically, at the end when all the monsters are dead and the last few text boxes are rolling, Impa says something like “Gee, at this rate I might have to protect you from the princess! Hmm…. you know, maybe if you two had the opportunity to hang out more and get to know each other, she’d warm up to you! Ha! That’s it! I’ve made up my mind. Listen up Link, from now on I’m gonna let you man the wheel when it comes to protecting Zelda. So with me out of the picture you better take the opportunity to be the nicest, most helpful, and most effective body guard there is. I know you already are, but still, if I hear that one little Chuchu so much as splat in her direction I will take you down...got it?” And, that’s that.

Side quest done. Fun Link gambits with Impa and Zelda, some little character POVs on the situation, plus an explanation as to why Impa doesn’t accompany Zelda everywhere/nods to the cutscenes of Botw as to what happened to Impa. Alright, that was probably the most boring one so let’s move on to

Daruk: A Rumbling Stomach

Alright I’ll be honest...I have no idea what to do with Daruk. Especially when Yunobo’s not here, I got zip-zero to work with considering his character is non-existent. Further down the line I’ll certainly try to give him more nuances and the like, but I’m afraid the majority of my character efforts have been towards Astor, Revali, Zelda, and [REDACTED] so this is my apology ahead of time, rock fuckers.

This is my take on how to make those timed quests more fun. So basically, the premise of this stage is that Daruk was just happily hanging around trying to enjoy his rock roast, when a monster surprised him and he dropped it, and now it’s rolling down the hill. This is based on my real Breath of the Wild experience where I had to trek up that Volcano path to bring a rock roast for that shrine quest, but at the very top I dropped it and had to chase it down before it fell into the lava below.

Daruk is eager to chow down on the finest rock roasts this year has to offer! It’s too bad things go downhill when monsters start to ambush. Defeat key enemies and rescue Daruk’s tumbling meal before this year’s wait goes to waste!

So, that’s what this is. The stage opens and Daruk says “NOOooOO! My rock roast! Damn monsters!” and you have to defeat baddies and catch up to the rock roast before the timer runs out and it falls into lava. And then when you finish and get back the rock roast that’s pretty much it….except SIKE no it’s not. Because a lot of these timed quests usually have a “surprise! There’s more!” thing at the end so I’ll do that here too. So Daruk has saved his rock roast and he’s talking about how he’s going to enjoy it in all its deliciousness, when he’s cut off by a random Goron’s scream. Turns out, Daruk’s yelling at the monsters about desperation to retrieve his lost lunch has attracted monsters to some traveling civilians, and now you gotta go beat a Talus, or a couple of Moblins, or something...Again I don’t really have level set or idea when these side quests unlock so just use your imagination. Once Daruk defeats the monster(s) the Gorons can thank him, and then one of the Goron kids can be like “Ooo! Is that a super special rock roast?!?” And Daruk is all: “Ah! Well all the best Goron heroes eat plenty of rocks! This here is the gourmet stuff. You can only get it once a—” And the kid’s like “Woah! I’ve always wanted to have one, that’s why I’ve been training hard so I can explore more of the mountain. Where’d you get it??” And Daruk can sputter a bit, before finally sighing and giving into his instincts. “Ah….well, why don’t you have it? You’re probably really hungry after running around with those monsters…”

“Woah really?? Are you sure—”

“YEAH JUST TAKE IT ALREADY GO”

“Woah, thank you!” and then the Goron kid and co run off. Cue Daruk crying to himself in the background. Daruk may have an appetite, but I like to characterize him as the Goron Hero first and foremost.

I’m sure that doesn’t stop him from mourning his rock though.

Mipha: Stronger Sentiments

Mipha and Daruk talked a whole bunch about training together so that Mipha can grow stronger, and Daruk was catching on to her crush on Link and it was a nice interaction in between them except for the fact that we never see them do the damn training so that’s what this is.

I think this is as good an opportunity as any to make this a Hair-Width quest, the ones where you can’t take one hit. The difficulty of a level is one of the most effective ways to put the players in the boots of a character to experience the same struggles they do. If the player works hard, then they automatically associate that with the character working hard. So, yeah, let’s have Mipha kicking ass and working to be strong enough to protect Link.

Mipha is determined to grow stronger. Daruk and the other Gorons are helping out with an intense training session by Gut Check Rock. Prove yourself by defeating all the enemies you encounter!

So Mipha is sparring with the Gorons, you fight through them and the captains and blah blah, the final boss is fighting Daruk without getting hit.

“I promise not to hurt you more than I’m capable of reversing.”

“Ha! Give me all you’ve got, princess!”

You fight, cue the special music or whatever. I mentioned that gambit dialogue/attacks could also work to be custom for the character that you’re fighting, so I’m thinking something like this. Daruk slams the ground and rocks and magma sprout up around him like jagged pieces of glass, but Mipha is no where to be seen. Daruk’s kinda huffing and puffing, “Where’d you go Mipha…” and then FWOOSH, giant geyser right behind him. [yes I KNOW I overuse the *teleports behind you* “nothing personal, kid” thing but I think it’s COOL and you can’t stop me] So anyhow, you know that thing in Avatar where Pakku is just riding at the top of a whirlpool and destroying everything? That’s Mipha.

Daruk turns around and scratches the back of his head. “...huh….that’s not good.” Cue Mipha swooping down to deal the defeating blow.

So Mipha wins, she can mention how wonderful it was and how much stronger she feels. And she can thank Daruk, and he’s all “No problem!” but he mutters something like “And I thought Gorons hit hard...now I know how Link feels.” End side quest….SIKE it’s another surprise boss at the end. A Goron captain suddenly reports that an Igneo Talus has appeared nearby.

Mipha goes up to fight it, but wow! Link is already there. They both fight it, but it’s clear that Link didn’t need her help that much. You can defeat the Talus with a Mipha/Link gambit. It’s similar to Link’s usual “swing sword in a giant circle and become a death windmill” but Mipha kinda enhances it with water or something and it puts out the Talus. I wanted this ending with a focus on how strong Link is just to show that while Mipha is improving, she’s still not yet where she needs to be.

Daruk: “Sorry I wasn’t much help at the end there, I was busy, uh, stretching.”

Mipha: “Oh it’s quite alright, Daruk. We were both quite tired from today’s training.”

Daruk: “Well I dunno about that...seems to me you were quite lively and active as you fought beside Link. *wink*”

Mipha: “Huh!?!? W-What is that supposed to mean??”

Cue laughter from Daruk. Mipha is flustered. And Link is just...confused, as always.

Urbosa: Mighty Thunder of the Gerudo

So in the game this is just some normal outpost capturing, stronghold defending side quest, but we’re gonna spice it up just a bit.

An important excavation site is being overrun by monsters, and Urbosa has set out to engage them. Defend and capture the outposts, in order to prevent this valuable place from falling into enemy hands…

So you fight as Urbosa, defeat some enemies and blah blah. When you first arrive there, I want one of the Gerudo Captains to be like “Lady Urbosa? Where did you come—What are you doing here? Aren’t there areas of greater importance for you to be at right now?” Urbosa says something like “Nevermind that now, let us focus on achieving victory over these rotten beasts.”

As the battle goes through, it is revealed that this excavation site is where Zelda’s mother would often work and hang out with Urbosa. Urbosa says some stuff like “Her Majesty would not be happy to see all these monsters heading here!” *decapitates Moblin* and then she can say other dramatic stuff at the end like “We have fought well...for her memory” and other classic lesbian pining. Some guard at the end can say “Perhaps you should move on and help out somewhere else, Lady Urbosa. We can handle the clean up from here.”

“Sure,” Urbosa replies, “Just another moment.” And then cue reminiscing. “She always did love these machines…”

And just other sentimental stuff like that. If you’re gonna be a coward and hold out on the Champion death angst, then you best be pumping that angst and emotion from somewhere, you know?

Also yay for worldbuilding! At least in my rewrite, the Guardian excavations and stuff were overseen by the Queen. Could be a reason Zelda hangs out with Sheikah tech so much...who knows who knows... who knows what other implications this has, it’s just a side quest after all.

Revali: Anti-Ice Training [get it??? Cause in this one, Revali’s gonna break the ice with some other characters?? I’m funny I swear]

Ok so for this one, I want to pull Revali’s character away from just “the birb that doesn’t like Link” and give him some other stuff to stand on. Obviously, there would be other side quests in a fully fleshed out game that did even more to characterize him, but for my rewrite I’m only dedicated this post and one other future post to sidequests, so I gotta really bring out what I can for the few side quest stories I have time to tell

Revali sets out alone to deal with some monsters by the Hebra trail. Although intended as an isolated moment to hone his skills, he finds himself with unexpected company. Defeat key enemies.

So you play as Revali and at first you’re alone, taking out Ice Lizalfos and the like. Revali’s text dialogue can say stuff like “Hmm...not fast enough” “My current needs to be stronger” “*mutters* Can’t compete with lightning and magma with aim like that.” Just stuff that establishes that he’s working hard to really prove himself as the best, but is still a bit insecure about his position. He thinks he’s better than Link, sure, and he certainly thinks that being a princess or a chief doesn’t automatically make you the best. However by this point, Revali has battled alongside the other Champions and seen their skill in battle, and has developed some respect for them. Afterall, Champions were chosen in some part for their skills, unlike Link or Zelda who destiny just thrust greatness upon.

So Revali has this slight insecurity that compared to lightning, and magic healing, and magma, with chiefs and princesses and titles of heroes, he and his efforts will be overshadowed and forgotten, unfairly deemed the useless one. Thus, here he is, training in solitude, not wanting anyone to see the imperfections and mistakes until he is absolutely perfect.

Except for the fact that after you beat a Wizzrobe, the other three Champions show up.

Revali: Wh—Huh?? What are you all doing here?

Urbosa: Well, we all have to travel with the princess to that Tower in a few hours, so I recommended we find you and hang out until then

Mipha: And a good thing too! Look how many monsters there are

Revali: I’m actually doing very well on my own right now. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold or something, so why don’t you head on back and let me handle this.

Daruk: Aw, it’s not that we think you can’t do this. It’s that you’re hogging all the fun! Urbosa: And that it would be more efficient if all of us went to work

Daruk: That too

Revali: Look it’s not—you all can’t just—this is not just about—AUGH, look, I’m just trying to train myself at the moment, and I don’t need you all to mess with my drills

Urbosa: Training, hm? Well how about this...you let us continue helping you with these monsters, and after, I’ll let you in on a good Gerudo training technique

Revali: Hmph. Fine, whatever gets you out of my tail feathers faster

So Revali and the Champions clear out the monsters. Revali can have gambit attacks/dialogue with each of the other Champions. This is already incredibly long so perhaps I’ll save specifics for another time, feel free to use your imagination. Urbosa teasing Revali and they make a thunderstorm, Mipha and Revali swimming in the sky and kissing—wait that’s—

When all the monsters are cleared, which honestly isn’t tooooo many, Revali speaks again.

Revali: So what’s this oh-so-holy technique you had in mind, then?

Urbosa: Ah yes, well really it’s quite simple. It’s called…

Urbosa: One-on-one combat

Now Revali fights Urbosa. It think it’d be really fun if your allies on a stage could swap to a boss, and I wish hwaoc had a bit more freedom with the interactions as a whole, but ah well, that’s what I’m here for I guess.

So when you/Revali defeat her, it’s a good accomplishment! Not only for you the player, as Urbosa would not be the easiest to beat, but also because match-up wise, Revali prevailing over Urbosa is a big feat as their styles are quite opposite, arguably with the strength in favour for Urbosa.

Revali might at first have the mindset that Urbosa is overconfident and thinks she’s got an easy win on Revali, but that mindset is quickly proven wrong when 1) the difficulty of the gameplay itself shows how they’re both doing their best and 2) Urbosa with her Gerudo qualities is probably shouting stuff like “give it your all!” and things.

And so, as you beat her...

Revali, kinda huffing and puffing, but just a bit:: ...you….held back

Urbosa: Come now, do you really think of me as someone who’d do that? I’m almost insulted.

Revali: Hmm...perhaps not then....

Mipha: Wow! What a wonderful fight from both of you.

And then insert some other dialogue from Daruk or something that shows the Champions acknowledging the training and hard work Revali must have put in to be so skilled. Perhaps it’s not so bad, when you train with others and your skill is fully appreciated by your frie—GAH. Perish the thought, they’re all just a bunch of royal fools who can’t hold a candle to the skill of a Rito Master….probably…

Revali: Well unlike you lax fools, I tend to take my job seriously. I don’t have time to longue and banter when the princess is still expecting me in an hour or two

Urbosa: Oh alright, let’s get to it then. What’s the expression? “The early bird gets the w—”

Revali: Gross. No. Don’t finish that sentence, I beg you.

Urbosa: Oh? Well why don’t you fly off to escape my dreadful tones then?

Revali: ...Heh, don’t be absurd…

Revali: Without me, you’ll all probably get lost. So, I suppose I should stick around for that sake Great Fairies: Dress to Oppress

The Great Fairies are holding a fashion competition and rating people’s outfits. Poorly judged outfits gives them the right to compensation combat. Defeat all your less than fashionable allies.

...

...yeah.

It seemed funny in my head, alright? cOme on, just imagine…

Revali, fully expecting to win: Well?

Great Fairies: Hm...I don’t know dear, all the colors are very clustered. Perhaps if you were taller—?

Revali: bWHAKT!? *other angry bird noises*

- - -

Daruk: I brought my BEST out today! :D

Great Fairies: Is that a….chain?

Daruk: TWO chains, actually. :D

Great Fairies: Oh honey…

- - -

Great Fairies: Ooo! Our little hero is about to come out! Wonder what he chose...a knight in shining armour? A handsome desert voe? Ooo!! And those Snowquill braids always made him look so cute…

Link: *comes out in the Tingle Outfit*

Great Fairies: …

Great Fairies: …………..hm…..

At the end of the side quest, after you beat everyone, the Great Fairy wins because of course they do.

Great Fairies: Oh my! What an unexpected outcome...but it really couldn’t have gone any other way. I declare the judges the winner! I mean just look at me, I’m as dazzling as a jeweled desert flower, because I am! Ohohohoho…

This side quests unlocks the Tingle Outfit

Hestu: Forest Dance Festival

Alright this quest was already pretty perfect, BUT, I just want to use this opportunity to say that all of Hestu’s gambit attacks makes his allies and enemies do special dances. Absolutely abSURD that Hestu can only make the lesser smaller enemies dance on occasion, nonononono, my guy Hestu is making everyone dance. You can’t stop this. Nothing I say will ever top the imagination, so just take my word that this is a good thing. [Reluctant Revali doing the macarena against his will in sync with Hestu and they bash someone’s head in...ah the possibilities.]

Maz Koshia: Links to the Past

Ok so before I get into this, a few things. This quest takes place well after the tower activations in Akkala. Age of Calamity leaves a whole lot of plots holes as to why a Monk is just...here, and what the point of the shrines are, and personally my first reaction to all this was just a five minute extended “huuhhhhhh???”

So here is my headcanon, explanation, thing, canon to the world of the Kip Cut story. Ones all the Sheikah Towers were activated, that officially woke up all the Shrines, because we know that the Towers and Shrines are all connected to the same system. [See Great Plateau Tower activating all the Shrines and Towers, and Creating a Champion explanation on the system] But when all the monks were in their little altars and noticed how Link hadn’t dont a single one, they were like “what the fuck.” Monk Maz Koshia, who is kinda the head honcho of the monks and probably the only one powerful enough to go out in the world anyhow, sets out to see what the deal is, and after many a teleportation and telepathic communication, he figures out that Link is just running around with the Master Sword already. This kinda confuses him, because the whole point of the Shrines was to test Link and give him the spirit orbs so that he could grow strong enough to get the Master Sword, but he somehow already has it...so hmmmm something fishy is going on in this timeline. So Link technically hasn’t proven himself at all, Maz Koshia ambushes him, they do their little combat trial, Link passes, and Maz Koshia’s like “ok cool so you’re not useless.”

So now Monk Maz Koshia has cast aside his old monk duties of waiting around for a couple hundred years, in favour of just hanging out with Link and continuing to train him combat wise. Shrines are still explored by Zelda and co because they are important areas to establish teleportation pads, and whenever they’re there, Maz Koshia forces Link to get in a shrine to get a spirit orb, which is not only useful in general for health, but since Link already has the Master Sword, the other characters can get the spirit orb too. (So all those little heart upgrades that you see on the map, those are all just in the real Botw Shrine locations, rather than just scattered around randomly. Also I’m ignoring the stuff about talking to Hylia in order to exchange for stamina or heart containers because the game never talks about her, or stamina, and I’m not about to create an entirely new custom gameplay feature for this game, fuck you.)

I like to think that Maz Koshia is very selective about the Shrines he encourages people to try out. “Oh nonono, don’t bother with Qukah’s….lazy ass, only set up one little mountain that you have to blast through with lightning and that’s the entire puzzle! Disgraceful...Here, Kaam Ya’tak has set up a wonderful Trial of Power for you. I’m sure you’ll find the level design quite thrilling. They spent a lot of time on the critical thinking aspects so have fun!”

“I should warn you that this one was made by one of the millennials...yes, those youngins who were only initiated 1000 years of age. Honestly, they lack so much experience. Ms. Agana over here was experimenting with something called ‘motion controls?’ Pretty lazy if you ask me. Traditionally I would just stick to combat and block and switch stuff...but ah well, variety I suppose.”

Right, what was I talking about? Oh right! This is a sidequest. So Monk Maz Koshia doesn’t really have...a character??? Or a personality??? So I don’t really know what to do with him other than use him as an outlet for world building. Apologies to the Monk….fuckers? Stans? Feel free to leave me a comment about how I missed all the nuances of his character or something I’m all ears.

On an expedition to mark more Shrines and establish more teleports for the Kingdom, a large horde of monsters is spotted, seemingly with the intention to destroy these Ancient relics. Link and Maz Koshia use this opportunity to sharpen their combat skills. Protect the stronghold and defeat key enemies.

And then that quest would just kinda echo the stuff I said earlier about the world. (As Maz Koshia defends a Shrine, somewhere Qukah Nata is smugly shouting “Bet you wish ALL of them were protected with a giant mountain now, do ya?)

Also Link and Maz Koshia’s gambit attack involves the Master Cycle. I don’t have the specifics, but damn if I want some call backs to Botw while also having fun.

Impa: Steal Yourself [Yiga Clan Escape]

In an act of pure hatred and malice, the Yiga Clan has snuck into Kakariko Village in the dead of night…and stolen all the Swift Carrots! Impa sets out to get them back, as well as taking something else as a form of swift revenge...Escape before the time runs out.

Ok I can explain.

So you know how the Yiga and the Sheikah have kiiiiinda been murdering each other a bunch in Botw, going as far as to kill a deserter’s wife and threatening to murder his kids, and also people on both sides were sorta massacred for no reason? And alsoooo one of those people who literally lived during that time of the massacre is just kinda floating around now? And you knooooooooww how the Yiga Clan just kinda joins Zelda’s side later on and we’re not supposed to think about the implications of that too hard because they’re the funny banana ninjas, haha? Yeah well neither Age of Calamity or I really have time to explore the moral grey areas of an alliance between two warring factions, one of which has a leader who doesn’t really seem to remember the reason why they hate Hyrule which brings into question whether the lackeys even know their clan’s history, and brings about the moral dilemma of criminalizing the ignorant, and also there’s the whole other dilemma of depicting the side that submitted to their oppression as being “in the right” and the topic of a race of people being pitted against their own by a higher power is really brushed over sO WE’RE JUST GONNA TOSS ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW AND MAKE THEM ACT LIKE RIVALLING HIGH SCHOOLS, OKAY? OKAY! This is fine this is fine—

So I have dubbed the High School mascot of the Sheikah, the Swift Carrot. And although there does seem to be some internal debate about whether the carrot should be replaced by the Fortified Pumpkin, the hero of Hyrule Link favours carrots so that’s that. Then of course, the mascot for the Yiga Clan is the Mighty Banana. The two sides hate each other and steal their food symbols to be petty. I’ll be covering the side quests of Kohga and the other later characters in another later post, but just know that Kohga will have his banana heist sidequest too.

So anyhow, you play as Impa. Maybe she can say a piece of dialogue or two about how she has to uphold the image of her people as she has to lead them one day. And then, this side quest is just her retrieving the carrots and running off with the Yiga’s big banana supply before she’s caught. This is based on that “Escape the Yiga Clan” quest if you couldn’t tell.

Custom gambit defeat of Impa vs Kohga: On one hand I think it would be badass to see Impa’s Sheikah skills go up against the Yiga Clan tactics. Kohga summons a giant metal ball to throw, Impa teleports behind him “nothing personal, kid” nO fuck I’m doing it again away goes to swing a blade at his face. He blocks it with his little energy shield thing, but not before an entire conga line of Impa clones start slashing at him until he’s defeated by a giant explosion. So yeah, that’d be badass and cool. But on the other hand…

Kohga, stomping his feet and having a fit: I cARROT believe you would do something this terrible! Give us back those bananas right now! D: ….please? You can keep the gross orange sticks.

Sooga: He asked nicely. You wouldn’t deny the wishes of the most polite and charming Yiga Chief there is, would you?

Impa: No can do, Yiga scum! I’m afraid this cruel action wasn’t veggie nice of you so I must exact justice! Now it’s my time to split. *Impa clones gather and throw Kohga into a giant frog’s mouth. Impa runs off with a sack of fruit [fruit (derogatory) if you will] cackling into the horizon*

Zelda: The Path She Laid For You

The King has order Zelda to head to the Temple of Time, in order to see if anything there could help awaken her powers. Zelda sets off quietly, with minimal company, as not to attract too much attention lest the Town’s folk be hit with another attack. It seems, however, that these precautions won’t be enough...Defeat key enemies

So this is a pure Zelda sidequest, with no other characters except for eggbot because I said so. Starts out normal when SURPRISE! Bunch of monsters appear and Zelda has to whip out her iphone and fight them.

Also!! Good time for the Hollows to show up, and you know, tell her what a failure she is and all that. Convince her that she's useless and gonna doom everyone. All that good stuff!! It’s just nice to catch up with the villains and see how they’re doing, you know? ‘Sup Hollow Urbosa, last I saw you were barely spitting words in the Lost Woods, and now you’re giving full hard-hitting insults to Zelda’s character and ability? Good for you, Queen, good for you.

So Zelda and a handful of guards are fighting off monsters, and Zelda has to beat the Hollows too. Her gambit dialogue when she defeats Hollows can be stuff like “You’re not the real ___” or something idk, I don’t have a lot of experience with the evil clone trope, I’ve never played Ocarina of Time. But one specific I DO want to highlight is that Zelda uses the nearby Sheikah Tech to defeat the enemies. I find it a bit weird how Zelda just knows how to use those random water canons in the Faron region in later chapters, so we’re just gonna at least set up a pattern so that it makes a bit more sense later. Plus! This is in front of the Great Plateau, AKA Gate Post Town/Garrisons AKA oh lOOK it’s that area where Link and Impa and eggbot first meet in that Impa introduction scene of my rewrite so we have already established that Sheikah Technology is being stored here and ready to use! Continuity in world building! Nice.

So Zelda uses her knowledge of Sheikah Tech to defeat the Hollows, when...dun dun dun! Astor appears. But you don’t fight him...

Astor: Have you listened to one word spoken to you today? Why are you still resisting? Let me help you.

Zelda: And what exactly is your plan? You wish to kill me, then?

Astor: Not quite. I mean, if you do die, there are ways I can manage, so if some stray Yiga blade happens to strike you I’m not completely doomed.

Astor: But no, the most optimal outcome for everyone is the one where you live yet. You must see the truth as I do, and let me fix this. I can undo this terrible knot destiny has thread for you. [and insert other fate sisters and sewing metaphors here]

Zelda: But how? What’s your game here, if you’re truly claiming to be in everyone’s best interest then why all this secrecy?

Astor: Ah...ever the one to look for the facts and logic, hmm? Can’t blame you, you get it straight from your mother.

Zelda: …!

Astor: But...I’m afraid even if I did tell you now, you’re in no state to truly grasp it. No...the only way this works is for you to truly understand the position you're in, and the stakes that hang in the path before you.

Astor: And if I have to kill every King, Champion, or knight to get you to understand…

Astor: Then so be it.

[dun dun dun]

Zelda: No! I won’t let you hurt anyone, I swear it!

Eggbot [just pretend eggbot can have dialogue boxes too]: *chirps*

Astor, suddenly noticing eggbot: ...You…you’re one thing I still don’t—

Eggbot chirps again beside Zelda, both seeming to be angry at Astor’s words. Eggbot releases a glowing flash of light. Kinda like a...flash bang? [is that the right word idk]

Astor: Ah—! *and he teleports away to escape* Astor: Until next time then...Princess

And that’s pretty much the sidequest. Zelda can question what exactly eggbot did, but he’s not exactly the most verbal in responses. Finally it ends with Zelda going home, “He was still right though...I’m still sitting in failure, with not a hint of my powers awakening. All I have is some Sheikah tech, some exhausted shoulders….and well, you, I suppose, little one.”

“Come, it’d be a waste to continue forth in this condition. Let’s go back to the castle.”

Eggbot: *happy whistles and chirps*

= = = = =

Tune in next time folks, as we dive back into the main event! Needless to say, Chapter 4 is where the shit starts to go down...

#Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #hwaoc spoilers #hwaoc #hw aoc #hw age of calamity #age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

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another-dra-anew · 4 years ago

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Chapter 1: Behind the Scenes!

To celebrate the end of Chapter 1, have some behind the scenes info! From various fun facts, screenshots from my working process, to explanations for how I worked out the trial, and snippets of conversations had with people who have spoilers.

Under the cut, to keep from spoiling anyone!

Fun Facts

-I only thought of the detail regarding Kurokawa fighting back (the spilled brown sugar) as I was writing that post! I just figured it would be nice to add in, and helpful to show later that Kurokawa was attacked in the Dining Hall -The exorcism scene would’ve actually happened, and I did briefly plan it, but I figured it may raise too many death flags, and just didn’t end up working it into my post schedule. Also, Maeda’s pendant he receives from Kurokawa in the prologue is based off of one of my own! -You were supposed to receive a gift from Kurokawa when her body is found, in the post stating that we’ve entered Deadly Life, but I forgot to include it when writing said post... Future gifts will be given when a student dies! For now though, they both get lumped in at the end of Nzo4s post -Speaking of Nzo4, I wonder why they were bleeding that much, and why we don’t seem to have had a casualty out of the thirteen members of current cast!

Post Schedule

Aforementioned briefly in section above, Fun Fact two! I use this minimal post schedule to organize how things will go in order of how many FTEs, Maedas general schedule, when my events are, etc etc! It’s helpful to have that as a reminder, especially when I’m writing Maeda’s selections for where he’ll go! Look at what I had for Chapter 1 at the very end!

Victim + Culprit

In most Beta drafts, Kurokawa actually lived to the end, or at least Chapter 4! Once I had her and Inori set to die in Chapter 1 though, that stayed the same, even as minor revisions were made. Kurokawa was generally set as traitor, or was up to something strange, even taking canon Kisaragis place at one point, while Inori just rotated as I needed her too- she was Chapter 3 killer for a bit though. Chapter 1 was the very first chapter I finalized for who would die, the others continued to shift around some, but once I had this one down the way it is now, I was finished!

Case

Did anyone notice Maeda’s lie that got uncaught? He claimed everyone had given their alibi, and only a few were verifiable- but we never asked Higa or Mekaru about their alibis. There was originally a scene wherein Tsurugi returned to his room, which would help prove his innocence later, as Tomori accompanied him, and didn’t see any guns. I made numerous mini post schedules throughout the trial trying to outline just what I’d do next, but I ended up deviating from all- at one point, you’d have had the first rebuttal showdown against Yamaguchi,

Motive

I figured it’d be fun to put a spin on the typical “Oh noooo, your loved one” motive; the motive was specifically designed to target Inori, as she was while not the one most likely to solve murders, the one most likely to prevent a death, due to her medical skills. Other characters are decent at First-Aid, but Inori stands alone as the sole person equipped to fix, let’s say, a stab to the spine, or to the lung. Here’s the full list of who everyone saw in their videos! Sibling(s): Maeda, Kurokawa, Maki, Uehara, Yamaguchi, Iranami Friend(s): Mekaru, Taira, Parent(s): Otori, Higa, Full family: Tsurugi, Kobashikawa, Tomori, Hatano No one: Inori

Execution Tidbits

The title (Adam of Loving Labor) is inspired by a line from Frankenstein! “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.” The original execution concept for Inori involved her operating on herself, being told that if she could save a certain amount of peoples lives, she’d be able to leave, having made up for what she had done, but she’d have to provide her own blood, organs, etc, in order to do it: However, upon removing the needed parts, it’d be revealed that she’d only help create more humanoid Monokumas. After an attempt to run while still extremely weak, she’d die of blood loss, and collapse, before being discarded of in some sort of way, with her corpse left to stay there, no one caring to come get her and mourn, showing how she was truly just disposable (in her view.) My decision to re-include Inori being operated on/having her organs used was really last minute- as I was finishing up her motive video post. For months, it would’ve ended with her dying as patient pushed her, due to wounds she had sustained while operating on him.

Quotes

From when it was thought Tsurugi was dead: “BRUH” “tfw everyone likes the optimism twink more than u so u try and get them all killed by killing him first” minor gore/head/brain trauma tw, in italics, skip whats italicized if that’d trigger you!: “haruhiko stomped on tsurugis head with his boots, thats what caused the wound” “how * stomp* dare * stomp* you * stomp* beat * stomp* teruya * stomp* you * stomp* bitch * stomp stomp stomp*" “haru walkin round the halls with tsurugi brain matter on his gucci boots “ all from one person - “shaFUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK /// AHHHHHH /// TSU!!!!!!!!!! /// FUCK YOU. IVE GENUINELY NEVER BEEN SO CRUSHED BY A CHARACTER DEATH BEFORE When it was discovered he was alive “MY SWEET BOY? HEZ ALIVE” “HE NEEDS HELP BUT IF WE GO WHAT IF HE DIES ALONE WAAA” “i was originally gonna post the "tsu is fucking dead" post and then the investigation post right after it but. decided a few hours of pain is good for the soul”

Misc

I’ll take note of some more of these to include next time, but a line from Tsurugi, vs what it was when I was drafting the post, and didn’t write it out in full: Tsurugi - Hey, can everyone stop for a sec? It’s overwhelming to have that kinda reaction and attention on you, especially when already breaking down. Tsurugi - …Good, good, thank you all! Now, Maeda? You hear me okay? Look at me if you can; you don’t have to make eye contact, just look over here. Versus Tsurugi - maeda. stop being a bitch My favorite characters to write during trial: Inori, Higa, Tomori, Maeda My least favorite characters to write during trial: Tsurugi, Hatano It was nice to explore Inoris dialogue, and how she’d try to subvert the trial to point fingers at someone else, and then setting up the other characters reactions and the like was very fun! I Hate Writing Hatano. I’m stupid and always forget her characterization so she feels bland, and like she doesn’t stand out... I redesigned her some, but right as the trial came to close... Then with Tsurugi, I worried too much about him coming across as a all-knowing character there to save the day.

Screenshots

i actually dont have anymore screenshots whoopsie 3 anywayss be on the lookout for more stuff ™ coming your way soon!

#dra #behind the scenes #dra behind the scenes #spoilers

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found--family · 4 years ago

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‘Supernatural’ season 15, episode 15 screener secrets: We’re ‘Highway to Heaven’-ing this bitch

[everything is from this Hypable article]

This week on Supernatural, Amara returns and are angels solving people crimes now? Hypable previewed Supernatural season 15, episode 15 “Gimme Shelter,” so read on to find out more.

After a sweet and fun return to ease us back into the world of Supernatural last week, things are heating up pretty dramatically – I knew there wouldn’t be much more time for messing around.

“Gimme Shelter” sees Supernatural dip its feet into what the Winchesters currently believe is their big plan – eliminating Chuck by also taking down Amara, resulting in what they believe will be a cosmic-being-free balanced world. But first, they have to find her. Sam and Dean get a pretty good lead on her location, which results in a very interesting conversation between Amara and the boys – especially with her most favoritest Dean, of course.

Meanwhile, Castiel is persuaded into taking Jack to investigate a nearby case in Missouri – which all three adults suspect is probably the work of a human criminal – for the sake of humoring Jack and keeping him both busy and supervised. On the way home, they have a very interesting conversation of their own.

Spoiler Warning: This article contains generalized spoilers for Supernatural season 15 episode 15, “Gimme Shelter.” If you do not wish to be spoiled at all, do not read this article in advance of the airdate.

The official synopsis for Supernatural season 15, episode 15 reads:

MATT COHEN DIRECTS — Castiel (Misha Collins) and Jack (Alexander Calvert) work a case involving members of a local church. Meanwhile, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) go off in search of Amara (guest star Emily Swallow). Matt Cohen directed the episode written by Davy Perez (#1515). Original airdate 10/15/2020.

If you want to know what to expect from this week’s Supernatural, here’s 10 teasers plus 15 single word clues from our advance viewing of Supernatural season 15, episode 15 “Gimme Shelter.”

‘Supernatural’ season 15, [10] episode 15 screener secrets

1️⃣ During the filming of this episode (27 January – 5 February) Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles both spent much of the week at home with their families in Austin, a detail which was made clear on their and their wives’ public social media accounts – possibly the result of scheduled time off as they’ve mentioned occasionally requesting? The result is that the episode is weighted much more towards Cas, Jack and the murder investigation they’re chasing than towards Sam and Dean, but on the flip side, the Sam and Dean arc is more crucial to the long game of the show, so what it lacks in minutes, it makes up for in impact.

2️⃣ However, the episode still begins and ends in a grounded family group way, at home in the Bunker – one of those “we know we should be doing this together but there are Reasons we have to split up” situations. This detail, in my opinion, really speaks to the motivation of the creative team towards honoring the four leads as parts of a whole – in earlier days, this kind of episode would have been two entirely non-touching threads. This one is, if not a tapestry, at very least a braid – tied up together at both ends, and intertwined in the middle.

3️⃣ You might have seen pictures or ominous trailer footage of Castiel and Jack digging a hole at the crossroads. We all know what that means! However, don’t worry. They simply want to talk – and the demon they summon has some really interesting – and dare I say positive? – news about the state of Hell under Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Rowena. Let’s just say the demon is actually pretty friendly… and extremely bored.

4️⃣ The two main guest stars on Cas and Jack’s side of the episode are both actors who have been briefly featured on the show before, in a couple of pretty famous episodes – one from season 2 and one from season 5. I don’t think there’s meant to be any meta or Easter Egg element to this, just the usual Vancouver casting industry cycle (see the ‘Weren’t You In Another Episode‘ reference page on the SuperWiki) but one of them is one of those cute “I appeared on Supernatural as a child and now I’m here as an adult” situations, and the other, well… the original character’s very name has become the stuff of Supernatural legend, and if I were in charge of this episode I would have put the actor in a particular piece of footwear and made sure we got a shot of it, just for kicks.

5️⃣ Castiel steps into a prayer circle when the church group members are meant to give a testimony – presumably of their journey so far and their relationship with faith. That’s what Cas chooses to share, at least – in a non-specific, humanized way – and fans of the character will be moved to hear the ways he verbalizes his own growth.

6️⃣ Speaking of growth, some of Dean’s is spelled out for him in the most miraculous way by Amara. After Sam and Dean meet up with her and have a conversation about Chuck that’s ultimately a bit of a non-starter, Dean returns to ask her another, more personal question. Her response gave me legitimate chills. It’s a very weighty mic drop and the combination of the level of impact and the level of clarity (it’s entirely airtight, no room for interpretation) feels like the culmination of all the self-actualization work the show has been doing on Dean in the last four years. (I wish I could tell you Sam got a big special moment like this in the episode, but he doesn’t. Amara’s return was always going to be Dean’s thing.) Amara’s speech to Dean… it doesn’t feel isolated, like the idea of it was invented just for this episode. It feels more like concrete evidence of what the show has been trying to prove for ages. And the funny thing is, Amara is the anti-Chuck, right, and all season, we’ve learned about the version of the story Chuck thinks is good, and we’ve been told to root against that. Chuck’s version of Supernatural isn’t how the writers really feel. But I think Amara’s might be. Dean has obviously struggled to see what she tells him, all in one piece, but here it is – this was the point, laid out on the table, from the entity behind the curtain – both onscreen and off. Amara knew what she was doing, and so did the writers. This was always, always the point.

7️⃣ Even before this massive scene, Amara’s return is just great. Emily Swallow does such an incredible job with this character – she really is the anti-Chuck even without the whole writer comparison. Swallow imbues this character with such an incredible peace and stillness in comparison to Chuck’s histrionics – this was true in the way she spoke and behaved even in season 11, but this Amara also feels kindness and patience and tolerance. She radiates power, even when she’s also slightly goofy. There’s no fight, there’s no antagonism, but the boys in her presence are like little fish in a vast ocean – they quickly realise they have no real control in this conversation. The way that we leave her indicates she’ll be back and has more to say or do, and what she shared during her reunion with Sam and Dean makes me really curious about the role she’s due to play in the show’s endgame.

8️⃣ I’m not very religious but I really like the version of a church group or ‘faith-based community,’ as they say, featured in “Gimme Shelter.” Supernatural has a shaky history in terms of how the show portrays people in-universe who believe. Sometimes they’re treated like a joke, or stupid, or dangerous, or hypocrites, but occasionally civilian acts of faith are shown as great and powerful things, even in a world where we know that what they believe in isn’t strictly accurate. That concept became an even bigger question mark for me when we got the reveal that Judeo-Christian God is not only absent, but our actual villain. However, this was a really nice look at why faith can still be a framework for a good way of life – loving thy neighbor – for some people, no matter the truth about Chuck. The episode also features a callback to writer Davy Perez’ very first Supernatural episode “American Nightmare” in terms of the way that some people have weaponized faith and religion to the detriment and harm of others or even themselves, but this factor does not negate the positive point mentioned above.

9️⃣ Supernatural alum and newly minted director Matt Cohen really got the full old-school Supernatural episode experience when it comes to leaning into the spooky horror element. The murderous case-of-the week featured in this episode is heavy and lingering on the gore and even contains a little bit of a jump scare, so view responsibly.

🔟 So, um, you know that line, in this week’s teaser trailer? The line that a lot of people are freaking out about because it seems to pertain to something important that we know about Cas’ fate that Dean and Sam aren’t aware of? Yeah, it is 100% absolutely not about that at all. It is about something super important, but it’s not that. It’s also the last line of the episode, but trust me – it’s not a cliffhanger and it’s not a red herring and it’s not a twist. The information is gleaned within the episode and you’ll know exactly what Cas is telling Dean about after seeing it – narratively, that’s the reason it isn’t in the episode, because the show clearly assumes you’ll get the picture and can skip a rehash of information. But what you were probably expecting – maybe even hoping for – it’s not that. You’re gonna have to hang on for that one.

Finally, have 15 random yet significant words from this week’s episode without any context whatsoever: Gaia, Ronald, mother, pierogies, cats, philosophy, target, blind, permission, lockdown, Kool-aid, buffet, gift, trial, choice.

‘Supernatural’ airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW

#spn s15 #teasers #spn 15x15 #Hypable #preview #thoughts #s15 #15x15 #this gets long as well as spoilery hence the /under the cut/#destiel

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madebycoffee · 4 years ago

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OH ALSO I finished watching Legend of Korra and here is non spoiler thoughts: I really enjoyed it and just like atla I cried at every single season finale. I really like that the main cast while still young, is older than the lITERAL children of atla. atla still holds up watching it as an adult, but I feel like korra is a bit more my jive. There is only one episode that I won’t watch again (season 4 remembrances, when you are binging the show it isn’t necessary as it’s a recap and not as fun as ember island players which serves the same purpose in atla. Also I looked on IMDB, that is the lowest rated episode. I agree. Honestly, if you are binging you can skip it) but I can def see myself watching the whole thing again. Season 1 is my overall favorite of the series.

Spoiler thoughts below the cut because WOW I HAVE THOUGHTS (it’s long)

hi spoiler time last chance to look away

Before going into LOK I had read a decent amount of spoilers beforehand since this aired back in 2012-2014. I don’t think I even knew about it after it was nearly done so the one thing I knew was that Korra & Asami get together lol. Anyway my point is I knew what was coming overall.

Season 1: My personal favorite, I think it’s a really strong stand alone season. I thought it was really smart to begin the series in the water tribe again, as well as with Katara as that’s how ATLA started. I also think its really clever that with Aang, he was very spiritual and a master airbender already, but needed to learn the other 3 element. Korra is the opposite. It helps it not be so repetitive. We already saw one avatar working to master fire, water, and earth. I also realized how used to the world of atla I was and was confused for a split second how Mako and Bolin were brothers but one was an earthbender and one was a firebender... Yeah I know I’m dumb and I forgot that its a different world lol. -Another strong point was that no matter how in danger Korra got in season 1 she never went into the avatar state, because as she says in what ep 1? that she has never been good at the spiritual side of being the avatar. Part of me kept expecting it to happen, but even the final showdown with Amon it didn’t so I was like oh damn. The finale when she does go into the avatar state with Aang giving her the bending she lost back.... I was a wreck. Sobbing my eyes out it just HIT ME. -Other moments that hit me hard: Hearing Dante Basco’s voice as General Iroh ow my soul, Hearing through Katara that Sokka is dead, The flashbacks to the trial of the bloodbender (forgot his name??) and seeing them get bloodbent HURTS MY HEART. And every time Aang’s statue was shown. ;-; Also, just like ATLA there isn’t a main character that I dislike. I genuinely like Korra, Asami, Mako, & Bolin as a team. Lin is my favorite which not hard being Toph’s daughter lol. Tenzin and fam are a delight (though Meelo can get on my nerves but eh) TL:DR SEASON 1 IS GREAT I CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH IT AGAIN!!

Season 2: Alright so. A lot of Spirit World dealings. Unalaq being a GASP evil brother??? LOK has a thing about brothers lol. First with Amon and whathisname, now with Korra’s dad and uncle. Anyway, season 2 I really like too. Yes even the finale. And it’s been a few weeks (maybe months??) since I watched season 2 so the finale is really all that stands out. Other than that I do really like seeing the story of the first avatar. OH MAN AND IROH IN THE SPIRIT WORLD HAD ME ALL SORTS OF LEVELS OF EMOTIONAL. -SO. This was the big spoiler I knew going in, that the past lives of the Avatar are severed from Korra. I know that A LOT of people really don’t like it either. And upon hearing that plot point I didn’t like it as well. But when I sat down and watched the whole series. I actually thought it was the right thing to do. And I didn’t mind it as much as I thought. Korra can no longer call upon the past lives which is sad, but those Avatars still existed. And with Tenzin being so prevalent in the show, it really feels like Aang is still there in spirit. The reason I thought it was the right thing to do with the story, is that it let’s the show as a whole exist on it’s own. IDK how to properly explain.. I get why people don’t like it, but it makes sense to me. -And I do commend the show runners for sticking to this. There is no getting contact back with the past lives. Which, personally I approve of. Whenever you do something world altering like that it annoys me when the show takes it back. My main gripe is people dying but wAIT NO THEY’RE ALIVE!!! It lessens the stakes. And I think a through line of Korra is that actions have consequences. TL;DR I LIKE SEASON 2 AS WELL. DOESN’T LEAVE A LASTING IMPRESSION SINCE THE FINALE IS SUCH A BIG DEAL.

Season 3: I THINK this would be my second favorite season. I REALLY like Zaheer as I guess the ~big bad~ and the squad he has. SO much so that I’m actually upset that they all are dead by the end. I think P’Li is done the dirtiest. You see and know very little about her until an ~exposition~ line a few scenes before she dies. (But damn if the scene of Su throwing her metal breastplate around her head isn’t hardcore cool. I haven’t said yet but the fight sequences in Korra??? Amazing.) Bolin finding out he can Lavabend??? oh hell yeah that’s the good shit, same with lavabending in GENERAL. seeing what people can REALLY do with their bending is probably my favorite part about Korra. I do think Zaheer looks a little silly when he starts flying around, but hey that part is cool too. Also easily the most horrified I’ve been watching this show was the pulling the aiR OUT OF SOMEONE. JESUS. Up until that point Airbending still seemed like the least dangerous form but HOLY SHIT. I will say that the way Kuvira is if not introduced/ we’re reminded about her in the finale is a little bit more like “uhhh is Korra’s dad going to have an affair???” to me than “she gonna be the big bad next season” Also on IMDB the finale of season 3 is the highest rated finale.

Season 4: Even thought this has the same number of episodes as season 3, it feels the most rushed to me. However I do appreciate the timejump and GODTDAMN I love me some old lady Toph. I also like that Toph says that she’s watching Su & Lin through the swamp, an episode or two later Su and Zaofu are attacked and captured, and when Lin, Opal, and Bolin go to Zaofu to try and rescue, Toph is there. It’s a nice payoff. As Su was getting captured I was thinking “hmmmm does Toph see this” And she does, which has her leave the swamp, so she’s not there when Kuvira’s army is cutting vines. Because cmon is Toph was there she woulda kicked their asses. -The huge mecha suit with the spirit weapon on it is HARROWING. I like that Baatar Jr. see’s that Kuvira was gonna kill him for thE gREatER gOOD and was instantly like “oh shit well i guess my loyalties were wrong then ok” Oh and out of order but I had a feeling that Zhu Li was telling Kuvira what she wanted to hear to be sneaky and I was v happy to be proven right by Toph. I ALSO like that things like Toph being able to tell if people are lying aren’t forgotten about. Also... Cried like a baby at Zhu Li and Varrick’s wedding. Haven’t mentioned Varrick yet but hot damn if he isn’t one of my favorite characters. What I wouldn’t GIVE to have Sokka and Varrick brainstorm some truly crazy shit. 10/10. TL;DR SEASON 3 IS REALLY GOOD AND SEASON 4 IS GOOD BUT FEELS LIKE IT’S TOO SHORT.

But yeah. Overall I really enjoyed it. I looked through the episodes on IMDB and nearly everything is above 8.5 except for some of the first episodes in season 2 which I get. I can tell that this is by the same team that did ATLA. It feels so much the same. And I think there was the right amount of the original peeps or their kids but still was focusing on our core four. Other little things:

- I like that the “villains” or ig the conflicts of people weren’t anyone from the Fire Nation. (Although do we know where Zaheer is from??? Family lineage?) Well regardless, what we have is Amon: Waterbender, Unalaq: Waterbender, Zaheer: Airbender, Kuvira: Earthbender. ATLA we were fighting the fire nation, LOK has the range lol. - I do wish we could have been in the Fire Nation tho. I wanna see what’s it like over there :( - Adored seeing all the changes to the world. In ATLA we see the blimps/airships more or less being invented and then 70 years later AIRSHIPS AND CARS GALORE. And having radios/phones VERY nice. Don’t have to rely on letters or talking in person. - I really like Korra. I feel like it needs to be said lol, but I thoroughly enjoyed her as the Avatar (maybe more than Aang??) - Zuko’s face after Korra says she talked to Iroh in the spirit world I’m not crying you are.

ANYWAY. I think that’s it. I just needed to get it all out somewhere. Not a perfect show (neither is atla) but damn if it isn’t some of the best TV out there. If you read all of that woW good job.

#madebycoffee speaks #not gonna tag this as the show lol #so #non sims #nonsims #also seester i think you would like it

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heyyyharry · 6 years ago

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In Another Life Series: Chapter 11 - The End

Series description: Y/N and Harry are soulmates and destined to meet in every lifetime, but no matter how many times they reincarnate and find each other again, they never seem to get it right.

AU: reincarnation, soulmate!harry, prince!harry, assistant!y/n, witch!y/n.

Chapter 10 - The Sidekicks: The protagonists aren’t always the only heroes.

wattpad link ❤︎ Before you read the chapter, I have "a few" words to say *clear throat and open my Oscar winning speech* (or you can just start reading and skip this altogether, it's fine).

When I was reaching the end of Flatmate with no intention of writing the sequel, I wanted to write something new that would be just as good. My mind was empty, and I came up with many bullshit ideas and almost settled down with some of them (glad i DIDN'T!). Then as I was listening to 1000 Times by Sarah Bareilles, from the lyrics, I pictured two strangers meeting each other for the first time, feeling like they've known each other forever, but having no clue that they used to be lovers in a different lifetime. It's just so romantic in my head and I knew I could do this idea justice. So thank you Sarah Bareilles, if you read this fic lemme know lmao. The painting idea was originally from Marc Levy's novel with the same name (Idk what it's title in French, but in my translated language it's) In Another Life, so just to be clear I didn't really come up with that, credit to the genius who did. Thank you "The Tudors" for all this knowledge I have about the English dynasties in the 16th century, and I'm genuinely sorry if I offend anyone with all the historical inaccuracies, please forgive me. Thank you everyone who's read and waited and commented on every chapter to help me make this as good as possible. I know it's only fiction but to read about how my writing makes some of you happy and feel better really does make me happy and feel better and motivated to write more.

I've had a couple alternative endings to this series, and I think this one is the best (among the others), but if you want to know what the other endings are, feel free to drop me an ask! Or simply tell me what you expected from this chapter before knowing the actual ending here!

Okay, bye, thank you for putting up with my extra ass! Kissy, Allie.❤︎

___________________________

Harry ended up spending the rest of his afternoon chatting with his assigned nurse. He'd told the old woman about what had been going on in his life, how he'd met Y/N, the dreams he'd had ever since his trip to the museum, the faces in those dreams that looked just like her. And even though it did feel nice to finally get all this burden off his chest, he still found it strange that she barely opened up about herself. All he knew about her was that her name was Margaret, or Maggie as she preferred to be called, and she lived alone, no husband, no children, and had been working as a nurse for as long as she could remember.

"I have a feeling that we've met before," he told her at last because it had been bothering him since they first met.

But the woman just looked at him in surprise as she said she didn't think so. "Although, you do remind me of someone I used to know." She studied the look on his face, pondering for a little while.

"Oh, who is it?" He asked.

"I had a niece, she fell madly in love with a young man whom you remind me of."

"Had?"

"She...passed away years ago, unfortunately."

Harry could see the clear change in her facial expression when she said those words, so he didn't want to dig too deep into that hurtful memory of hers, even though he was curious to know about the man who resembled him. However, it was Maggie who continued with this topic he thought she wanted to avoid.

"That young man was very passionate about my dear Annalise as you are for the girl you love."

"Her name was Annalise?"

"Yes, it means Grace of God. I helped her mother pick that name."

"Very beautiful, ma'am." Harry pressed his lips into a smile when he saw how hers was beaming as she talked about her beloved niece. "I'm sure Annalise and her man were very happy together?"

"No. They never got together." Maggie shook her head slowly. "His family didn't want him to be with her and he didn't have a choice."

"So after she...uhm..."

"Passed away?"

"Yes, after she passed away, what happened to him?"

There was a long pause as the old lady's eyes shifted to her feet, and Harry felt like he never should've asked that question. He took a wild guess that the young man must've had the same tragic ending as the girl, if that was true, then this was definitely the most heartbreaking story he'd heard in a long time.

"He moved on, married the girl his family wanted him to marry, but he never stopped loving her. He died of a heart attack, and his last word was her name."

Harry felt a lump in his throat and he had no idea why. He was really hurting over a story of two strangers whom he knew nothing about. His faith in true love had always been faint, after hearing this he had completely lost hope.

"Had the timing been different, they could've ended up together," he said, breaking the melancholy silence that had taken over the atmosphere surrounding them.

Maggie released a long heavyhearted sigh as she crossed her legs and leaned back against the chair. She stopped to think for a moment, then she told him, "but I like to think they'll meet each other and start again in another life. Because true love never dies. Do you agree?"

No. Harry didn't.

He thought people had had enough chances in one lifetime already and God wouldn't be so merciful to offer endless trials for them to try and fix their mistakes again and again, lifetime after lifetime. Despite so, he still told Maggie he agreed with her and added, "I'll have my fingers crossed for the two of them."

As he was about to move on to another, more cheerful topic to discuss, the old lady spoke up again, "she wrote him a letter every single day they'd spent together."

"Oh, did he get a chance to read them?"

"He did. I gave them to him myself. He was very emotional, he burst into tears."

"Wow..."

"Before he passed away he gave them back to me." Maggie rose from the chair by his hospital bed and went to grab her purse, which sat on the table by the window. "I have them with me here, do you want to read them?"

"You bring them with you to work?"

The perplexity on his face made her smile as she pulled out a pile of papers which seemed pretty old, they'd turned to a yellowish brown and were all a bit torn at the edges. "I was moving to a new home today so I brought them with me, I don't want to put them with the rest of the other stuff in my flat, they're very fragile."

"I don't think I should read them, they're very personal, ma'am." Harry shook his head when she gave the letters to him.

"You're an artist, aren't you? Maybe these love letters will inspire you in your songwriting. And I know my darling Ann would love to share them with people who have the same heart as the man she loved."

Did she just say Ann? That was the name Harry had heard many times in his dreams about Y/N. But he could be wrong.

"I'm gonna leave them here for you to read. You have nothing fun to do around here anyway," Maggie chuckled then walked away from his bed, not expecting a reply from her confused patient.

Madam Maggie told Edward she'd come to him because of Ann. She's asked her to. Before the fire incident, Ann had a bad feeling, which she just assumed had something to do with Edward marrying someone else. Little did she know, that bad feeling she'd thought was insignificant ended up costing her her own life.

In her despair, the poor girl had snuck outside of the castle to see Madam Maggie and asked for two little favors. Thanked to Ann's favors, Madam Maggie showed up just in time to find an unconscious Edward lying on the floor of his chamber.

"Her powers allowed her to detect sickness, she knew you had a weak heart, which was also why you fainted earlier. She didn't have the heart to tell you, so she came to see me."

"Ann asked you to cure me?" Edward inquired, placing a hand on the left side of his chest, only to get disappointed by the answer he received from this woman.

"I can make you feel less pain, but I don't think I can cure you completely. Witches can fix broken bones and mend wounds, but we cannot magic away something so permanent like the heart disease you've carried since the day you were born."

Edward nodded understandingly. He seemed so unbothered for someone who had just found out his heart had been unwell since his birth. That was when you know he was, in entirety, wrecked. Ann's death had caused him such pain that nothing else, not even a stab in the gut by the sharpest blade would be able to hurt him that much.

"On the night we met, she fixed the wound on my leg," he said with a fractured grin and tears in his emerald eyes. "And I was supposed to be afraid of her, that was the first time in my life I'd ever seen witchcraft." He chuckled but there was no humor in the sound of it, just utter desolation. "But the look in her eyes made me feel safe...and suddenly I wasn't afraid anymore. I knew she was a good person."

"She said the same thing about you. She really loved you."

"And I let her down...Maybe...Maybe this sickness should just kill me so I can finally be with her." He took a long pause and shifted his eyes to the window by his bed, sucking in a long breath while contemplating whether or not he should say this out loud. He thought he should. "Before you got here, I nearly jumped out of that window."

"Why didn't you?" Madam Maggie calmly asked as if she'd already known, both what he'd tried to do, and the reason he'd chosen not to do it.

"I made a promise to Ann that I would be a good King. I have to live to fulfill that promise."

"It's good that you're still thinking straight." The woman flashed a smile, reaching out to hold his hand which laid lifelessly by his unresponsive body. "I haven't told you the real reason I'm here. Ann also asked me another favor."

"What is it?" He asked.

Madam Maggie thought that this was the most alive he'd looked since she first saw him. She confided, "did you know she'd been writing you letters?"

"N-No..."

"She had. Everyday, from the first day she set foot in this castle, to the night before they locked her away. She felt something bad was gonna happen so she brought them to me and asked me to keep them for a while. She told me she'd come back for them, hopefully with you by her side. She was very sure that you two would end up running away together." When she finished that sentence, Madam Maggie couldn't control her emotions anymore. Tears started to shed from her eyes, running down the crinkles at the corners of her chapped lips to land onto her worn out dress. Edward squeezed her hand a bit tighter, as he could deeply sympathize with her loss.

"Before she left she gave me a kiss on the cheek...Like she always did whenever we said goodbye...I didn't think—" That sentence was never finished for the old woman couldn't speak anymore. She began sobbing into the palm of her other hand. And Edward did as well. It was the first time he'd really cried ever since he last saw her, and he thought the agony he was feeling then would be his life sentence.

Harry woke up, gasping for air, again.

He was back in his hospital room, the only sound other than his own ragged breathing and riotous heartbeats was the beeping of one of the machines placed beside his bed. This time, he had a dream about Y/N stuck in a burning house, he risked his own life to run inside to save her but she couldn't come with him. So he held her close and let the flame swallow them whole. The dreams he'd been having had become more real recently, and he guessed his mild fear of the hospital had something to do with it. Fortunately, Harry wouldn't have to stay there much longer. The doctors had said, for some reasons they could not explain, his heart's condition had been slowly going back to normal, as if it'd healed on its own. By this time tomorrow, he could finally be home.

Harry propped himself up on his elbows then reached out to grab the glass of water his nurse had left on the bedside table. That was when he saw the pile of letters she'd put right under it. He slowly sat up, finishing his water, putting the empty glass back on the table, then with a little bit of hesitation, he took the letters and brought them to his lap.

When Harry scanned his eyes through the first line, which was the date, he almost thought his eyes were mistaken. The year was 1509, which was 510 years ago! Was this supposed to be a joke? Or was it just a thing this girl Annalise always did with her lover? Maybe it was a secret message only they knew. Now, Harry couldn't put the letters down without finishing every single one of them.

So Harry began to read, every single word. It took him only halfway through the first letter to realize this wasn't from just 'a few years ago' like Maggie had said. This was a letter from a peasant girl named Ann written to a Prince, Edward Rammour, no other than the man in the portrait, in the museum where the series of strange events and bizarre dreams of Harry's started.

The girl, Ann, wrote about their first met, about their little moments together, about the look in his eyes when he looked at her, about the things he said that he didn't pay attention to but she remembered every single word. And Harry knew every single detail in here, he'd seen them countless of times in his dreams, in which the girl who was supposed to be Ann, looked like Y/N. But the last few letters were all from her point of view so he didn't know what was gonna happen. She talked about not being able to see him as much, about doubting his love for her, about believing in his love for her again when he snuck out to visit her one night, about the things people in the castle said about her even in her presence, about a princess named Emilié who was betrothed to the Prince and hated her deeply, about receiving his letter one night asking her to meet him in the library. And in the last paragraph of the very last letter, she wrote about how happy she was because she believed they were gonna run away together. Harry's heart wrenched in anguish for he knew that wasn't what had happened.

In a millisecond, all the lost memories flooded back to him. Harry now remembered. Everything.

He remembered her screaming and shouting and begging him to save her and not let them take her away, and he didn't save her, he watched them take her away. He remembered saying goodbye to her one last time. He remembered the look on her face before the door shut between them, He remembered telling her he loved her, forever, and so he did. He loved her forever.

He remembered everything.

And on the hospital bed, he burst into tears, and those tears fell down and blurred out the handwriting of the girl who'd been dead for hundreds of years, yet kept alive inside his heart.

"Little Annalise had always preferred to be called Ann."

He lifted his head quickly and saw Maggie at the door. He didn't ask her to explain, he already knew what was going on. "Is Y/N...is she..."

"Yes, she is." The woman gave him a nod. "Did you feel strange when you looked into her eyes?" He did. "The eyes are the windows to a person's soul. That was why when you looked into hers, as well as...your own...in that painting in the museum, you felt a sense of familiarity that you couldn't explain. Same souls, trapped in two different bodies"

"How is this even possible?" Harry grimaced, trying to put two and two together on his own, but it wasn't that simple. "Why are there only two of us? Do the other...Does this happen to them too? How are you still alive?!"

"I'm the head witch, I'm immortal. Not even fire could kill me," she said, smiling as she approached his bed and sat down on the chair where she'd sat earlier.

Taking in a deep breath, she began, “when a person dies, his or her soul breaks into tiny pieces, each creates a new life. They start again as different people with no memories of the lives they used to have. But Ann already casted a spell on you, on both of you actually. That spell keeps your souls from unraveling and also connected to each other. So you’ve met in every single lifetime, and had many chances to start over. But this is the closest you’ve ever got to the ending she wanted for you two.”

"Why did it take me until today, this lifetime, to remember?"

"Because it took me that many centuries to have found you." Maggie sighed. "I usually found Ann first, but as there are more and more people on the Earth nowadays, it's really difficult to track her down. Every time I arrived in the past, it was already too late. But this time, I guess God does show some mercy after all. He brought me to you instead."

"So you working here is all a coincidence."

"A magical coincidence. I almost didn't believe it when I saw you here." She showed him a smile. And even though Harry had calmed down by now, he was still in shock. "Edward asked me to give you these letters, he thought only them would help you remember."

"W-Why should I remember if...if every time we got together one of us died?"

"Because only when you remember, would this story be over."

"Are you sure you want me to have them?"

Edward nodded, pushing the letters into Madam Maggie's hand as he insisted, "you're the only hope for me to find her."

She really was. Madam Maggie said once Ann had reincarnated into a new body, she would be able to feel her, and even if it might take a lot of effort to find her and convince her to believe she was Ann, it was possible.

Honestly, Edward didn't really believe in life after death. But he hadn't believed in witches until he met Ann, and she was real. Sometimes he still wished she hadn't been real. Maybe if she'd been a dream, a beautiful dream, then he would just sleep forever and never wake up.

"But how did you know it was the only way to break the spell?" He asked Madam Maggie, eyes on the letters. She could sense the sound of fear and doubt in his trembling voice.

"I just knew when you first told me, dear." She put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "She said it herself, only when you've found her in another life, could you two finally be together."

Edward exhaled though his mouth as recalled his lover's last words. She did say so, after she'd kissed him. The kiss. He realized it now! That kiss was when she put a spell on them both!

"Destiny is a funny thing, it's like a chess game, if you can't win, you lose." Madam Maggie took a deep breath and slowly let it all out. "Destiny wants to keep you two apart, so it will make sure you two are forever kept apart no matter what. Ann tried to break the rules, so by finding her she meant, you, finding Ann, not whoever she'd be in the next lifetime, or many after that. If you fail to recognize her but still try to break the rules by being with her, then destiny does what it has to, history repeats itself. One of you will pay the price."

Edward opened his mouth to ask another question, yet Madam Maggie shushed him right before he could release a single sound. "You should get some rest, your coronation is tomorrow."

Then she walked away, disappeared into the darkness of the long corridor. And that was also the last time he ever saw her.

"Edward! Wait, darling!" The voice caught Edward's attention, and he turned around, wishing he hadn't. His mother ran up to him, sounding so desperate as she pleaded, "darling, we need to talk!"

"No, we don't," he said coldly and started walking away. But she chased after him and managed to grab him by the arm.

"I understand that you don't want to speak to your wife but I am—"

"She's not my wife!" He shouted, but the frightened look on her face made him weak again. "It's only a title. Tomorrow she might be the Queen of England, but she will never be my wife."

"You cannot say that! You have to give her a chance! You need a son to rule after you!"

"I don't want a son so he would grow up with a mother like that. I don't want him to suffer the same way I am." Edward hoped those words did hurt the Queen, he hoped the pain shown on her face was genuine. However, he didn't know anymore, he didn't believe in it. Was there anything, or anyone in this castle, 'genuine'? "Emilié had told me everything, mother. You sent Ann in there...knowing father could hurt her. You were willing to destroy a young girl's life just to make sure I'd stay for the throne. Now I am King, are you happy now?"

"I did it because I love you!"

"You, same as Emilié, same as father, love no one but yourself!" Each and every one of those word was a knife pierced right through his chest. "The only one who's ever loved me for me, and not who I am, or going to be, was Ann, and now she's dead."

"I am still your mother..."

"You are not." He shook his head slowly, trying not to cry because she wasn't worth anymore of his tears. He'd suffered enough. "I loved you, I really loved you."

Loved. The sound of it crushed the Queen's dark heart into dust, and she thought she might collapse onto the floor had she been able to feel any of her muscle. She was frozen right where she stood, eyes wide, jaw dropped, heartbroken, staring at the son she'd let down. They could've just continued to stand there until sunrise, had the conversation been interrupted by the arrival of the Chief Minister.

"There you are, Your Highness!" Exclaimed the man, who sounded so thrilled since he didn't know what was happening here. "I already had everything you asked prepared for the coronation tomorrow morning. Also Piersilvio, the famous Italian painter, he wanted to paint your portrait as a gift. He would arrive at court soon after the ceremony."

"Good." Edward nodded as he exhaled sharply. "Anything else?"

"No, Your Highness."

"It's 'Your Majesty' to you now."

"Yes...My apologies...Your Majesty..." The Chief Minister hung his head to show respect to the new young King as he was startled by the change in Edward's attitude. He was afraid he might been in trouble for addressing the monarch in the wrong way, but Edward didn't pay much attention to it.

"Have a good evening, His Excellency. Could you please escort the Queen Mother back to her bed chamber?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

When Edward absented himself, he heard his mother desperately screaming out his name, begging him to forgive her. However, he turned a deaf ear to all the things she said. He was no different from a dead man walking.

There were indeed plenty of museums in London, more than 170 of them. Countless of visitors came and went every single day. What were the chances of two person returning to the same museum, every single day, to sit in front of the same painting? Surely very little.

For the first few days the pair were there, nobody really noticed. For almost two weeks, they began to. Everyday before the museum was closed, a young man and a young woman would arrive and stare at the portrait of Edward Rammour, and then they left when everyone else did. Some people thought they were lovers who shared the same passion with art, some said they were sad, depressed, and lonely, some said they were crazy. However, nobody actually came and asked them what their story was. Maybe if someone had, they would've told them.

"How long are you gonna keep tormenting yourself?" Asked Jason as he sat down by his best friend's side on the bench in front of the painting and handed her a donut, which she refused.

"Until I get my memories back..."

"That's impossible."

"Why?" She snorted. "I think I just need a bit more time with this painting, and it'll all come back to me. She wanted me to remember. That was why she cursed me as well."

"We don't really know what she wanted." Jason heaved a sigh. "Maybe she wanted the King to pay for his mistake by cursing him, but she didn't think about how it would also affect her in her new lives."

That theory seemed justifying, but Y/N knew it wasn't the truth. People wouldn't want themselves to be bound together for eternity with someone they loathed. She knew the woman she used to be still loved the King despite it all. If only she could remember what had really happened.

"He's back in London you know," Jason broke the silence between the two of them, hand reaching out to hold hers. He thought she might pull away like many times before, but this time she didn't. She stayed still where she was, emotionless, unbothered. "Have you listened to his new song? It's about you."

"I have. I love it. I wish I could tell him."

"You should reach out to him...if you want to."

"I can't, you know I can't." The lump in her throat when she thought about him made it hard for her to breathe. "Not until I know how to break the curse. If we tried to be together, there would be consequences."

"So you're gonna spend your entire life, sitting in front of this painting, trying to remember a life you had...five centuries ago?"

A simple "yes" was her answer. And Jason knew nothing else to say. He wanted what was best for her, and he thought separating her from Harry would fix everything. But everything became worse. She'd been losing sleep, her nightmares got more real and hard to wake up from. Still her memories of her past life were still dust in a desert.

Jason asked her if she was thirsty, she said no, but he said he would go buy her something to drink anyway. He then laid a kiss on her cheek and stood up to go. She was once again left alone. Actually, she wasn't alone.

She could feel him near. She didn't even need to turn around to know he was there. She just did. And she was afraid to look because her feelings could be wrong, and if he wasn't standing right behind her she would be so disappointed. That was when his voice rang right through her ear. The first thing he said wasn't 'hi' or 'hello' or 'how have you been?' Or even her name.

It was, "I've found you."

Y/N rose from the bench to turn around, facing Harry at last. He was wearing an expensive trench coat, hands in its pockets, his grey flat cap made sure half of his face was covered, but there was no way she could mistaken him with anyone else. Time seemed to stop when they locked eyes, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, she felt something she'd never felt before. She parted her lips, wanting to speak, yet no word escaped for she had no idea what to say. He said he'd found her, but she knew he didn't mean finding her, here, in this museum, it was something else, almost like—

"Of course you don't remember...I...uhm—" he mumbled, as if he was talking to himself. Then a dimpled smile crept up on his face only to vanish as soon as Jason returned with a bottle of water for Y/N.

She didn't know what was going on in Harry's mind at that point, and Harry didn't say a word either. He turned his heels just as Jason recognized him, and quickly made tracks to the nearest exit.

Her eyes quickly followed his familiar figure to that door over there, then all the sounds around her became muted at once. She didn't even hear Jason asking her what had just happened, instead she heard Harry's footsteps echoing inside the walls of her brain as they were fading away. He spun his head and sent her one last look before the door was closed between the two of them. Time stopped. It wasn't Harry that she saw.

She saw Edward.

She saw him being dragged away from her by the men in amours. She heard her own deafening screams as well as his. She saw the flames on the torches on the brick walls mirroring in his green eyes. She saw him mouthing the words 'I love you' to her. The door shut between them two, and she snapped back to reality. Everything vanished. The room, the guards, the flames, the torches, him.

She remembered it now, everything.

"Y/N! Y/N! Where are you going?!" Jason shouted after her as she started running fast, pushing her way through a crowd of tourists, who screamed at her for being so rude. Then she burst through that door and she screamed out his name, causing many heads to turn around. There was only one face among them that mattered.

When she saw him she didn't hesitate. Hell, she'd been waiting for this moment for too long, 500 years! Now, she could finally fall into his embrace. Her head against his chest, and she was finally home.

Shocked as he was, Harry didn't resist the hug. He chose to ignore all the judging stares they were receiving and clung onto her, eyes squeezed shut, lips pressed to her forehead.

"Why did you walk away?" She pulled back to look up at him with a pucker between her brows, all out of breath, yet laughing uncontrollably.

"You were...with someone else..." He sounded hurt and confused, it only made her laugh harder.

"That's my best friend Jason, you've met him before, remember?" she cried out, voice trembling because she'd never been so happy that she choked on her own words. "I was waiting for you. I've been waiting for you for so long."

"Wait, so you..."

"I remember." She nodded fast, arms tightened around his waist. "I remember exactly what was going through my head in that tower. I remember feeling so scared when I was on the stake. I remember the last image in my head was you. I remember...telling you to find me in another life so we could finally be together...And you did, Harry you found me."

When she touched his face, Harry felt as if there was magic on her fingertips. He dug his nose into her palm, sniffing away his own tears as he wiped away the ones that were rolling down her cheeks. He heard the sound of the camera shutter somewhere behind her, behind him, on his left, and his right, knowing their reunion could've already made the news already, yet he couldn't care less.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked, still cupping his cheeks with no intention of letting him go.

"I came to your house and Lisa told me." He paused. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I needed over a week to think of what to say to you before coming here so I wouldn't sound insane...I even brought your letters—"

"How do you have the letters?" Her eyes grew wide, mouth slightly opened. "Wait, have you...have you met her?" Y/N felt like her heart could burst from joy when he nodded his head, telling her yes. "Where is she?! Is she here?!"

"No, but I'll take you to her, love. She really misses you," he told her while looking around and spotting a couple sneaky paparazzi. So he locked his fingers around her wrist and urged her to come with him and get out of here so they could finally tell each other everything that had happened.

"Harry, wait!" Y/N tugged on his arm when he was about to pull her with him. "I...I need you to kiss me now so I can be sure neither of us is gonna die."

Her pretentious fear made Harry burst into laughter. With no hesitation, he cupped her cheeks with both hands, bringing his face down to hers so the tips of their noses brushed against each other, then with their lips only one breath apart, he whispered to her, "queen of my heart."

He kissed her exactly how she wanted to be kissed, like it was their first, last, everything they had left to lose. This passionate and timeless moment put an official end to the series of misery that had lasted for five centuries long. And people who walked past King Edward's portrait that day could swear when they told the story, of how they saw the man in the painting, smile.

#harry styles #harry styles writing #harry styles series #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles angst #harry styles imagine #in another life series #ial #prince!harry #reincarnation!au #witch!y/n #assistant!y/n

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cuthian · 4 years ago

Text

Dancing in the Rain Chapter Two

Hi guys!

For this chapter, I'd like to warn you to please read the tags carefully. There is a potentially triggering scene involving gaslighting and violence at the end of the chapter -- if you think that's something that might trigger you or that you'd prefer not to read, please stop reading when Brock Rumlow's scene starts and skip to the end notes, where I'll summarise the scene for you.

Thank you again to my lovely beta and to my roommate, who have dragged me through writing this entire piece.

And thank you for still reading! I love you all.

See you in the comments, and then next week!

Love, Annaelle

Chapter Two

MUST-SEE: PEPPER POTTS SHARES ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS ULTRASOUND PICTURE OF HER BABY ON TWITTER!

Pepper Potts revealed she was expecting her first child with partners James Rhodes and Tony Stark a few months ago. Yesterday, the C.E.O. of Stark Industries shared an ultrasound picture on Twitter, where we can clearly see the baby takes after one of its fathers!

Potts, 43, announced her first pregnancy in December of last year through a truly adorable video starring her partners and Captain Steve Rogers, who is a close friend of Potts and her partners. Since the announcement, Potts has been sharing biweekly updates in the form of pictures, anecdotes and short videos featuring most of the Avengers.

[…] Besides Potts herself, the most frequent guest on Potts’ Twitter page is Rebecca Barnes, who announced that she and Thor Odinson are expecting their first child only a few weeks after Potts’ announcement. […] Potts has shared quite a few ultrasound pictures of the baby already, but her last update promises to be the most popular so far. The post boasts another ultrasound picture, this one showing that the baby might take after daddy Tony Stark! “[…]baby swallowed amniotic fluid, and then they opened their little mouth SO wide and stuck their little tongue out so far the gynaecologist nearly fell of her stool laughing,” Potts wrote. “It was wonderful to see, because it looked like our baby had the biggest, cheekiest smile on their face—just like Tony.”

Many of the other Avengers and various other celebrities saw the resemblance too.

“Takes after Tony, that one,” Steve Rogers, Captain America and close personal friend of Stark, Rhodes, and Potts, replied. “We’re gonna have our hands full.”

“Lord have mercy,” James Rhodes, daddy number two, replied. “The world’s not ready for a second Tony Stark.”

—Clarke Blake, Flair Magazine, “Pepper Potts Tweets Adorable Ultrasound Picture”, April 2016

——————

6th avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States of America

23 April 2016

Peggy Carter

Peggy Carter had lived through quite a few life-altering events during her ninety-five years, but she dared say that sitting through a—albeit lovely—dinner with her goddaughter and her darling boyfriend, her niece and her prickly fiancé, her wonderfully dumb Steven, and Becky was a trial unlike any other she had faced so far.

Conversation was perfectly civil, of course, because Rebecca Barnes—senior, that is—did not tolerate acrimony of any sort at her dinner table, but there was a certain… tension between them that had not abated throughout the entire meal.

She had an inkling as to its origin, of course.

Sharon and her Brock had been together for quite some time, and while Peggy certainly had her reservations about the man, none of her background checks or even the private investigators had raised any red flags beyond a mild propensity for running his mouth when he had had a few drinks.

She never quite warmed up to the man though, finding herself a little put off by his brash attitude and his overall personality.

Sharon, however, had been quite besotted with the man since the day they’d met, and Peggy was not in the habit of trying to dictate her children’s—for that was what Sharon and Becca were, to her—love life. She had discretely done said background check on him, of course, because one could never be too careful, but nothing had come out of it, and so she held her tongue.

Whatever her own reservations towards him, Sharon loved him and he made her happy.

That was, in the end, all that Peggy wanted for her.

Her distaste of Brock, though, had been more apparent this night than she had intended for it to be.

Honestly, she blamed Thor a little bit, because Becca’s young man was so absurdly charming and lovely that Peggy couldn’t be fully blamed for showing something that might, in the right circumstances, be construed as… preference.

And honestly, whoever decided she was not allowed such preference?

People didn’t work that way.

Sometimes, one clicked with people, and sometimes, one didn’t.

It was just that…

Well, she always strived to be fair to her family, even when her personality didn’t quite match with everyone, and Brock—as became increasingly clear as time passed and his relationship with her niece became more serious—was part of that family.

So was Thor, but the scales skewed much more in his favor because he reminded her so very much of her Daniel that sometimes it ached to look at him.

He was courteous and kind, and he revelled in her stories of her days as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He referred to each little scuffle as a mighty battle, won by glorious victory, and had sworn to her that her days as a warrior for Earth had certainly earned her spot at his father’s table in Valhalla on the very first day they’d met.

She may—or may not—have shed a tear or two.

It should have occurred to her then, when Becca invited her over for dinner with Sharon, Brock, Thor, and Becky, that Brock would sense the difference in their interactions.

He was, after all, a fully trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and a good one too.

He’d noticed.

And the atmosphere during dinner had suffered for it.

It seemed to have eased off some now, while Thor bustled about in the kitchen to do the dishes, chattering happily with Becca, who sat perched on the counter beside him, cradling her swollen belly. Sharon leaned on the doorpost beside Becca, dangling an empty glass of wine from her fingertips as she occasionally threw a comment into the conversation.

They’d been whispering and giggling to each other the entire evening, and Peggy had to admit she was curious what those two were up to.

Steve had taken Brock to the living room, distracting the man from glowering at Peggy and Thor.

Honestly, Peggy huffed to herself, the entire thing was a tad tedious.

So she had a bit of a preference when it came to Sharon and Becca’s partners—sue her.

There was no need to be so petty about it.

“Well,” Becky said, raising an eyebrow at her, leaning back in her chair. “That could’ve gone better.”

Peggy snorted lightly and shook her head, setting down the glass of red wine she’d been sipping from all night on the table. “I suppose I could’ve comported myself better towards Brock,” Peggy admitted, glancing towards the living room, where she assumed Steve was entertaining the man in question.

Becky bit her lip and nodded lightly. “I mean… You hardly said two words to him and spent the rest of the night talking to Thor. It was rather obvious, Peg.”

Peggy pouted. “I suppose I should make an effort then, shouldn’t I?”

Becky wrinkled her nose at her and nodded. “I think you should.”

Peggy heaved a very put-upon sigh and hoisted herself out of her chair, smiling when Becky followed her example. They made their way into the living room, supporting each other as they walked, and settled comfortably on the love seat directly across from the fireplace.

Steve was kneeling in front of said fireplace, stacking several more blocks of chopped wood onto the dwindling flames. Peggy sighed wistfully, trailing her eyes appreciatively over Steve’s impressive biceps and exquisite form. It really was such a shame he had always been so hung up on Barnes—Peggy had had a great appreciation for him before the serum too, but…

There was something to be said for the way he had stepped out of the machine too.

She was sure they’d have had a lot of fun together if he hadn’t been so arse over teakettle in love with Bucky Barnes. Of course, she supposed if she and Steve had given each other a chance, she would never have married Daniel, and she would never have eventually fallen in love with her Angie too…

She would not have given them up for the world.

“Steve, darling,” she called out when he got back to his feet. “Come sit with us. What were you two talking about?”

Steve sat down on the sofa beside her and Becky’s love seat and smiled tightly. “We were discussing work, actually.” He shot a quick grin towards Rumlow when the man dragged a chair over so he could sit across from them, leaving the rest of the sofa open for the others.

“We were talking about the time he botched my mission,” Brock said, just the hint of a sneer detectable in his tone but voice otherwise just friendly enough to not be called out. “Put two of my guys in the hospital and had the Widow tase the shit out of another one. Still jumps at shadows, that one. Can’t use him for ops anymore, so thanks.”

He shook his head and took a chug of his beer. “Scared away our target too.”

Peggy raised an eyebrow. “Is this true?” she asked, turning to Steve.

She was aware Steve ran mostly Avengers-related missions nowadays, and that those missions were usually meticulously planned by Becca, Maria Hill, and Pepper Potts. She couldn’t quite imagine such a large mistake escaping their notice.

Steve’s cheeks colored, and he shrugged. “Yeah. We got the same anonymous tip about a terrorist group we’d been monitoring, and we responded without a lot of delay—we informed Fury, and he gave us the go-ahead, but apparently Maria had also sent out a STRIKE team.” He sighed and hung his head. “We collided mid-mission.”

Rumlow snorted. “I gotta hand it to ya, you had us down quick. Team’s good.”

Steve smiled, and Peggy eyed him carefully. It wasn’t a real smile, because Steve’s real smiles still made her heart flutter a little, but there was enough sincerity in it to fool the people that didn’t quite know him as well as she did—or, she supposed, as well as Becca did.

Her goddaughter walked into the room and plopped down on the couch beside Steve, poking him in the arm immediately and drawing his attention away from the conversation.

Sharon and Thor filed into the room as well, and Peggy watched her niece as she sidled up beside her fiancé, leaning her hip against his shoulder until he slipped his arm around her waist and leaned in to press a light kiss to her cloth-covered hip.

Thor, on the other hand, fit himself into the narrow available space between Becca and Steve, jostling them both playfully as he settled, allowing Becca to lean up against him comfortably, slipping one hand to the curve of her stomach, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth.

Peggy smiled despite herself.

He did remind her so very much of Daniel, even in this.

Daniel had been sweet and nervous and in awe of her pregnancy too, and he had tried to wait on her hand and foot, even when it had made her want to shoot him more than it had helped.

She’d seen enough interaction between Thor and Becca to know their dynamic was similar, but also wildly different. Where Peggy had grated beneath Daniel’s care and constant attention, too independent and too unwilling to let loose her grasp on control, Becca seemed to find Thor’s constant gaze reassuring, and his touch calming.

“So,” Brock said, eyeing Sharon and Becca contemplatively. “You two gonna tell us what it is you’ve been whispering about all night?”

Peggy looked between the two as well. She had to admit she was rather curious too, because Becky had already informed her that it was actually Becca who had asked if she would host a dinner for all of them so she could give them some important news.

“Yes,” Becca said slowly, glancing towards Sharon and then Thor. “Yes, I think…” She exhaled shakily and set one hand on her stomach. “Well, I think you’ve all noticed I’m pregnant.”

Peggy snorted a laugh, and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Thor’s dad…” Becca continued slowly, “he… Well, he’s not been the most supportive about it.”

Thor leaned forward then, a determined, yet grave expression on his face. “My father is a most traditional man, when it suits him to be one. He has ratified laws that state that if I wish to be able to claim our child as mine—my heir—it must be born on Asgard.”

Peggy blinked.

“Oh,” she said.

Becca smiled tightly. “Because travel through the Bifrost is extremely taxing for humans as it is, I need to travel there before I hit twenty-eight weeks. Just to be safe. It’s like flying in the third trimester.”

A heavy silence followed her words, and Peggy tried to wrap her head around what that meant.

“You’re—you’re twenty-six weeks along, though,” Peggy asserted. “You would have to go within…”

“Within two weeks, yes,” Becca nodded, leaning back into Thor’s embrace. “And I would be gone for… for a while, probably. If Eir and Thor are right, I wouldn’t be up for any sort of Bifrost travel for quite some time after the baby’s born either. So I…” She looked at Sharon, who smiled encouragingly, and Peggy found she had an inkling of where this was going.

“I need a replacement for my position as official S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to the Avengers,” Becca continued. “Someone the Avengers as a whole trust, so I…” She finally returned Sharon’s smile. “I thought of Sharon. I know you’ve… you’ve had a hard time at S.H.I.E.L.D. since… everything,” Becca’s voice lowered, and rage pulsed deep within Peggy’s veins at the mere mention of the absurd charges they’d tried to lay against her niece. “I hoped you might like a change of scenery,” Becca continued. “Some new colleagues.”

She chuckled and elbowed Steve in the side as she added, “Mind you, they’re a mad bunch, and you should never listen to Steve, even though he’s team leader, because he’s full of shit, but—”

“I am not,” Steve said, affronted.

“Oh darling,” Peggy sighed. “You always were a dramatic shit. It stands to reason that didn’t change.”

Brock guffawed and the others snickered at Steve’s expense, and Peggy smiled broadly at him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve huffed indignantly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Come on, Becs, you were telling us something big, remember?”

Becca smiled beatifically at him, and Peggy shook her head to clear it—it was difficult, in moments like these, to remember that she wasn’t back in the war, and that Becca wasn’t Bucky Barnes, ribbing Steve about something or the other while the rest of the Howlies laughed at them.

Becky, God bless her, noticed her slip in attention, and patted her hand lightly on top of Peggy’s.

Peggy shot her a grateful smile before she focused her attention back on Becca.

“That’s mostly it,” Becca shrugged. “If Sharon agrees—”

“Oh, Sharon agrees,” the woman in question piped up from where she had settled on a second dining chair next to Brock, reaching out to take her fiancé’s hand. “It’ll be good to get away from S.H.I.E.L.D. for a bit,” she added sadly, and Peggy frowned.

It hurt, to think that the organisation she had built from the ground up was such a stifling place for her own niece now. It was so upsetting, in fact, that she nearly missed the scowl that marred Brock’s face before he schooled his face into a pretty convincing smile.

Nearly.

She eyed him shrewdly.

Did his jealousy of their acceptance of Thor run so deep that anything connected to him was automatically met with anger and resentment?

“—well,” Becca continued, grinning at Sharon, “then all that’s really left is me teaching you the ropes, and us coordinating moving to Asgard for the foreseeable future.” She looked back at Thor, who smiled tenderly at her before he leaned in to press a kiss to her temple.

“I’ll miss you, sweetheart,” Becky said quietly, and Peggy’s heart broke a little for her friend. Becky had raised Becca, thought of her as her daughter more than she did her actual daughter. It wasn’t easy for Peggy to know she’d miss the birth of Becca’s first—of their first great-grandchild—so it had to be agonising for Becky.

“About that,” Thor began. “If I may… I want to suggest that perhaps, you could accompany us. I’m sure it would mean a great deal to Rebecca to have you there,” he continued, and Peggy surmised from the stunned expression on Becca’s face that Thor’s suggestions was news to her too.

Becky blinked.

“Wouldn’t I be imposing?” she asked in a small, soft voice. “Your father hasn’t exactly been accepting of Becca—would he accept another human on Asgard?”

Thor shrugged. “That is really no concern of mine. He has made too many demands that we have been forced to concede to already. I will not stand for him removing Becca from her family when she needs them most.” His eyes softened, and Peggy was harshly reminded of Daniel, of the way he’d looked at her when she was being unreasonable, of the way he’d gone to bat for her when no one would even give her the time of day.

“Steve’s coming too,” Becca said, although she didn’t take her eyes off Thor. “For a bit.”

Peggy’s gaze swivelled to Steve, who nodded. “I haven’t put down the shield in almost a decade,” he said, and Peggy was fairly certain she wasn’t imagining the way his voice wavered a little. “What better time to take a break than now?” He shrugged and said, “Well, in a few weeks. I’ll have a few things to take care of before I can go too.”

“Just let me know when,” Becky said, startling Peggy a little. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

In a flash, Becca was up and flung her arms around her grandmother, and Peggy smiled lightly. She’d never gotten to have these kinds of moments with her own son—he’d passed away before he’d been able to marry, to have children, and Peggy had been left with no one until Tony was born, and then later Sharon and Becca.

She was glad that she would get to have these moments now, at least.

Becca’s children, Tony’s children, Sharon’s children—if she ever chose to have any—would be her great-grandchildren, and she would love them like they’d been Michael’s.

She leaned her shoulder into Steve’s when he sat beside her, taking her small, wrinkled hand in his.

“Almost feels perfect,” he said quietly, watching Becca and Becky with a very familiar gleam in his eye. “Doesn’t it?” He looked at her and squeezed her hand carefully—so very carefully.

Peggy knew everything he wasn’t saying.

They’d lost Timothy only a few months ago, and Gabe a year before that. Dernier, Morita, Falsworth and Barnes had been gone for so long they felt like distant memories to her, and the others were only a little fresher in her mind than that—although she supposed they were much fresher in Steve’s mind. They were the only ones left of their merry little band, and… she understood what he meant.

They still had family, and it felt almost like home—but nothing ever would without the others.

“Yes,” she agreed, leaning her cheek against his shoulder, taking comfort in his presence. “Almost.”

——————

THE EFFECT OF POPULAR CULTURE ON WARTIME PROPAGANDA: CAPTAIN AMERICA

The character of Captain America was created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon at the instruction of Senator Brandt after Captain Steve Rogers—a soldier without a military rank at that time—received the super serum and successfully survived the procedure. The character that was based on Steve Rogers’ life and journey to become the first and only American super soldier first saw the light on March 10th, 1942 in what would become a monthly collection that ended in July 1949, for after the war people lost interest in these kinds of stories.

[…] Thus we can see the importance that offers this comic as a primary source, as well as being interesting to study the covert propaganda mechanisms. It also shows how people reacted to the horrors of war, especially those who felt that it was something that could happen to themselves, like the creators of Captain America. […] All the same, the collection of Captain America is most suitable for this type of study because we do not just see an imaginary superhero fighting Nazis and preventing them from seizing global control, but we see an American soldier and patriot fighting for his rights and his ideals.

This is something to keep in mind when analysing these comics because, after all, Steve Rogers is a soldier and a real man, rather than another superhero. There is no official report on how Captain Rogers felt about his life being used to create propaganda, although there are several interviews available with members of the Howling Commandos, who all imply with varying degrees of subtlety that the Captain was not a fan of being followed around by cameras during missions.

[…] Captain America has become a classical icon in the American culture over time, paraded about in comic books and films to promote what one can generally classify as “traditional Christian values”. An interesting, if not important, question one must ask themselves here is whether Captain Rogers supported those values himself. What little sources remain documenting the Captain’s life before he received the serum paint a picture that does not always fit with the image propaganda painted.

Rogers was, for example, the only child of a widowed, Irish immigrant mother, sickly and small in stature, and a card-carrying socialist whose arrest record was more impressive than several of today’s most well-known activists’. The only thing from his propaganda Captain Rogers ever openly agreed with was that he valued his new powers because he hadn’t always been this healthy—he used them to fight adversaries, Nazis and villainous HYDRA, to defend his homeland and principles because it was the right thing to do, not because he sought to fight anyone.

[…] also in one of the first issues of the Captain America comics after Captain Rogers’ rescue of the 107th Regiment from Azzano, we are introduced to his inseparable partner, Bucky, who is the mascot of the 107th regiment in the comic books. This character soon became almost as popular as Captain America, because children didn’t have to dream about superheroes anymore—they could be one even when they were as young as Bucky Barnes.

Of course, James Buchanan Barnes, the inspiration for the character, was no child, nor a simple mascot for the 107th Regiment. The decision to make a grown man, who was an accomplished soldier that made the rank of Sergeant before he finished boot camp and was handpicked for extended training as an expert marksman, was almost definitely a carefully considered one.

He was Captain Rogers’ childhood best friend and rumoured to be the reason Captain Rogers’ decided to save the imprisoned soldiers at Azzano. His influence on Captain Rogers, both as a comic book character and as his real-life right-hand man, is undeniable and must be considered in the context of this study. […] little is known how Sergeant Barnes felt about his comic book character, although several of the surviving members of the Howling Commandos have implied that neither Barnes nor Rogers were particularly pleased with their fictive counterparts.

[…] on the pages of this comic, the fears and concerns of the American society at the time, regarding their ideas about the war and the Germans, are reflected.

[…] nevertheless, it should be noted that Captain America was meant to be a figure that brings hope to the society, to bring it together to overcome the crisis. Not only this, with his ideals based on the reform of the New Deal, they could recover it to set a perfect example to try to carry out a new economic change. […] even after Sergeant’s Barnes’ and Captain Rogers’ untimely and tragic demises, the figures of Captain America and Bucky Barnes continued growing, expanding and reaching mythical proportions.

With Captain Rogers’ miraculous recovery and revival, and his subsequent breakdown of everything the public has been fed by propaganda during the last sixty years, the question has arisen of how much of written wartime history is correct, and how much of it is the result of propaganda made real by fictional characters.

[…] perhaps we live in a historic moment in time in which we need to appeal to the fictional characters to find heroes and role models that everyone should and could follow.

—Marina Chorro Giner, “Political Propaganda during WWII: Captain America”, unpublished article on academia.edu about the influence of popular culture as political propaganda during WWII, March 2013

———————

Tony Stark’s Personal Lab, Avengers Tower, Manhattan, New York, United States of America

12:23 A.M., 28 April 2016

Tony

Tony was a few hours into his favorite, semi-hazy mindset, tinkering with one of his newer prototypes—a modified version of the Mark IV suit, possibly designed with specs of every individual Avenger in mind, just in case—grease smeared across his cheek and all over his shirt when the elevator dinged pleasantly, and a heavily pregnant Pepper waddled into his workshop, one hand supporting her belly and the other pressed to her lower back.

Tony dropped his screwdriver and shot to his feet, rushing towards his girlfriend. “Hey Pep,” he said gently, because last week he’d greeted her too loudly and she’d cried for an hour and then yelled at Rhodey for not getting her French fries.

Tony was a genius. He occasionally learned from his mistakes—and the first thing he’d learned during Pepper’s pregnancy was to not aggravate or question the expectant mommy.

“What’re you doing down here?” he added, subtly walking her to the ultra-comfortable couch he’d put in his lab because Pepper—and occasionally Becca, when she got bored and needed to rib someone other than Cap—wandered down here to find him regularly.

“It’s late,” she told him reproachfully. “Rhodey’s not here to cuddle me, so you have to.” She tugged on his hand and frowned at him. “Come to bed with me.”

Usually, Pepper telling him to come to bed did the trick fine—Tony really did have a hard time saying no to her in general, and it was twice as bad now that she was pregnant and he owed her because “she was letting his spawn dance on her bladder for nine months”, and really, he couldn’t argue with that.

Of course, Pepper used that argument on him and Rhodey for everything—ranging from letting her have the last slice of bacon to driving to the grocery store in the middle of the night to get her the good kind of chocolate, because it “just wasn’t the same” if they got it delivered—but that didn’t make it any less effective.

Tony looked longingly over his shoulder at the suit he’d been working on.

Pepper sighed. “Alright. Compromise. Show me what you’re working on first, then bed.”

Tony beamed and led her back to the workbench, plopping down on his seat and gesturing to the suit—that would fit Cap’s dorito-esque proportions perfectly once it was finished—excitedly while he explained the features he’d built into it. Pepper smiled indulgently at him, rubbing her fingers through his loose, curly hair—he hadn’t put any product in it today, and he knew she liked it best that way.

“Steve’ll definitely appreciate it,” she told him when he fell silent.

Tony sighed and leaned forward, resting his forehead against the swell of her stomach, letting his eyes drift shut for a moment. He hadn’t slept in a while, because… because he needed to be sure that everything was ready, was safe by the time the baby—babies—would arrive, and he didn’t have a lot of time left.

Pep was due in five weeks—Becca in thirteen.

Sure, Becca wouldn’t be in the Tower for a while after the baby was born, and she was probably going to be safer on Asgard than anywhere else, but… just in case.

Just in case any of his nightmares turned out to be true.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a dull thump against his forehead. He looked up and blinked at Pepper, who was clearly fighting a smile.

“Was that—” he said, astonished, “Did my own kid just kick me in the head?”

Pepper snorted a laugh and Tony gaped at her. “My kid kicked me,” he repeated, slightly hysterically.

“Kid’s got good sense already,” someone said from behind him, and Tony whirled around on his wheelie chair to find the fucking Widow and her younger, redder shadow crowded in his doorway.

“Well, fuck you too,” Tony blurted, although he winced as Pepper smacked the back of his head for cursing in front of the—unborn—baby.

“We have to talk to you,” Wanda said slowly, accent lightly coloring her words. “We have…” she frowned and looked to Nat with a light frown, “…discovered something. Possibly.”

Pepper huffed a sigh. “You can have him for thirty minutes. No longer,” she said sternly, wagging her finger at the two other women. “It’s late and I need sleep, and I need my favorite teddy bear in my bed—preferably after he’s showered the grease off.”

Widow smirked. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that, Pepper waddled out of the lab, leaving Tony alone with their resident lethally reds. “Okay,” he said. “Well. Whaddya got?”

----------------------------

Poetic Edda – Hovamol – stanza 81 to 89

“Give praise to the day at evening, to a woman on her pyre, to a weapon which is tried, to a maid at wedlock, to ice when it is crossed, to ale that is drunk.

When the gale blows hew wood, in fair winds seek the water, sport with maidens at dusk, for day’s eyes are many; from the ship seek swiftness, from the shield protection, from the sword cuts and from the maiden kisses.

By the fire drink ale, over ice go on skates; buy a steed that is lean and a sword when tarnished.

A man shall trust not the oath of a maid, nor the word a woman speaks, for their hearts on a whirling wheel were fashioned, and fickle their breasts were formed.

In a breaking bow or a burning flame, a ravening wold or a croaking raven, in a grunting boar, a tree with roots broken, in billowy seas or a bubbling kettle, in a flying arrow or falling waters.

In ice new formed or the serpents folds, in a bride’s bed-speech or a broken sword; in the sport of bears or in sons of kings. In a calf that is sick, or a stubborn thrall, a flattering witch or a foe new slain.

In a light, clear sky or a laughing throng, in the bowl of a dog or a harlot’s grief!

In a brother’s slayer, if thou meet him abroad, in a half-burned house, in a horse full swift; one leg hurt and the horse is useless… None had ever such faith as to trust in them all.”

—Predictions of Odin One-Eyed, King of Asgard and the Nine, as quoted by Snorri

--------------------------------

Tony Stark’s Personal Lab, Avengers Tower, Manhattan, New York, United States of America

2 A.M., 28 April 2016

Steve

Steve yawned and rubbed his hand through his undoubtedly messy hair.

He had rolled straight out of bed when J.A.R.V.I.S. had called for him, and the only reason he hadn’t rolled right into the suit was because the A.I. had assured him it wasn’t an Assemble-call. He had, thus, not made a lot of effort, and wandered down to Tony’s lab in his pyjama’s.

His only concession to social convention had been to pull on an incredibly soft t-shirt, and thick, woollen socks that Thor had once gifted him.

“Tony,” he complained as soon as the elevator doors opened, “why am I here? I could be sleeping.”

He stopped short when he caught sight of Natasha and Wanda, both gaping at him with parted lips, Tony standing a little behind them, his hair wild and curly and his expression sheepish.

“You woke him up for this?” Natasha demanded, rounding on Tony with a mighty frown. “I thought we agreed to wait until tomorrow, at least—J.A.R.V.I.S. hasn’t even finished processing all the information!” She gestured towards the large holographic screen angrily, and Steve looked too, unsure of what he was looking at.

“I didn’t agree to anything,” Tony protested. “You said—”

“We don’t know anything!” Natasha bit out harshly, uncharacteristically emotional and expressive.

“He should know!” Tony argued.

Nat opened her mouth to argue back, but Steve had had enough. “Guys!” he yelled, startling them all. “What do I need to know?”

Tony blinked wide-eyed at him. “Uh,” he said. “See. The thing is…” He stopped and looked helplessly at Natasha, who had her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring at him.

“Steve,” Wanda said timidly from where she stood, slightly behind Natasha, her eyes wide and imploring. “I didn’t want to tell you unless I was sure.” She had pulled the sleeves of her long t-shirt down over her hands and was fiddling with the edges nervously. Steve hadn’t seen her look this withdrawn and nervous in… God, he didn’t even know how long, and he didn’t like it.

“Tell me what, kid?” he asked, careful to keep his tone calmer than before.

“We think Hydra might be back,” Tony blurted, before his eyes went wide again and he clapped his own hands over his mouth.

Steve stared at him.

“That’s not funny,” he croaked, his hands curling into fists at the mere idea. “That’s not fucking funny.”

Natasha looked at him, for the first time since she’d turned from him to yell at Tony, and her eyes were so sad, so horribly sad, that it made his skin crawl. He stood stock still as she approached, didn’t move when she laid a hand on his arm, didn’t breathe as she said, softly, “No one’s laughing, Steve.”

“I destroyed them,” he said, a little desperate. “I burned them to the ground, and I salted the earth, I made sure nothing was left.” He didn’t realize how loud he was speaking until the ringing silence that followed the last, shouted word. “I died destroying them,” he whispered. “They’re gone. Tony, you’re—you’re wrong.”

“It wasn’t Tony,” Wanda said quietly, and Steve startled at the sound of her voice.

“What?”

“It wasn’t Tony,” she repeated. “I found them. And we’re not sure, but… we’re as sure as we can be.”

Steve noted, right then, that his breathing was more unsteady than it had been since he’d received the serum. He felt like he was having an asthma attack for the first time in eighty years.

He couldn’t say he’d missed it.

He sat, heavily, in the nearest wheelie chair and stared at his hands—he’d killed, pretty indiscriminately, with these hands, had tried to raze everything even remotely related to Hydra to the ground with these hands—and wondered if everything he’d done, if everything he’d died for…

If it had all been for nothing.

“Tell me,” he finally whispered hoarsely, lifting his gaze from his hands to look at his teammates—his friends. “Tell me everything.”

—————————

E 206th Street, The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States of America

28 April 2016

Brock Rumlow

“Look,” Brock said patiently, slowly, because he knew he was pushing the line here, and that this whole thing could backfire on him very easily. “I’m not saying that I don’t think it’s a good idea, or that I don’t think you could and should do it.” He pushed up from the bed he shared with Sharon and walked over to where she stood, arms crossed over her chest and frowning.

“Shar,” he cajoled, trailing his hands down her upper arms. “I’m so proud of you. And of course, you should absolutely take this amazingopportunity, I’m just…” he shrugged and schooled his face into something semi-hurt. “I just wish I’d been part of the conversation, you know? We’re… I mean,” he sighed. “We’re supposed to be doing all of this together, right? And making huge, career-defining decisions are a part of that, aren’t they?”

He could see Sharon’s anger melting away, replaced by something sheepish—something he had been hoping to incite in her. He was desperately trying to salvage whatever he could from the flaming wreckage that had been his plan to turn Sharon.

In his defence, it had been working—Sharon had been relying on him, mostly, had been talking much more warmly about his fellow S.T.R.I.K.E. agents, who had been vocal about their support of her, while still feeding into the rumours about her supposed misconduct, and Brock had been so close to gently suggesting that maybe they should spend more time with those kinds of people…

With the people that believed her, that didn’t perpetuate a false, twisted version of her, with people like her and Brock—

And then it all got fucked up.

He’d been planning on how to turn Sharon for years, had set everything into motion years ago, had been working it—on her—for the longest time before fucking Rebecca Barnes and her meddlesome band of Avengers had ruined everything.

Fuck those fucking bastards.

And fuck fucking Rebecca Barnes for giving Sharon options.

For getting her away from S.H.I.E.L.D. and from Brock’s direct influence and fuck her for doing it so smoothly and sneakily and fucking publicly that he hadn’t been able to do anything but nod along.

All he could do now was try to pick up whatever pieces were left and try to formulate something new, something equally good or better, something that would get Pierce to listen to him, to acknowledge him and to recognise the work he did for the betterment of Hydra.

“You’re right,” Sharon sighed, arms falling to her side as she leaned back against their dresser. “You’re right, I’m sorry, I should’ve talked about it with you. I just…” she threw her hands up in exasperation and shook her head. “I was so excited, so thrilled by the idea of getting away from it all that I just…” she hesitated. “I just didn’t think about it and said yes.”

Brock lifted a hand to stroke his fingers through her thick, blonde hair as he must’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of times before in the past five years, and heaved a sigh.

Really, he might have grown to like Sharon more, over time, if she’d let him turn her.

She was fucking smart, and if he hadn’t been quite so good an actor, she’d have seen through him years ago, and it didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes either.

Not to mention that the sex was fantastic.

It really was too bad she was so independent and opinionated.

So mouthy.

He could’ve put up with her overbearing aunt and Rogers and Barnes if she’d just been a little more… a little more docile, a little more receptive to his needs.

If she would’ve let him turn her to Hydra, rather than take the first opportunity that led away from him with both hands, not even bothering to look back.

Some fiancée she was.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, before she leaned in and kissed him.

He kissed back automatically, without thinking much about it—it’d become a reflex, after all this time—trying to consider what he was going to do now. What use did he have for Sharon now that it had become glaringly obvious that he was never going to be able to turn her unless he would entirely rewrite her memory, like they’d done to the Soldier.

Unlike the Soldier though, Sharon would likely not survive the procedure.

Barnes, however… much as she aggravated him just by existing, Barnes had the exact potential that Sharon now lacked.

He needed access to Barnes, to the Avengers and their plans—

Brock broke the kiss abruptly, leaning back far enough to see Sharon’s quizzical expression.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, forehead creasing into a frown.

“Nothing,” he shrugged, eyeing her carefully, fingers tightening in her hair. “Sorry babe. This ain’t personal.” He abruptly tightened his hand into a fist and yanked, smashing Sharon’s head against the dresser as hard as he could. She gave a yelp that abruptly cut off when she hit the hardwood surface, and dropped like a sack of bricks when he let go off her, falling to the floor of their bedroom in an inelegant heap.

Brock eyed her prone body.

Well. That was step one.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and shot a quick text to Jack Rollins.

Time to implement step two and work out the rest of the plan.

HYDRA had sat back and watched Barnes and the Avengers mess up their plans for too long. It was high time to remind Barnes of her place in the world—not a future princess of fucking Asgard, but a future Soldier of Hydra.

—————————

Start from the beginning:

In Hell We Stand By You:

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Never Feel Alone:

(1) (2)

Decisions: (1)

Dancing with a Limp:

(1) (2)

Chances:

(1)

Starting Over:

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Dancing in the Rain:

(1)

Or read it HERE on AO3 :D Find the next chapter HERE on Tumblr :)

#IHWSBY sequel #dancing in the rain #ditr #Stucky fanfiction #stucky #Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #Thor #Rebecca Barnes #my writing #Lisa writes

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sunbird-tells-stories · 5 years ago

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What are your headcanons for Omi, Clay, and Raimundo in reference to MW? If you don't get the chance to fit everything into your story, would you consider writing one-shots to go along with it? What was your inspiration for writing MW, aside from wanting a Jack Spicer redemption? What's your writing process? How long have you been writing? Are there other fandoms you're into besides XS?

This is going to get LONG and I don’t want to split it up because internet is bad here so apologies In advance but here we go:

What are your headcanons for Omi, Clay, and Raimundo in reference to MW?

I’ll start writing them and posting them as soon as I finish answering this one. It might take a bit, but you’ll see them up in a few hours or so.

Believe it or not those headcanons help me a lot when it comes to figuring out characters. So thanks for asking! I appreciate it.

If you don't get the chance to fit everything into your story, would you consider writing one-shots to go along with it?

Hell. Yes.

There is SO much I want to do. I want to write about how each Dragon found their element. I want to write ALL OF THE SHIP FUEL for Jack x Jermaine x Timber. I want to write about them having little mini episodic breather adventures in lots of different countries and cities, I’m talking Mumbai, St Petersburg, Venice, Paris, Capetown, Aguascalientes, Melbourne, everywhere! And maybe run ins with villains, for no reason. I want to write about them teaching each other about their strengths, like Jack explaining science to Jermaine and Timber or Timber teaching them two city boys how to fish and forage for food.

Also more moments of Jermaine reigning these two natural disasters in and teaching them how to be actual people. Because that’s always fun.

I want to write little moments between characters in Team Xiaolin during their quest to track down Team Spicer and I want to write moments between Seon Yeong, Rai and Kim as a trio. I want to write post-MW! Fics between characters and how they learn and grow after the events of the story - especially Kimiko and Timber as total opposites and the only two girls on the team. And I really want to write a ‘beach episode’ where Jack, Jermaine and Timber just end up warping to a tropical area and just have fun for once.

I want to write solo fics about Jack and Jermaine and their personal struggles as they grow up with their own troubles prior to MW!

And a part of me really, really wants to start posting a mini fic about Timber’s life in Silent Harbor, to show her slow, sad descent into the troubled teen she has now become and as a build up to the events of Chapter 6 of MW! where she runs into Jack for the first time. It would be SO spoiler-y though.

There’s a lot that might not fit in MW! And I would definitely write a bunch of mini stories. I don’t know who would be interested in reading all of that, but I might do it just to brainstorm ideas and explore character interactions.

What was your inspiration for writing MW, aside from wanting a Jack Spicer redemption?

I’ve been wanting to tell a XS story since I was a kid! This show was my everything! The characters were my everything. And even now it holds a special place in my heart. So the drive to write something for this fandom has always been there.

As for MW! itself....I’ve always had a fondness for Jack Spicer. I’ve always wanted him to find some semblance of happiness and have someone there so he’s not alone. And a long time ago, that someone became Timber.

But Timber wasn’t who she is today. She was Latina, and Californian, and a bubbly pink ray of sunshine and positivity. And Jack had a crush on her and she was his bestie and she was essentially an overly competent sidekick for him and then Clay had a crush on her and she was the Dragon Of Wood and Jack was the Dragon Of Metal and he was going to sell his soul to the Heylin side to finally earn Chase’s approval and she was gonna save him from himself...well, you get the picture. And I liked her a lot, and I still miss that version of her sometimes, but...she wasn’t interesting enough. And there wasn’t really a story there. At least not much of one. What was there could have been interesting on its own, but it was pretty self indulgent and I don’t think anyone besides me would have enjoyed reading it. And that’s no fun.

Then I had the idea to somehow bind Timber, an innocent civilian girl, to Jack through magic by having her make the idiotic mistake of betting herself in a Showdown with him over a Wu that was hers and then lose, and then essentially being dragged along on all of his adventures and slowly becoming friends with him while hilarity ensues. Then I had the idea to make a game breaking Wu that just...caused trouble. And the story then became about Jack accidentally dragging a civilian girl along on a warpy portally adventure with that Wu and run into all these villains as they become friends.

But when I did this, it didn’t feel balanced. I had someone on the Heylin side and I had someone who was Neutral. So then I needed someone as a buffer between Jack and Timber so they didn’t kill each other and to represent the side of Good aka someone who was Xiaolin.

And then Jermaine came along!

And as I developed the story more, I realized I wanted to tell something serious, and have all the characters grow and play off of each other and talk about the XS universe and answer questions and give everyone this big, long journey and great trial and give Jack actual character development and actual friends/love interests and have someone from Chinese Mythology be the Xiaolin’s ultimate adversary and Jack’s final test of character. And along the way, MW! was born.

And I’m really grateful for that.

What's your writing process?

Usually first I write up a few ideas of what I want to happen, like the general flow of the chapter. Then I make a chronological skeleton of dialogue, and I tweak it until I’m satisfied. Then I write the rest of the stuff like actions and descriptions.

One of my flaws is being redundant. Another is being overly wordy. So after I write it all out, I try to trim it down and tweak it as best as I can until these flaws are no more (I sometimes skip stuff) and then I just play around with the chapter until it feels right. It has to strike an emotional chord with me and get me excited to write it before I publish it. If I don’t feel that spark, it doesn’t go up.

I had a few people in the fandom volunteer to be beta readers, but my chapters are so long...so right now it’s just a couple of my closest friends who are looking at it, the main one being my friend CVD, who also wants to be a writer. She’s got a good eye for what does and doesn’t belong and I’m forever thankful. My other two, Trinket and Papillion, look over it and help let me know how they feel about things so they’re also a big help. So shoutout to you guys!

And then after all that noise, my stuff goes up.

However, my older chapters could use one final spellcheck and revision so I’ll eventually go back and polish those up a bit. Typos man. Typos....

A lot of times I’ll also take breaks to do some research and find inspiration music. Honestly there are days where I can’t figure a character or a scene out until I find JUST the right song for inspiration. And since a lot of characters in my fic are from a different country and cultural background than mine, I’ll do plenty of research to try to stay true to who they are. I’m doing a lot of research on the Bedouin tribe and its history and looking for a lot of pretty Middle Eastern music right now, for example. YouTube is a great resource for these things! Bless the internet!

How long have you been writing?

Since forever! I’ve always been making up stories in my head! And they’d get elaborate too! I’ve built so many worlds and characters just by playing around as a little kid, I can’t even begin where to start talking about them all. As I grew, I started to write them down and now I want to get serious about it! Besides Monkey Wrench!, I want to write a fanfic for the Ducktales 2017 fandom and the Black Butler fandom, and I have two original novel ideas I want to write out and get published. It’s my dream to make stories that other people love and that inspire others to learn, write, make stuff and have adventures and stuff. Literally my dream is to make stories that get a buttload Of fanart and cosplays and fanfic and just...move the world for the better somehow. That is my highest goal rn. Being a published and famous author.

Are there other fandoms you're into besides XS?

Hell yeah! Although I do tend to have periods where I hyper fixate on one at a time. Besides Xiaolin Showdown, I also like Gravity Falls, Storm Hawks, Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces Of Evil, and Ducktales 2017. There were a lot more in the past, such as Teen Titans, King Falls AM, The Boondocks, and Samurai Champloo, but I haven’t been very active in those fandoms as of late.

I really need to get into Tangled: The Series, OK KO, Victor and Valentino, and Craig Of the Creek. They all look phenomenal, I just don’t have time to get into them all yet.

#xiaolin showdown fanfiction #xiaolin showdown monkey wrench #monkey wrench!#xs monkey wrench #xiaolin showdown monkey wrench!#sunbird answers #nneefa #thank you so much #seriously i needed an ask that traffic was awful!!!#and as always thank you for reading!#monkey wrench! spoilers #jack spicer #xiaolin showdown oc #jack spicer xiaolin showdown #xiaolin showdown jack spicer #jermaine xiaolin showdown #xiaolin showdown jermaine #timber wilde #xiaolin showdown timber

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reallyautomaticvoid · 5 years ago

Text

Calling It: Good Intentions: Chapter 7: It’s a Terrible Plan

Sorry for the late update! Work got crazy and then I went through a bout of writer's block (so much fun >.<).

But, hopefully, that’s all done now! And as an apology for the longer than expected wait, I made the chapter longer than originally planned.

And now I will be on more a regular writing schedule.

Hopefully.

Anyways, Enjoy!

* * *

With the help of the Titans, Tim spent the week constructing a list of excuses for the Bats.

Tim’s favorites (at Con suggestion) is, “Why, no, Dick, Tim isn’t around ‘cause Ra’s is trying to sell him a timeshare at Nanda Parbat. I think he might take it; it’s a pretty good deal.”

Tim laughed so hard he knock over the stack of shipment logs he’d been going through. Tim didn’t want all of the Bats in a hundred-mile radius to come raining down on him (or to know how close to true that is) it had gone in the funny but no pile.

Drumming his thumbs on his desk, Tim watches BB through his monitor getting ready to call Dick to tell him the good news. With most of the Titans gathered around him, Tim had hacked into the main feed so that they could see the conversation between Gar and Dick unfold.

Picking up a sock, Bart crinkles his nose. “Dude, do you ever do your laundry?”

Tim arches an eyebrow at him. “You were there for my last annual pilgrimage to the laundromat.”

“That’s a horrifying sentence; from start to finish.”

Before Tim could respond, Gar’s voice crackles from the speakers. “Ready?”

Tim presses the intercom button. “Ready as we’ll ever be.”

“You sure you want to do this, Tim?” BB eyes sparkle through the computer.

Tim ignores the question.

They’d talked about this.

And Tim’s fine with it.

“Remember, we’ll be watching.”

Gar laughs. “Shyeah, ‘cause that won’t be creepy.”

Tim nods because, point, before pressing the intercom off.

Two rings later, Tim could hear Dick’s voice.

“Gar, how’s it hanging, bro?”

Tim pays no attention to the stab of jealousy threatening to overtake him at Dick’s friendly greeting.

Moving forward, remember?

Instead, he focused on what Dick was doing. It looked like Dick had been in the middle of looking through old case files.

Gar leans back in his chair. “Not bad, man. How are you doing?”

“Fine.” Dick shuffles some papers off the desk and into a folder with a vague smile.

Tim sucks on his teeth.

Tim knows that move.

Tim taught Dick that move.

What doesn’t Dick want BB to see?

“We’ve been working our way through some of Tim’s old files.”

Well, shit.

That could be anything.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tim sees Conner shooting him a concerned look.

Tim puts on his best Wayne Enterprises CEO blank face.

Conner rolls his eyes in an I know what shit you’re trying to pull. Knock it off asshole kinda way.

Tim grimaces.

Dick, however, keeps talking.

“But it’s hard. Most of the files on the Batcomputer are months old at this point. So, most of the info in it is outdated.” Dick sighs, ruffling his hair. It’s something Tim recognizes from his days of being Robin.

Something Dick only does when he’s frustrated with a case.

“Bab’s has been trying to trace his com unit, but she can’t find any. I don’t have to tell you how pissed off that makes her.”

Tilting his head, Tim squints at the screen.

There’s almost a look of…pride? on Dick’s face while Dick was saying that?

That couldn’t be right.

Babs couldn’t find the GPS on the com because Tim disconnected it over a year ago.

Why would Dick be proud of something Barbara’s failing at?

“But you don’t need to hear about that shit; why’d you call?”

“Well, funny story, it’s actually about Tim.” Dick’s body snaps to attention. Dick moves his chair so close to the computer’s camera, Tim couldn’t see the room anymore.

“Is he okay?” The urgency in Dick’s voice makes Tim’s stomach drop.

Okay, what the fuck is Dick doing? Outside of tech support, I hadn’t been important to the Bats for fucking years . What the actual fuck?

Tim feels a warm hand squeeze his shoulder. Glancing up, Tim sees Conner giving him the: we can call this off if you want look. Half smiling, Tim shakes his head.

“Tim’s fine,” BB assures Dick, eyes darting up towards Tim’s room. “At least, he was the last time I saw him. No, I’m calling because the team and I had a vote.”

Dick stares at Gar blankly before comprehension dawns across his face.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“How’d that go?” Dick winces just like he always does right before he doesn’t dodge and gets hit in the face.

“Well, it was close but we did agree to give you occasional updates on Tim. On a trial basis, of course.”

Dick’s face looks like it was about to split into two from his smile.

Tim’s eyebrows narrow.

Okay, not the reaction Tim was expecting. Sure, he wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he was expecting (disgust, disappointment) but…not that.

“You can call and somebody will give you an update but,” Gar hesitates.

Shit. What went wrong?

Gar had said what the team had agreed to tell Dick.

Was he getting cold feet?

Shit.

It's a big ask, to fuck with friends like this.

Gar had agreed to do this though (even telling Tim in private he supported this plan one hundred percent).

Still though…

“But, Dick, it was a close vote. Not all of the Team is very happy about this…arrangement, man. Not all of them agree that this is the right thing to do. So, if someone doesn’t want to tell you anything, I wouldn’t push.”

Dick stares for a long moment, calculating, before nodding.

“Okay. I’ll try not to step on any toes.” Dick slowly nodding before smiling. “So, how’s Tim?”

Tim feels his brow furrow. The way Dick asked that question…what the fuck? It’s like Dick had been waiting years to ask it but had been too afraid.

Tim shakes his head.

Why would Dick care how he was doing?

Gar shrugs. “He’s fine. He and Bart went to get some comics. We didn’t want him to walk in while we were having this conversation.”

Dick looks like there were another hundred question he wanted to ask.

“So, is there anything new in his life I should know about?”

Gar takes a moment before answering. “Well,” he starts slowly, “we were attacked by H.I.V.E. the other week. Red Robin was capturing for a few hours before we got him back.”

“What?” Dick jumps up like he’s about to hop a plane to San Francisco. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Gar raises an eyebrow. “Because it was before you called.” Dick flinches. “And besides, man, Red was fine. I haven’t heard him screaming ‘cause of the nightmares in a few days now.”

If Dick looked ready to hop a plane a minute ago, it was nothing compared to now. “He’s having nightmares? I’m on my way right now to—”

“To do what? Cuddle? Dude, he’s not going to let you into the Tower, let alone his room to cuddle. Don’t you know how to play it cool? That’s how I got Rae, man.”

Tim glances over to Raven whose lips had become a fine line.

Dick rolls his eyes. “Dude, you followed her around like a lost puppy for months before she gave you the time of day.”

“Not cool, man. You’re supposed to agree with me.”

“Even if you’re telling an out and out lie?”

“Especially then.” Both Dick and Gar laugh. Gar sobered up first. “Besides, I think he’s supposed to be back in Gotham at the end of the week. Tam’s pissed at him for skipping out on some of his meeting from his last visit. She made him promise that he’d be back sooner rather than later.”

Shit, Tim’s not comfortable with the way Dick’s eye’s lit up at the mention of Tam. It’s the same way they’d light up for Tim when Tim gave Dick an idea for pranking Bruce.

BB, however, doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, he keeps barreling on. “So, if you play your cards right, you should be able to see him in just a few days. Okay, dude?”

“Gotcha.” Dick’s eyes are still dancing.

There’s a delightful new gnawing sensation in Tim’s gut.

Fantastic.

* * *

“I have an idea,” Dick announces as he enters the Batcave. Bruce doesn’t look up from the project he’s working on at his workbench. Jason doesn’t stop his before patrol warm-ups.

Jason calls over to Bruce. “Ya better call the papers, B. Dick had an idea. Ya know how rare they are.”

Dick rolls his eyes. Brothers. “Yes, yes, your hilarious, Jason. No, I had an idea about getting Tim back.”

Bruce put down the piece of something he’s trying to resemble and stares at Dick.

Bruce’s stare isn’t anything compared to Batman’s stare but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. Dick knows that something had been bothering Bruce since he had talked to Selina. The Bruce’s Brood (patent pending) is stronger than normal.

Dick eyes Bruce for a second before continuing on. “I called Gar last week to ask him for a favor. Asked him if he could give me any info on Tim.”

Jason stops mid pushup to stare at Dick. “Bet he fuckin’ loved that.”

“No, he was partially happy with that idea,” No, Dick, we aren’t going to spy on our teammate for you flashes in Dick’s mind before he shoves it aside. “But he did say he’d take it to the rest of the team for a vote. That was about a week ago. Well, I just got a call from Gar. The Titans are on board.”

Jason’s jaw drops before he hops up and grabs a water bottle. Leaning against Bruce’s workbench, he says, “ya honestly think they’re gonna fuckin’ tell you what’s goin’ on?”

“Gar said they would,” Dick insists. “And it’s a place to start. But, we’re getting off track. No, Gar said that Tim was going to be back in Gotham at the end of the week for WE stuff. So I was thinking, we need a way to get Tim to believe us when we say that we want him back, right? Well, he’s got to be here in order for us to do anything so—”

“What? Ya wanna ambush ‘em at WE? That’s a fuckin’ terrible idea. Remember what happened the last time ya did that?”

I’m not your Brother Dick.

Dick flinches at the memory before pushing it aside. They were going to have plenty of time to…correct Tim’s thoughts of whether or not he is or is not Dick’s family.

“No, that’s not what I’m thinking. If Tim Drake is at WE that means that Red Robin will be patrolling. If we can have his back when he’s patrolling, he might start to trust us again. And isn’t that the goal?”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Ya think that if we hang out with ‘em for a couple of nights that he’ll want to kiss n’ make up? You're dreaming.”

Dick counts to ten before exhale. “It’s a place to start.”

“Agreed.” Bruce’s voice finally cuts in. Both Jason and Dick whip around to stare at him. “Tim…Tim needs proof before he’ll believe. Believe in us again.” Bruce pauses before shaking his head. “The only way to get him to come back into the family is if he believes in us again but if we put too much pressure on him, he’ll run.”

“Like he did ta ya last week?” Dick elbows Jason who doesn’t notice.

Bruce grimaces. “Yes, well, Batman may have come on a little strong last week.”

“Little?” Jason smirks.

“Enough Todd.” Damian emerges from the shower toweling off his hair. “Father, Grayson, if you really want Drake back in line, which I’m still unclear as to why—”

“He’s family,” Dick’s exasperated at this point. Sometimes his family was clueless. “He’s fucking family and we fucking let him fall. We failed him.” Dick glares at Bruce. “Did you know that Tim was on life support?”

Bruce’s stony face is answer enough. Damian’s smirk falters while Jason clenches his fists.

“Yeah, didn’t think so. Gar and Rave apparently called me and I missed the fucking call.” Dick runs his fingers through his hair. “We need to get him back. Tim isn’t going to come back to town for us,” Dick ignores the way his stomach clenches when he says this, “but he will come back for work. Let’s use that. Right now, he’s only in town a few days a month. At most.”

“Yes. I would say work would be the only thing that Drake would come back for.”

Damian’s sneer was firmly back in place. Dick didn’t miss that Damian’s hands were slightly shaking. Maybe he cares a bit more then he’s been letting on.

“So we’ll use that. And when he’s here, we’ll try and get him to, I don’t know, catch a movie with us, go on patrol, get him to have a goddamn conversation with us, something. Then, we’ll try and ease him back into the family.”

“Tt. That’s a dreadful plan, Grayson.”

“Do you have a better one?” Dick snaps. None of the other Bats move. “Great. Then this is the plan we’re going with.”

* * *

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Tim.” Cassie flips through her magazine. “Trying to trick Batman is a terrible idea.”

Tim’s due to back in Gotham later this afternoon. He had been having this argument for the last half an hour. “I know, Cass, you’ve made it clear that you don’t like what I’m doing. You don’t have to help if you don’t want to.” Tim straightens his tie. “Besides, Tam will kill me if I don’t go to Gotham today. Seriously,” he answers Cassie’s skeptical look, “I don’t think that Con could stop her.”

“Oh, I’m not crossing Tam, even for you, man,” Con claps Tim on the shoulder. “She scares the crap out of me. And, she doesn’t even need Kryptonite to do it.”

Cass waves her magazine at Tim. “You know Vicki Vale says your having a secret affair with Tam again, right?”

Conner snorts, “are they engaged again?”

“Not yet,” Cass skims the article, “apparently Bruce doesn’t approve.”

Tim sighs as he swings his duffle bag onto his shoulders. “Can’t wait to field those questions. Time to go.”

Giving Tim a critical look, Cassie finally put down her magazine. “You sound like your going to your death.”

Tim grimaces, “worse. I’m going to a city full of Bats who know I’m coming.”

“Don’t worry, man. It’ll be fun,” Tim gives Conner a look who just shrugs. “Or it’ll be terrible, in which case, you call me and I’ll get you out of there. Win, win.”

Open mouthed, Tim stares at Con while Cassie shakes her head. “We need to work on your pep talks, Sweetie.”

A few hours later (thank you, repurposed Batplane), Tim’s punching his code to his apartment.

After Batman visit, Tim took all the bugs that Batman had planted and sent them back with a note saying better luck next time.

There hadn’t been a response.

Admittedly, the fruit basket mighta been too much.

Of course, that didn’t mean while Tim was at the Tower that Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood or even Robin (though, probably not Robin because all of his belonging were still intact) coulda come through again and planted more.

Even though Tim’s confident his security system would have alerted him to an intruder, he still put on a little show because, well, Bats.

Sighing, Tim enters his apartment, dumping his briefcase and duffle onto the couch while scanning the room.

Nothing yet.

Turning towards the hallway, Tim traces the wall with the tips of his figures, scanning all the while. There wasn’t anything in the bathroom (and thank Gods, that’s one conversation he was glad not to have), his bedroom, living room, guest room, kitchen, or really, any room he searched.

Shanking his head, Tim opens the fridge. Fuck, sometimes, I’m just as fucking paranoid as Bruce.

From the table, Tim hears the sound of his phone vibrating. Closing the fridge, Tim sees Babs’ smiling face flashing from the screen.

Fuck.

Leave it to Oracle to know when I’m back in Gotham.

Before he could lose his nerve, Tim presses the speakerphone button.

“Hey, Babs, what can I do for you?”

“Well,” her tone is light, teasing, “you could give me half the Drake fortune and become my personal Tech guru.”

Tim rolls his eyes. “Is that all?”

Barbara laughs. “It is. But more realistically, you could have dinner with me tonight.”

Tim stops mid-search. “I don’t know, Babs.”

“How much food do you have in your fridge right now? And remember, I know when you’re lying to me.”

Sure. Tim gives the offending fridge a dark look.

“I have this new magical thing. It’s called a credit card. And I can buy things with it. Like food.”

“Great,” Babs matches Tim’s sarcastic tone. “You can use this new mystical item to get me dinner too. And I’m craving a sub from that deli down the street from you.”

Tim resists the urge to slam his head against a wall. “They deliver.”

Babs clicks her tongue. “It’s not the same, Tim.”

Tim sinks down into a chair next to the table. “Babs, I just got to Gotham. I haven't even unpacked yet. Rain check?”

“Tim, we both know you’re not going to unpack. Come on, just an hour. If I hear Jason tell me you ‘hit it with a hammer and light it on fire’ one more time, I’m going to do that to him.”

Tim pinches the bridge of his nose. All he wanted to do tonight was veg out.

Especially since tomorrow is (probably) going to be shit.

However, he knew losing battle when he saw one.

“Fine, give me an hour. I’ll bring food over to the Clocktower.”

“You’re the best, Tim!” With that, Barbara hung up.

Tim gets up to take a shower before going over to the Clocktower (ignoring the growing gnawing feeling in his gut).

It’s been there since BB called Dick, it’s not going to magically go away just because you want it to. Suck it up, Drake.

Tim shakes his head, changing into Tim Drake clothes. He pulls on blue jeans, one of his favorite shirts with an empty coffee cup equals dead battery on it, a pair of converse that were practically falling apart, and an oversized hoodie which he pulls over his head.

All and all, he felt more like himself then he had in a very long time.

Tim shoved the gnawing feeling in his gut out of his head again. All he was going to do was go, have dinner with Barbara, go on patrol then bed. A few hellish days at WE and he could escape back to the Tower.

Smiling, Tim goes down to his garage that housed everything from Tim Drake’s skateboard to Tim Wayne’s shiny new Jag to Red Robin’s newest (to Gotham) bike. Tim grabs the keys to one of his daytime civilian cars.

Unlocked the Jetta, Tim slides inside. The outside might look shit but the inside was still in good shape. The car had been one of the first things that Tim had bought when he had first moved out of the Manner. At the time, Tim had wanted a car to get from point A to point B without hassle.

And here's the winner, all these years later, still chugging along, much to Tim’s surprise.

Jiggling the key in the ignition, Tim manages to get the car to whine to life. Grinning, Tim pulls out of his garage and into traffic.

* * *

Thanks for reading!

#Calling it #chapter 7 #fanfiction #Tim Drake #garfield logan #conner kent #bart allen #dick grayson #raven (DCU)#cassie sandsmark #Jason Todd #bruce wayne #Damian Wayne #barbara gordon

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troominmoll · 6 years ago

Note

"i feel like being bitter and listing off all the things that the 90s show changed about the original stories" as a relative newcomer to moomin-related stuff, i'm curious... what *did* the 90s show change??

*rubs hands because I love being insufferable*

(Minor disclaimer that this is mostly done in good nature. I understand almost every show that is adapted from existing content is gonna change stuff to suit their story-telling needs. But I am annoyed that some who praise the 90s anime think the new series is bad simply for doing things differently when that show, and nearly every one prior to it, has also put their own spin on things.)

There are 24 episodes of Tanoshii Moomin Ikka (plus a movie) based on the books by Tove Jansson, and I think 11 based on the comic strips she wrote. It would take a long time to cover every single detail in every single episode, so I am mainly going to discuss those that have changes I find more significant, disappointing, personally distressing, or just plain baffling.

(A second disclaimer: I have not read any entire comic stories past the point where Tove stopped working on them. There are some episodes based on strips created exclusively by her brother Lars, The Vampire and Artists in Moominvalley being two examples. I will be skipping those, as well as Bouken Nikki episodes, as I have yet to thoroughly watch each one on account of so few being based on Tove’s work and the headaches they induce lmao. Nitpicks from fans who have read Lars’ strips in full are welcome.)

Now without further ado, let the fussing begin~

01 Spring in Moominvalley: This follows the basic storyline from the first two chapters of Finn Family, but with some notable changes. Snufkin at this point woke up from hibernation along with the rest of the family, Little My had yet to be introduced, and Snork - a child like the rest of the main cast - lived with his sister and the rest of the kids in the Moominhouse. The entire subplot of him being an inventor is merely an invention of the anime.

Moomintroll, in the book, spends a lot more time in transformed body. As he believes his friends are playing a new game when they fail to recognize him, he makes up a story about being “The King of California”. He repeatedly pretends to insult Moomin (himself), and in a touching display of devotion his own friends beat him up to defend his honour.

02 The Magic Hat: Continuing on with a scene based on the later half of chapter 2, we see Moomin rescue Snorkmaiden from the Ant Lion, and along with Snufkin, decide to trap him in the magical hat. In the original story however, Moomin and Snork trap the him. This was rather unprovoked, though Moomin cites a moment from a previous book (read all about it in The Moomins and the Great Flood!) where the Ant Lion allegedly kicked sand in Mamma’s eyes. The gang then takes the hat back inside for more “experiments”, and after making a mess, the adults decide it best to dispose of the hat in the river.

Much like in the story, the hat is soon recovered by Moomin and Snufkin, though a chapter where they hide it in a cave and and end up frightening the Muskrat (who uses it as a shelf for his dentures) is absent. It then continues to the scene where Moominhouse is briefly overgrown with plants. Aside from this happening sooner than it did in the book, and the premature appearance of the Hobgoblin, and the missing Mameluke hunt, and the part where all the children play in the jungle, I think it’s pretty true to that chapter!

03 Discovery of a Wrecked Ship: First off, I wanna say I’m mostly including this episode on my list just to make it clear that Snufkin’s random sexist comments towards Snorkmaiden and Little My are missing from the book. There is a chapter where him and Moomin go ambling up some rocks, but “the girls” are thankfully absent from this scene.

So then they discover an abandoned boat and the rest of the episode is padded with scenes where they repair it. A charming spectacle, I’m sure, but also absent from the book as the boat they find is already in pristine condition. Shame that Snufkin never got to share his idea for the ship’s name, (it was Lurking Wolf aha ha ha) but that might be for the best.

07 The Suitcase: As seen in episode 06, Thingumy and Bob arrived in Moominvalley. They bring with them stolen goods and and the mother of Grimace, who seeks to recover said goods. Snufkin, once again letting everyone down, decides that a gentle female should speak to them about the contents of their suitcase and soon Snorkmaiden is assigned to the task. Instead the book features a trial sequence, which really helps hammer in the metaphor. Everyone takes part and Sniff acts as prosecutor of behalf of the Groke, who appears and is willing to trade the treasure in exchange for the magical top hat (NOT a pretty scallop).

08 The Hobgoblin’s Magic: Moomin hears that his wondrous wooden woman has washed up on the shores of Moominvalley. But when he rushes to the beach, he finds nothing but sand and disappointment waiting for him. This sends him spiraling into a brief yet no less deep depression which is cured only when Thingumy and Bob share their contents of their secret suitcase. The novel was much more reasonable however. He was saddened by the loss of Snufkin who had skipped the valley for the first time, promising (as we all know) to return on the first day of Spring.

And then there is a fabulous summer party thrown by the family after the recovery of Moominmamma’s handbag. This part is true to the story, at the very least. But the party in the book is much more fantastical, with dancing, music (from America of all places), punch served in darling sea shells, and everyone - right down to the tiniest forest critter - is invited, and gets to make a wish when the magic man arrives.

09 An Invisible Friend / 10 The Invisible Child: I wouldn’t say that these episodes, featuring the famous character from Tales of Moominvalley, have any life-ruining changes from the original story. But since no episode is complete without a bit of drama, or a pointless cameo from Snufkin, a scene where Stinky traps Ninny with the intention of having her assist in his robberies has been written in. And Little My’s comment regarding the aunt in the English dub, where she states “I hope you told her she hurt Ninny’s feelings!” seems uncharacteristically gentle in comparison to her asking if Too-Ticky “bashed her head in”.

13 The Last Dragon on Earth: As mentioned in the entry above, some episodes will include new subplots or elements for the sake of drama and action. This episode is another example of that, but otherwise it has only minor tweaks. Snufkin states that “the cards” have told him he should leave Moominvalley early if he catches x number of such-and-such a fish, but that storyline is exclusive to this show.

14 Our Neighbor is a Touch Teacher: This episode is based on snippets of the comic strip “Moominmamma’s Maid”, but scraps the storyline containing the titular character from the strip, which is nearly all of it. Instead, it is entirely focused on the Moomin’s new neighbor, Mrs Fillyjonk, a strict and uptight mother of three.

After the Moomin’s welcome party leaves Mrs Fillyjonk fearing for her life, she forbids her children from playing with the Moomin brood. They sneak away anyway. A bunch of death defying stunts happen, courtesy of Stinky. Mrs Fillyjonk plans to leave the valley, but the kids have none of that. This is almost an original story, save for the existence of a party.

16 A Close Encounter with Aliens: Once again we have an episode based on the comics. It follows the basic plotline of the Moomins caring for a stranded Martian child. But a lot of wackiness was cut for time, including invisible Moomins pranking valley residents, a flying fire brigade, and Moomin shrinking down with Mamma, who later bites a Fillyjonk child. Time used for an inserted chase scene with Stinky (one of many across the tv series) feels could’ve been better spent on some of the fun stuff mentioned in my previous sentence.

17 A Change of Air: And yet another comic-based episode, this one taken from “Moomin and Family Life”, which happens to be my personal favourite comic so this analysis may sound bitterer than others. The episode cuts the beginning of the strip, where we see a lonely parent-less Moomin contemplate suicide before being reunited with his long lost Moominmamma and Moominpappa. The comic is a completely different entity from the books and adjustments must be made, so this decision is understandable. But the following choice? Less so.

The episode instead starts with Pappa complaining that nothing exciting ever happens, and I won’t remind him of the events from episode 16 because everyone brings that up. Stinky overhears plans of doing something to entertain him, and during the night makes a set of giant footprints leading to the sea. Whereas in the comic strip, the “giant” prints are innocently left by Snufkin who was wearing boot too big for he gotdamn feet. He nearly perishes for this grave mistake.

Strips where Moominmamma and Moominpappa hang out in a cave, Moomin sheds a few tears tears, and Snufkin offers some half hearted words of comfort provide a basis for following scenes in the episode. But antics with Moomin and friends trying to foil Aunt Jane, who angrily travelled to the Moominhouse after being pranked by Pappa, are sadly missing.

24 Hurry Up Snufkin: The part where Snufkin meets and later names the forest creature Teetywoo, is based on the short story “The Spring Tune”. There are many potential gripes one can have about such a brief scene.

A lot of the dialogue between the two characters reflects what is said in the short story, but what the episode sorely lacks are Snufkin’s feelings. Gone are his shouts and snaps, his grumpiness about being disturbed, his regret when he lashes out, his desperation to find Teetywoo again. His famous line “I’ll come when it suits me” is “cried violently”, making me wonder how it ever became an inspirational quote (oh wait I know). In favour of portraying Snufkin as cool and chill, the anime sometimes ends up making him look more like an emotionless bump on a log.

The plotline of Snufkin being late to return because he is trying to compose a new song has been cut, on account of either his lack of talent or lack of music budgeting.

25 The Lighthouse / 26 The Day the Lighthouse Lit Up: These episodes actually combine elements of two different stories: the comic strip “Moomin and the Sea”, and the similarly titled novel “Moominpappa at Sea”. Lacking most of the typical shenanigans from the strips, or bleak themes from the book, these episodes feel more like a slightly above-average family outing.

The episodes seems to lean more towards the comic, where Moominpappa takes on the job of lighthouse keeper as inspiration for his writing, and Moomin is terrorised by an equally frightened ghost. Too-Ticky unfortunately is missing from the episodes, alone with the scenes where she shares some spooky suggestions with the spectre, and where Snorkmaiden fakes her own drowning to help Moomin feel brave.

Borrowing from the books, we meet both the former lighthouse keeper and a little boy named Toft, who apparently got very lost on his way to auditions for a “Moominvalley in November” episode. The episode scraps the element from the book of Moominpappa making the entire family miserable because he has some deluded fantasy about protecting and providing for them on his own, as well as a heart wrenching subplot involving the Groke, which I will not spoil for those considering reading it. But know this: there will be tears.

28 The Floating Theatre / 29 The Lost Children / 30 Midsummer: This three-parter is based on “Moominsummer Madness”, which is kind of an interesting book. Taking place smack dab in the middle of the series, we see it move away from the more lighthearted tones of the early stories, and begin the shift towards the less fantastical and more serious themes of the later books. But it isn’t quite there yet. And being written around the time Tove still worked on the comic series, some parts of the book would not seem out of place if drawn in her strips.

The most noticeably difference between the original story and anime episodes is the change of the cast. With the number of characters and subplots happening at once in the book, it was inevitable that some unlucky sod would get scrapped from the story - three sods in fact, by the names of Mymble, Misabel, and Whomper. Sniff is inserted into the story, and references to Mr Fillyjonk, the stage manager and Emma’s late husband, are removed.

Snufkin and My’s subplot is changed and cut quite short, beginning with the element of the two not knowing each other. His assault on the park keeper seems to be done for the sake of rescuing the children more or less imprisoned in the park, but book Snufkin simply took joy in breaking the law. The episode lacks great scenes of him trying to take care of the 24 little children; doing things like making silly noises, threatening to drown himself, and exposing them to second hand smoke.

With a small handful of characters missing, the plot of the play Moominpappa writes greatly differs from the book. And say goodbye to the ending chapter, where the reunited Moomin family flees the police and gets chased all the way back to Moominvalley.

45 Moomin Builds a House: This episode is based on the comic of the same title. Although it cuts the story quite short, what is left in is relatively close to the original. Except for the insertion of Snufkin, but I am not offended because that adorable laugh made his appearance worthwhile.

59, 63, 68 Adventures of Moominpappa: And here we get to the episodes based on “The Exploits of Moominpappa”. The first few changes I’d like to point out are a little less notable. As Mrs Fillyjonk was already more established in the show, the Hemulen aunt becomes a Fillyjonk. Edward is a silent character, the Nibling child that Pappa and co look after is absent, and everyone gets real ugly colour palettes.

Next, as you may know, the original books don’t really follow a solid timeline and canon changes in between stories. So in an attempt to make more sense, the young Mymble that Moomin meets is Little My’s mother, rather than her sister. But strangely, Moominpappa’s other friends are no longer the parents of Sniff and Snufkin. Why those two were still so enraptured by listening to his story is unclear.

Comet in Moominland: Finishing off the list is a movie based on the story of the same name. Being the first in what is considered the “main” book series, there are bound to be differences in how characters are written. But there is no difference here more worth talking about than Snufkin.

As I’ve already mentioned before, he is portrayed in the anime as more relaxed. He is the older and most mature member of Moomin’s group of friends, and tends to be reserved in expressing his emotions. For the sake of presenting Snufkin as a responsible figure, he never teaches the gang his favourite game: rolling boulders down cliffs, an activity which almost results in multiple casualties. We never hear his story about disrespecting a police officer, and his subsequent prison break.

But Snufkin in the earlier books is very much a child like the rest of the main cast. He is playful and talkative, being described as bringing “gaiety” to their adventure, and is always thrilling his friends with epic tales from his travels. He is not shy about expressing himself, he is shown to have some sadness about having no parents and cries his wee heart out upon sees the dried up ocean.

Other changes may seem more innocuous by comparison, snipping a party scene and river raft ride, and including Little My. But with the lack of a noticeable personality for a key character, and some of the action scenes, much of the movie just feels like a boring hike home.

In short, yeah. As you can see I’m pretty passionate on this subject, especially when it comes to Snufkin’s characterisation. Anyone who wishes to discourse Moomins with me is welcome.

#ok most of this was meant to be written funny and it was fun for me #but you can probably tell which points i got more carried away #there were a few episodes i wouldve covered ex aunt jane but i dont enjoy them as much and couldnt make their entries funny #moomin #mine #Anonymous

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akajustjessicajones · 6 years ago

Text

In The Night || Jessica & Scott

summary: jessica & scott accidentally bond over whiskey and bad memories, and somehow find a way to laugh??

trigger warnings: heavy discussion of rape, kilgrave things, prison things, PTSD, that sort of fun stuff. plus drinking to solve problems

featuring: @ofscottlang

Scott stepped into the bar, figuring he might have a drink. Luis hadn't picked up more beers and, while he generally preferred to just have one at home and relax, the bar wasn't bad. He stepped inside and ordered himself a drink, only to recognize the woman he'd met just recently - Jessica. "Hey." He said, stepping closer. "I know you. I think." He said grinning.

Jessica had spent most of the day trying to build a timeline. Trying to track every weird and terrible thing that had happened since March 31st, anything that might trace back to Kilgrave. Or give some hint to where he was now. But the more possible leads she tacked up, the smaller the walls seemed. Like they were closing in on her. So she stepped back, hit the fire escape, and found a bar. The last thing she wanted -- or expected -- was to hear someone call to her. "Youch boy," she recognized, words slurring only slightly. "The felon. You here to break parole?"

"Is that my reputation now?" Scott asked with a grin, sitting beside her and sipping his drink, raising his eyebrows at how intoxicated she already was. "I'm off parole. I'm free as a bird. And just looking to get a drink." He said smiling. "What about you?"

She shrugged, staring down at her half-empty glass. Was this number three or four? 'Or Five? Blimey...' his voice whispered, his hallucination on her right, while Scott slid in on her left. She turned towards Scott. "You're doing better than that guy," she said, nodding towards the end of the bar. "He just got out on bail, he's looking to skip town," she surmised, taking a sip of her drink. Her eyes slid back to Scott's. "From what I can tell anyway -- I people watch when I'm stuck on a case. And I drink when I need to think."

Scott winced. It wasn't a feeling he was familiar with - at first in prison it was a consideration, but then he'd missed Cassie so much he'd determined from the moment he left prison he was going to spend every possible minute with her. Of course it hadn't worked out quite how he'd hoped, but things were still good. "What are you thinking about right now?"

She wasn't drunk enough to miss his reaction, but she wasn't sure what to make of it just yet. Still, she wasn't surprised when he redirected the conversation back towards her, away from whatever thought had just crossed his mind. If he was hoping for less of a horror show, he was out of luck. "Trust me," she said, picking up her glass. "You don't wanna know."

He chuckled and downed his drink. Something about Jessica made it clear there was a lot of pain in her, and he suspected that with enough drinks he could handle whatever she had to throw at him. "Try me." He said.

Jessica tilted her glass back until it was practically vertical, until the last drop trickled down her throat. For a long moment, she was silent, tapping the side of her glass with one finger, trying to ignore the hallucination on her right, the hungry look in his eye as he leaned in, too close for any kind of comfort. "My rapist," she whispered finally. Spitting the words almost defiantly, but they were like shards of glass, cutting her from the inside out. "A psychotic, repulsive waste of a human being. And I need to track him down."

Scott's hand froze on his bottle and he stared at her, memories coming to the surface of his mind. An attack in prison. Pain and anguish and feeling like what had happened to him was his fucking fault. Why was it that that was his fault for fighting and being aggressive towards the other man, but for this girl she was an innocent victim. "Good. People like that deserve worse than death." Scott said coldly, ordering another drink from the bartender and pausing. "Not trying to sleep with you, but can I order you another drink? If this conversation is happening, we both need to get wasted."

The word never failed to get a reaction. She'd seen everything, from every end of the spectrum. Pity, like when Trish found her sobbing on the bathroom floor, unable to take her clothes off, too scared to be exposed like that. Curiosity, from that shrink who asked about it a little too often for Jessica's paranoia to loosen her tongue beyond the bare minimum response. Disbelief, from the reporters who hounded her during the trial. Denial from the man himself -- 'I hate that word,' the hallucination repeated now, glaring at her. (She wanted to reach over and snap his neck again, but she refrained from literally trying to catch smoke.) She wasn't prepared for this-- for Scott to freeze, for the ice in his voice. A cool sharp edge that wasn't pointed at her, but inward, towards some unspoken memory. Jessica's eyes darted back and forth, between him and her empty glass, trying to find a way to put the pieces in front of her together in any other way but the truth. "Both of us?" she choked out finally, breath shallow. She swallowed hard. "Sure," she said finally, nodding once. "I'm not gonna complain about getting wasted."(edited)

Scott let out a dry, humorless laugh. "If I'm going to talk about my experiences, I'm getting hammered." He said shaking his head. It was never something he'd confronted, and he probably should have. Instead he went to the medical center for the pain and refused to tell anyone what had happened. The bartender brought her a new drink too, and Scott received a whiskey rather than his usual beer. He downed half the drink without any comfort - he usually stuck to lighter drinks, so it burned in a way he hadn't felt since his college experiments with whatever cheapest thing he could find. "Haven't gone to look for the guy who did it to me." Scott said quietly.

Jessica didn't reply at first, not until they both had new drinks and his was half empty. She followed suit, knowing exactly what he meant. It wasn't just for the potential blackout that would follow, erasing this memory from their minds as if it'd never happened -- the burn of cheap whiskey, like fire and glass down her throat, she needed that. Needed the pain to rip her open and make her so raw she'd go numb, before she could really talk about it. Instead of just using the word to scare him off -- that was her original intention. She'd wanted to drink and be alone, because at least alone was safe, but now... Now she was drawn in. "Why not?" she asked. "I mean, can't say I blame you. Wouldn't be looking for mine if -- if I didn't need to. "

He sighed, swirling the liquid around in his glass. Scott never knew why he'd tried to track down the man who'd hurt him - sure, it was a bit of a needle in a haystack since there were a lot of guys in prison at the time and he didn't remember any exact dates, but he knew the rough time it had taken place and what prison they'd been in. Surely it would have been the place to start. But, instead, he just shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't seem worth it." He said. "It was my fault for challenging the guy, making him feel like..." Like he needed to prove he was stronger. Scott shook his head. "It's pretty far behind me at this point. Just never really told anyone."

"Yeah, I get that," Jessica murmured, tilting back the rest of her glass. She wasn't any more eager than Scott to try and make eye contact. The bar around them was full of sound, the clinking of glasses, that low murmur of drunken voices, the buzz of flies floating lazily through the hot summer air. No one even noticed them, no one gave a shit about them, and she was perfectly fine with that. But her entire focus was on this moment, her being tunneling down to what Scott was saying -- and what he wasn't. "Not like it's an easy topic to bring up," she whispered, thinking about his ex, the one he got along with. Did she know? Did his kid? She'd barely been able to tell Trish, the only family she'd known for thirteen years. She motioned for a refill, told the bartender to leave the bottle behind. "You're wrong though," she said, once the bartender moved on. Her eyes met Scott's, held firm like steel as she reached for the bottle, filled her glass to the brim. And his too. "It's not your fault. Whatever he said, however it happened -- that wasn't your choice." Her hand closed around her drink, so tight her knuckles turned white and she could almost see the microcracks in the glass. "Lack of choice is kind of the point with something like this."

He stared down at his drink. Wasn't it, though? Hadn't he egged the man on? He'd always thought he could stand up to people and tell them off and get out of it, slip away. This time he hadn't been able to and he'd paid the price. "Definitely not." He said. It was a good thing sex hadn't come up with anyone since that had happened - his experience hadn't colored how he felt about sex, but he didn't know if that would change if he actually tried to with someone. He wouldn't even know how to tell anyone - Cassie was too young to understand it, and he was connected with Maggie now, but it wasn't to that extent. Hope... One day. Maybe. "And you? Sounded like they were a little more personal." He said Psychotic, repulsive waste made it sound like, unlike him, she knew the one who'd violated her.

She sipped her drink slowly, mostly because she was being so careful not to shatter the glass. She couldn't afford it, not right now. "I mean it," she said, still staring over at him, trying to will him to look up. She knew exactly how difficult it was, how hard it was to look at anything other than that glass. "Say it back to me," she said firmly. "Even if you don't believe it yet." He had no reason to believe it, it wasn't like he knew her. They were sharing glimpses at the skeletons in their closet, but trust was something trickier than that. She took a breath, and another long sip. "It... went on a while," she said, her voice flat and thick, tongue fumbling over the words. "Hard not to get personal when it happens for eight months. And not once, not one time--" She let her eyes flick, just for a second, to the hallucination of him over Scott's shoulder. "Not one time did I want it. Never."

Scott took a deep breath, feeling himself react, his heartrate increasing. It hurt, it fucking hurt, but she was right. It was almost impossible to maintain eye contact with her - Jessica was intense and this didn't seem to be something she normally did, but it made him feel... Better. "What happened wasn't my fault." He repeated back to her, at least trying to believe it. It helped, he found, which surprised him. He wasn't sure he was ready to believe it just yet, but he was ready to head in that direction. "Eight months?" He asked in surprise. He didn't understand, didn't want to understand, or to think about the horror that she must have gone through. "You still see it. Don't you?" He asked her, knowing that look in her eyes. "How did you get out?"

She knew this wasn't easy. It hadn't been easy for her. Trish was the first one who made her say it. Over and over until she believed it. On the Good Days at least. But Good Days always ended, always became Bad Nights eventually. Tonight.... tonight was a Bad Night. But she loosened her grip on her glass a little when he echoed the words back. "Good," she said after a moment, letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "That was good. It gets easier, after a while. To say anyway." There were still times she didn't believe it. Her eyes flicked back to his, and this time it was her gaze that faltered. She glanced at her drink, nodding vaguely before taking a long sip. "He had... abilities," she explained after a moment. "Mind control. He could make you do, or say, or feel whatever he wanted." She licked her lips, bit down hard for a long moment, until the taste of blood mixed with whiskey. "First time?" she whispered finally. "He got hit by a bus. I thought that's what did it anyway."

Scott shrugged. It had been nearly five years since it had happened, but it wasn't like he ever thought he'd tell anyone. People didn't exactly have sympathy for male rape victims and he didn't want people to suddenly begin to pity him or think differently of him because of what had happened. "Everybody seems to, nowadays." Scott commented with raised eyebrows, not even wanting to know what kind of abilities someone had to keep her there. He had a sneaking suspicion, already, that he knew just what kind of ability her attacker had. "The first time?" He asked with a grimace. "Then what?"

Jessica met his gaze more softly now, and returned the shrug. It was mostly bullshit, and they both knew it. All time did was take you a little further away from the day it happened. Sometimes that was enough to keep you from thinking about it. Sometimes that was enough to make you obsess. To think of all the ways you were different because of it. All depended on the day. There were some things you never really got over. Some things could reach out, no matter how far back in the past they were, and dig sharp claws into your skin, reopening those old wounds until they felt fresh again. "Then he came back," she said, tapping her fingers against her glass. "And I put him out of my misery. Snapped his neck with my bare hands." She looked at him now, waiting for judgement despite what he said earlier, about people like that. "I was immune to him. Not sure why," she murmured. "So I ended it. I thought I thought it was over, but then I met Dai--" She stopped herself. That part wasn't hers to tell. "Someone else, that he hurt. Recently. " She sighed irritably, tension ratcheting up through every muscle in her body. "Now I need to do it again."

There was a surprising warmth in his chest. He was glad Jessica was strong enough to confront and attack her demons - it was different, for her. To Scott, as much as the man who had hurt him had been a monster, he was a faceless monster. His dreams weren't haunted by the man, they were haunted by the pain and feeling of worthlessness. It wasn't so personal as much as it made him sick to his stomach. "Good." He said bitterly. "Daisy Johnson?" He asked, recognizing the name. He'd heard the stories, and met her when she was in the hospital. She was just a kid, and yet to go through what Jessica was describing, he felt even more horrible seeing her pain. "It's what he deserves."

Good. He said it with the same bitterness she tasted on her tongue. Like ash, that never washed away no matter how many drinks she had. For three years, she had been trying to figure out if it was 'good,' or not. If killing him had been the right move, if she should've crossed that line, if there was any way back. She still didn't know for sure. "Maybe," she said finally, ignoring the comment about Daisy, not meeting his eyes. "But maybe I just became exactly what he wanted me to be." She picked up her drink, shrugged, tossed it back. "So what is it I deserve?"

"Peace," Scott said. From what he could tell, while he hadn't quite accepted his attack in the way Jessica had hers, he certainly was over it. He could go a full day without a drink and could maintain healthy relationships in a way she seemed to believe she couldn't, and he wanted her to get the kind of balance he had mostly achieved in his life. "He wanted you to be his to use. And that's not what you are. At all."

Peace. The word alone made her reach for the bottle -- but it was empty already. She reached into her pocket, and sighed irritably, slapping down what was left of her cash. "I'm out of money, because I can't bring myself to actually work a goddamn case while he's still out there," she said, draining the last dregs out of her glass. "Still feels like I'm revolving around him. He doesn't need to say a goddamn thing to control me," she muttered, steadying herself on the bar. Her eyes stole over towards Scott. "You wanna continue this depressing conversation at my place? Booze there is free," she pointed out.

He would have paid for another drink for her, but instead shrugged and finished what was left of his own, getting off the bar stool and masking his slight stumble. It was rare for him to drink anything stronger than a beer or two, so what he’d had tonight pushed what he was used to with quite a lot of ease. “Sounds perfect.”

Jessica nodded, not sure if she felt nervous that he'd actually accepted her offer -- or relieved that he wouldn't be alone the rest of the night. She might've been piss-poor excuse for company, but she knew what it was like. When the past reared its head unexpectedly. She kept a careful watch on him while they walked, didn't need him to stumble out into goddamn traffic or something. "You know who did it?" she asked finally. "His name?"

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “Just some big beefy guy in prison who I kept pissing off. I called him Big and Blond. Avoided him after it and never tried to find out.” He said. Giving the man a name would have made it all so serious and intense. “The psychopath?”

So they were both statistics. Shitty ones. Jessica nodded, biting her lip, worrying at the place she'd already split open. The tang of pain kept her centered when her mind wanted to spiral away. "You want to? Maybe..." she trailed off, shrugging. "Maybe it help. Though closure isn't all its cracked up to be, in my experience. "She sighed heavily. "Kilgrave," she said, rolling her eyes lazily. "Kevin Thompson was his real name. Is. But he calls himself Kilgrave."

He shrugged. “Learning his name might help if I’m going to tell the story. But I don’t expect to go after him or something.” He said. “What kind of goddamn name is Kilgrave? Just how much of an angsty prick can you be?” He asked, his tongue loosened by the drink. “Oh man, that is worse than Ant Man.”

"If," she repeated. They rounded the corner to her block, and she nodded towards her building. "Try telling him that," she said, a wry smirk on her lips. "Never did find out where the hell he got that one. You think it would've come up." She led the way up her steps. "Ant Man?" she repeated. "No. No one is dumb enough to..." She gave him a long look, brows furrowed together. "Seriously?"

He’d try. It was a start, at least - talking about this shit wasn’t fun. He sighed, acknowledging just how bad the name was. “In all fairness, I didn’t come up with it. Just took the name from the last one.” He said. He was shit at keeping it a secret and being drunk meant he was even worse at it, the words slipping out with ease.

She paused at the door, shaking her head slowly. "You owe me that story," she said, flashing a smirk at him. She paused inside, glancing at the elevator, blinking as she saw it all again. The ghosts of the Shlottmans. Hope's scream echoed through her ears. She headed for the stairs instead. "How did not one, but two people decide to call themselves goddamn Ant Man?"

He followed her towards the stairs, deciding not to ask questions about the elevator even though the stairs made everything a little unsteady and dizzy. “Ha - this guy had the name Ant Man, and when he gave me the suit and all, the name came with it. Didn’t get a choice.” He said. “What would your superhero name be?”

"You gonna make it? We got five stories, and if I have to carry you, it's gonna get awkward for us both," she said, making sure to keep an eye on him. She gritted her teeth during his story. "Some guy just... gave you a suit, a superhero name, and didn't give you a choice about it?" she asked. "The hell kind of shit is --" She paused at the question. "Never got that far," she replied. "And the costume was only ever a bad prototype, before you ask about that." She kept leading the way. "My sister wanted to call me Jewel. Told her it sounded like a stripper."

“I can handle it. Besides, I may look skinny, but I’m not that light.” Scott said, following her up the stairs. “More like I’d end up back in prison unless I helped him. My fault for being stupid. Plus, I like the suit, and I’m stupid so the name works well.” He joked. “Your sister is right.”

Jessica glanced back at him, pausing on the stairwell. She gripped the metal railing, and pushed down until it bent under her fingers. "I think I could handle it," she said, shrugging and continuing up. "You're real good at this self-blame thing," she noted, pulling open the door to her floor. "I didn't think anyone could be better at it than me." She rolled her eyes, strolling towards her apartment. "You're drunk. My sister thought it was a good name. I just go by Jessica."

“Woah, cool!” Scott said, touching the metal and prodding at it, attempting to bend it himself and finding that, no, it was really that solid. “Thanks! A lot of people tell me I’m not good at anything, it’s nice to hear someone disagree.” He said.

She just shook her head, turned away from him so he wouldn't see how her smirk had softened into something closer to a genuine smile. She was stuck with these abilities, she might as well have fun with them. She could regret giving Oscar a headachein the morning. "You really are an idiot," she told him, opening the door to her apartment. "But not everything's your fault. Not entirely anyway," she murmured. She thought of her mom, the way she remembered the accident as opposed to Jessica's own memories. The guilt they both felt, that belonged to neither of them completely. "Nothing is that goddamn simple."

He shrugged. Scott was rather sure everything was his fault - all this Fisk shit had begun because he’d been a dumb kid. But thinking about it was pointless now. “What about you? You do the self blame thing?” He asked, plopping onto her couch - well more like a futon.

Yeah, that was about as effective as she expected it to be. "Apparently," she quipped, striding inside. At least most of the mess was cleaned up. "Shrink called it an 'unhealthy coping mechanism,'" she said, plucking a bottle off her desk. She took a long swig, falling onto the couch beside him. A healthy amount of space sitting between then. "I've got 'control issues.'"

He snorted, eyeing the bottle and trying to decide if another drink was a terrible idea or a great one. “See, it’s not a problem if you don’t go to a shrink about it. That’s how shit works, right?” He asked. “Control issues from someone who has been controlled. Don’t blame you.”

"Yeah," she agreed, smirking wryly. "Wasn't my idea to go, promise you that." She tilted the bottle back, focusing on the burn, sharp and clear in the back of her throat. "If a door won't stay closed, build a bigger door," she mused. "I tried that for a while too." She looked over at him, head falling back against the futon. "Come on. Out with it. What the hell are 'Ant Man's' powers?"

“No powers.” Scott said. He wouldn’t want powers, either - the ones he’d seen only caused problems. “Just a suit that can make me shrink and grow.” He said pointing to his watch.

"Please tell me this is not some very convoluted pick up line," she said, arching a brow. "Cuz if it is, I will bend you into a pretzel."

“I have no doubt you can. But no, I have a girlfriend. Ish. Close enough.” He said shrugging and getting up excitedly, stumbling. “Wanna see?”

"All that talk of growing and shrinking.." She smirked at him, settling back against the couch. It was nice, actually, hearing that he had someone. Remembering that most people didn't isolate themselves, didn't cut off every connection they had. She waved to the center of the room." Knock yourself out," she said, taking another sip. "Just -- not literally, okay?"

He followed her waving hand, tapping his watch so that the ant man suit built up around him, snapping on the helmet and posing to show off. “I might knock myself out if I try to go big, so we’ll do small.” He said, clicking the button on his glove and shrinking.

Jessica just shook her head slowly. Half of her expected him to just stand there and crouch -- and then he pulled a goddamn suit out of his goddamn watch. "Better than a purse," she noted, slumping down on her futon. But when he actually, truly shrank, she leaned forward. "Holy shit," she breathed, staying very still. "Where the hell did you go?"

"Down here." Scott said, jumping up from the floor and hoping she wasn't about to freak out and step on him. It was one thing to freak out Luis, it was completely another to have someone with super strength decide he was a bug to be squashed. And, since he was rather intoxicated, he thought trying to avoid that would be dangerous.

She was pretty goddamn drunk, but she was fairly certain that voice wasn't just a hallucination. Her eyes followed it down to the source, and she saw a miniscule dot in the center of her floor. Slowly, carefully, she set the bottle aside and got down on the floor, crawling on hands and knees, stretching out onto her stomach to be sort of eye-level with him. "Jesus," she murmured, holding out her hand towards the miniature Scott. "You weren't kidding about the shrinkage."

He laughed, hooping up onto her shoulder and nodding. “It’s crazy, huh? I can also talk to ants, but I suspect you don’t want any in your apartment.” He said.

It was strange, hearing him so clearly despite his size. His laugh just as warm and bright as it was when he was full-size. She let h im hop up on her shoulder, turning only her eyes towards them, keeping her head still. "Yeah, I'd rather you send them out of the apartment, actually," she said, smirking as she propped an arm under herself. "So how does being an inch tall help things?"

“I think I can do that.” He said, tapping his helmet and sending ants scurrying away, informing them of a nearby food stand and the dumpster where it’s food was dumped. “My size is different but strength is the same. I’m basically a bullet.” He explained, quoting Hope’s explanation.

Jessica almost jumped -- would've if not for the little person on her shoulder -- when she saw the long string of ants heading out her window. A goddamn stream of them. "Jesus," she breathed. "I really gotta sweep more." As if she swept at all. She nodded once at Scott's explanation, then slowly turned her head towards him, smirking at him on her shoulder. "A bullet I could crush with a simple..." She held up her fingers, flicked the air well away from Scott.

Scott grimaced. “Luckily I can grow to full size pretty fast.” He said, hopping off her shoulder and growing to his normal size in less that a second. “I can grow bigger too, but it’s really draining and probably a bad idea here.”

She laughed -- a rough, ragged kind of laugh, soaked with too much-whiskey, so it didn't fall from her lips so much as drip. She rolled over onto her back, not eager to try and stand. "Yeah, my windows are already shot," she said, gesturing over her head. "Plus my super lives right above me, and believe me, he does not need anymore excuses to hate me."

“Ouch,” He said, hearing her voice soaked with alcohol and seeing her on the floor. “I should get out of your hair and let you sleep.” He said offering a hand.

Jessica hesitated a second -- but she was at that stage of really drunk where a black out was imminent, and she could almost imagine sleep, so she took his hand, hauled herself up. The room swam as she expected to, and she glanced at him. "I'm drunk," she announced, as if it weren't obvious. "Which means you.... Are very drunk," she said, giving him a look. "You can stay over," she announced, stumbling towards her bedroom. "Come on. You can take the bed."

He snorted. “I’m fine.” He said, going to the door only to stumble against the wall, laughing. “Okay, fine. But I’m taking the floor and you have the bed.”

Jessica rolled her eyes at him, and reached out, sloppily grabbing his shirt. "This is not a come on," she told him very bluntly, dragging him down the hall, trying to keep him on his feet. She let go when they reached her room. "And it's not a discussion. Bed's yours," she said pointedly.

“It’s a big bed. Why don’t we just share?” He offered crossing his arms.

Jessica sighed, but mostly out of amusement. She shrugged in agreement, and kicked off her jeans. Too tired to argue anymore. "Whatever," she slurred, rolling away from him. "Thanks," she added after a moment, biting her lip before the drunkeness finally pulled her eyelids down, and she faded into blackness.

Scott nodded, falling to the pillows and watching Jessica, feeling a bit better about all his concerns as he drifted off to sleep beside her.

#scott #scott: in the night #aka discords

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swiftsuburbanlegends · 7 years ago

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Hi can you do one wCan you do one whereFelicity finds out she’s pregnant before the reception and tells Oliver

Felicity knocked on the door, as she nervously smoothed down her dress. She should wait. Part of her was screaming to wait at least until things calmed down again. But there was an equally vocal part that wanted to run into Oliver’s arms and kiss him squarely on the face and just let them be happy. They deserved to be happy.

The door creaked open and William peered out at her. “Donna told me not to let you two see each other before the thing.”

“Of course she did,” Felicity muttered. “But that rule only applies if you aren’t already married.”

“See seemed pretty adamant.”

“I need to see your dad before we go out there,” she replied, biting her lip. “It’s very important.”

William nodded, before he opened the door a little wider. “I’ll let you two talk.”

He slipped by her and down the hall, before Felicity could try and get him to hang back. She’d tell him later. But right now she had to talk to Oliver.

“Felicity?” he came out of the bathroom, fixing his cuff links. “Is everything okay?”

“Huh, yes.”

“You don’t sound like it.”

She turned and closed the door before she spoke again. “We have to talk.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Oliver listen--”

“Is it the scale of things? I can tell Thea and Donna we want to skip the vow renewal. I knew it was too much when they suggested it.”

“Honey, no,” she stepped to him, placing a hand against his heart. “I’m so happy that we’re showing everyone we love how much we love each other. And no, the fact that this is basically a wedding, and not a reception like we wanted, did not slip my mind. But I get why they wanted this. Our family deserves to be here for us.”

“I’m sensing a but.”

“No buts, accept yours and mine in front of everyone.”

His brow furrowed as he looked at her. “Then what do we need to talk about?”

“I’m late.”

“Felicity we’re not starting for another half an hour,” he replied, but the realization dawned on his face. “Oh, oh, you mean, your late late?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“I know,” she shook her head. “This is really not amazing timing. And I kept thinking for the last couple weeks it was just the high from getting married and defeating the bad guys, and the stress of the trial and this. But I don’t think so.”

“You think you’re pregnant.”

“I mean we’ve been having so much fun times together. Especially since becoming newlyweds. So it’s a possibility.”

“We should get you to a doctor,” Oliver grabbed her hand, and moved to the door.

“Wait, Oliver, what?”

“To be certain.”

“Well that’s kind of why they make home pregnancy tests.”

“Well I don’t exactly have one of those in my tux here.”

She laughed. “I know, just hold on a second.”

She took his phone, scrolling through until she found John’s name, and hit call. It rang a few seconds before he answered.

“Hey man. Lyla, JJ, and I will be there soon.”

“Change of plans John.”

“Felicity? Don’t you know it’s bad luck to see the groom before the wedding.”

“Well you married us originally so who’s fault is that.”

“What do you need.”

“Put Lyla on real quick.”

The phone changed hands and Lyla spoke next. “Yes?”

“Make John stop and a drug store and pick me up a pregnancy test.”

“Are you joking right now?”

“No I am not.”

There was a long pause before Lyla answered. “I’ll be there in a second, we just pulled into the parking lot.”

“But the test?”

“I already have one in my purse.”

“May I ask why?”

“You may not.”

“Okay.”

She hung up and handed him his phone back. “Lyla has us covered. I mean she’s on her way with one.”

“Okay, good,” Oliver pressed his hands into his pocket. “We should talk about this.”

“There’s potentially nothing at all to talk about.”

“Felicity...”

“We just got married,” she sighed looking at him. “Like three weeks ago. That’s not enough time to... And William, he’s still adjusting. And Thea’s doing great with her PT but there’s still a ways to go. And this all feels really fast.”

“Wow you didn’t even mention the team, or the fbi case, or the company.”

“Right those too,” she settled into the chair and Oliver followed, kneeling in front of her. “The apartment isn’t big enough for all of us and a baby.”

“We can always move.”

“You just moved there.”

“I don’t care,” he replied. “I don’t care where I’m living as long as I have you and our family by my side.”

There was a knock on the door, and Oliver jerked up and over to answer it. Lyla stood on the other side, and pulled the box from her purse.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. I was never here, and I know nothing until you decide to tell anyone,” she said with a smile. “Best of luck.”

When he closed the door again she stood, and took the box from his hand. “I should go and, well get this part over with.”

“Do you need anything?”

She smiled placing a hand on his cheek. “Maybe a hand to hold after I pee on this thing.”

“Always.”

Once she had that ready, and a timer set on Oliver’s phone, she came out, sitting next to him on the leather couch.

“Felicity,” he turned to her. “I meant what I said. The apartment if you want, a house, the loft. We could move the start up to the apartment and move back in there. Whatever you want.”

“The loft is so not good for a baby and a preteen.”

“Okay.”

She wrapped her hand around his. “I’m scared.”

“Of it being positive?”

“Yes. No,” when he looked at her she shrugged. “I don’t know? Both maybe. I’m scared that everything is gonna change so fast. But I’m also scared that if it’s negative, that’s going to hurt even more.”

“Felicity?”

“The second I thought it, I knew I wanted this Oliver. You and me, William and a baby. It’s all I’ve thought about for the last 24 hours. If my mother hadn’t had me running around doing a million things yesterday, I would have bought ten tests already.”

“If it’s negative we can always keep trying,” he replied, nudging her side. “I mean I am 100% okay with the trying aspect of having a baby.”

She smiled at him rolling her eyes. “Isn’t it too soon? Who gets married and starts trying for a family not even a month later?”

“The same people who danced around each other for three years before they actual took a step forward. Or who are already raising a kid. Who’ve worked side by side for six years. Who love each other so much it hurts to think about a time when they weren’t together,” he shrugged. “We’re not normal Felicity. We don’t live normal lives. And I wouldn’t want that for us. It’s much more fun this brilliant ride we’ve been on.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you have quite the way with words Mr. Queen.”

“Only for you, Mrs. Queen.”

She leaned in to kiss him, but the phone in her hand began to buzz, and Felicity jumped back.

“Moment of truth.”

He checked the time. “We could always look after the reception if you need more time.”

“I don’t,” she stood up and walked slowly to the bathroom sink.

The test sat there, it’s answer staring up at her in vivid color.

“Oliver,” she turned to him, her breath catching in her throat.

“What’s it say?”

“We’re gonna need a bigger place.”

#arrow #arrow fic #olicity #olicity fic #Anonymous

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ellipticalcortex · 4 years ago

Text

After playing through Hiveswap Act 2, and reading a bit about the controversies since I haven’t kept up with its production at all, I can see why people are upset with it, though as usual I feel some people are being a bit too harsh with it.

I’m gonna add a read-more just in case this ends up in any tags, don’t want a rambling post clogging up anything! This is mostly focused on my thoughts about Act 2, not so much about fan reactions as that first bit might imply.

The whole not crediting workers thing is terrible, I agree with that. Their excuse about not encouraging harassment sounds reasonable on paper, but the trade off of straight up not crediting people and the implication that they’re covering their own ass is just too much. I don’t know enough about the situation to form any real in-depth opinion about it, but man... I just hope WP gets their shit together soon if they haven’t by now.

However, I don’t think that WP’s messy internal affairs are enough to dismiss the game altogether like I’ve seen people doing. Personally, I had tons of fun with the game and thought its writing was fine, despite the game’s flaws, and from what I’ve seen here on Tumblr, from articles online, and from player reviews, the majority of people seem to feel the same, which is relieving.

The entire game was a blast to play! I actually got all the way to the end of the trial before deciding that I wanted a particular ending and went back to play the entirety of Act 1 just so I could import a completed save with the batteries, and I think it was worth it! I uninstalled Act 1 shortly after I played it 3 years ago, but it was nice to get a refresher. It let me appreciate Joey and Xefros in the parts I played and replayed during Act 2 a lot more. It also gave me the opportunity to go and inspect things from Xefros’s perspective, which I didn’t start doing until I was on the train during my first run.

I’m not going to lie, this game made me like Joey a little bit less and Xefros a bit more. This was by no fault of the game, just me getting to know the characters better and forming a more solid opinion. In Act 1, Joey felt very “little girl, big sister” to me which was adorable, but removed from her home and from Jude she lost that a bit. Her relationship with Xefros is really nice though! Seeing her urge him to make certain realizations about Dammek was sweet. I’m also wondering how long it’ll be until her comphet wears off and she realizes she can h*ld h*nds with other g*rls.

Xefros though... this game just solidified him even more as “son boy”. Usually I don’t feel this way about characters, but he really feels like a young teen to me! I guess it’s sort of the same feeling I get about my own little sister who is about his age. It helps that I enjoyed all the character animations a lot in this, and his trial sprite was especially nice, even if he didn’t show up during it all that much. Watching him try to process everything he’s seeing about his own culture and about how others deal with interpersonal relationships hurt a lot, too... and that bit near the very end was shocking, but sadly familiar. That was incredibly rough to watch.

Now, as for the game itself, it certainly did feel different from Act 1. From what I understand, a lot of content got cut out of it, like meeting Charun and Zebede. That is really disappointing, but I was fine with what we got. One thing I really don’t get is everyone complaining about the bee game. Just put your fingers on the corresponding keys! I guess it would be hard doing that whole thing with your mouse like it suggests, but I switched over after the tutorial and it immediately clicked, like, to the point that I want to play more rhythm games with that specific set up of vertical visuals and inputs. The music was really fun too. I didn’t even realize Xefros was beatboxing during it until my second time through, after I saw James Raoch comment about it! That was a really cute touch, the mental image of Xefros beatboxing while Joey does her weird little bee dance.

Before I get into the rest of the game, I guess I’ll address how the supporting cast is written in this. From what I understand, these are each of the Friendsim trolls’ original personalities, written before Friendsim ever came out. While looking through the tag on here, I saw people were super frustrated and even angry about this, expecting them to go back and rewrite these characters... after they even had to cut entire characters from the game... I don’t know, I can understand where these criticisms are coming from, but Hiveswap Friendsim is still there if you want to see their more developed counterparts. As the trolls exist in this game, they’re more so their bulletpoints of personality that you don’t even see that much of. Personally, I enjoy seeing the differences, and makes me appreciate Friendsim even more! There were a couple of spots where I /was/ disappointed with them though, specifically with Fozzer and Boldir... Boldir at least has the animation where she looks at the player and talks about the... universal re-convergence? Was that it? While Fozzer says and does nothing of import. I somehow expected them to be something more with what their roles were in Friendsim. The same can be said of Marvus, I suppose. But overall the characters remained largely the same, and you don’t speak to many of them for long anyhow.

The ticket machine area didn’t have much to it, especially in terms of interactions, which I would have hoped would be fleshed out a bit in lieu of narrative importance. Fozzer didn’t add much, you were seeing Folkyl again later anyways, and I have no idea what that other teal’s reason for being there was. The couple of tracks that loop in this area getting constantly cut off by an announcer was pretty funny though.

The loading platform was I think my favorite area in the game. I liked how the characters were presented, and how they interacted. “Gaegrl Elwurd” or whatever she said was incredibly funny, and now that I type it out I realize that the name she uses is probably supposed to be “L-Word” or lesbian. Feel silly for not realizing that earlier. Anyhoo I still despise Zebruh even if he’s incredibly funny, especially that walk cycle. I didn’t get the scene where Marvus blows a kiss at him though in either of my runs, which is sad. Is that another way to give him confidence besides the mic? I hope so. The bit with Chixie was nice too, as was Marvus’s introduction. I liked the tip-off where he said he knew Joey would be able to get onto the train. I think there’s a bit more left for me to do in that area, though I’ll leave it for when I inevitably have to replay Act 2 whenever Act 3 comes out so I can save some item or other.

The Burgundy/Bronze car had my favorite of the Ticket to Ride tracks, probably because it was the base for all the others, and its origin story is pretty funny. I really wish there had been more interactions with the trolls presented. Diemen was a joke character even in Friendsim, but I wish Joey hadn’t completely dismissed Vikare who had I think my favorite sprite/idle animation in the game. The convo with Skylla was nice though I fear for her lusus now, and Marsti was about what I expected. While I was going through the game I had a guide up mostly because of the trial and it was funny to see how the author referred to the characters. I couldn’t tell if they hadn’t read Homestuck before this or just skipped Friendsim, but how they referred to some of the characters was pretty funny, like calling Skylla a zookeeper, or thinking Marsti was a guy for some reason. I guess she was never referred to much in the third person, so that’s fair.

The Yellow/Olive car had my least favorite Ticket to Ride track, mostly because I’m not a big fan of chip tune and think the Olives should have been represented in the song as well. Folkyl and Kuprum were still super funny even if they didn’t have much to add past introducing the player to their blood color’s traditional role. Polypa and Boldir were neat, and I loved the scenes with Azdaja and Konyyl! The part where Xefros floors Azdaja after he hurt Joey was stunning, especially after seeing how powerful he really is through Friendsim. It wouldn’t surprise me if bugandies’ and bronzes’ powers were much stronger than they realize but triggered by emotion or something and that’s part of the reason they’re so downtrodden, to keep them depressed and placid, which would also tie into the supposed purpose of lime bloods.

I had a lot of fun in the Jade/Teal car, even if it /did/ drag on a bit too long like I’ve seen a lot of people say. Its rendition of Ticket to Ride rubbed me the wrong way, too, though mostly a certain part of it, and it might just be because I listened to it for so long. I liked how each of the characters were presented, as well as all of the drama. I saw some people criticizing this part as just being the Jades throwing venom at one another and... yeah? They are? I don’t see why that’s bad, it was to exemplify toxic interpersonal relationships and to show that even the trolls’ caregiver caste could still be terrible. Anyways, the first time I went around I didn’t have the battery nor the pogs which I traded for tickets earlier, but I only realized I needed them when I got to the recess. I’d been experiencing several bugs in this room specifically, including Xefros’s trial sprite disappearing, the screen becoming solid black after accusing someone, and basic dialogue bugging out. This was all very frustrating. Also, while I did end up having fun with the trial, it was a slog to figure out. I enjoy the Ace Attorney games, but what I like the least are the leaps in logic you have to make when figuring what to present and where. This trial took that aspect and made it five times worse. I did love having Tyzias by Joey’s side though, and the ending I got was super worth it. I’m still not sure who did it. I saw a video of Lanque chucking Joey off the train, so I guess it was him? Though I don’t know how or any of the specifics. I know you can implicate Lynera too as a scapegoat.

The Cobalt/Indigo car was pretty underwhelming. I’m sad I only remembered to click on Galehk’s footnotes after I’d done his task. That whole sequence was very funny through, and I’m curious to see the other ways you could’ve gotten through. All of the characters were pretty fun, and I loved seeing Elwurd again and having her save Joey from Ardata and all. Xefros and Joey’s conversation about the revolution afterwards was really nice too.

The clown car was, understandably, horrifying. I’m going to be hearing that stock honk for the rest of eternity. It was a very fun room, and its gimmick was super interesting. I loved the animations for the wheel! I also didn’t realize that the uh, clown religion involved the red and green snakes, though it makes sense that they do. I looked back at some backgrounds for Friendsim, and while Chahut’s clown church didn’t have the red and green, Marvus’s festival DID have red and green balloons, which was interesting. This entire sequence was incredibly tense, obviously trying to make you worry it would land on Burgandy. I’m also curious about some of the alternate stuff you could do during this, like that video with Tegiri being dramatic. Also, seeing Xefros kill Baizli was super upsetting, and I think another spot where having played Friendsim could make this game a little frustrating, since in Friendsim Barzum and Baizli are just lost, fun-loving clown twins that never directly kill MSPA reader. It was surprising to see Baizli come out and approach Joey alone. It was also terrible to see what Baizli dying did to Barzum. I wonder if that’s the last we’ll see of Marvus... I’ll be disappointed if it is. It feels like he should be more important.

Now, that last section I’ll admit was pretty bad. Literally the only action section in the game and you get so little direction and nothing interesting really happens. I did in fact use a guide for this because I simply did not care. It was a super anti climactic ending sequence.

And of course, there was the train blowing up and Joey and Xefros being impeded again. There was that droopy looking dragon thingy? That shot something suspiciously bright green at the train. It’s also curious how Chahut and Marvus seem mostly disinterested or at least unrattled by the explosion.

Well, that was... a review of the whole game! I loved it a lot, even if it wasn’t what it could have been. It had some bugs, which were annoying, and issues with content, a lot of which I’m willing to chalk up to the crew getting shuffled around and people leaving and the while switch over to Viz Media. Of course, there is once again the issue of people not getting credited. But, despite all of this, I think Act 2 was an enjoyable game, and I think there was love put into it, even if the people who put love into it were put in unfair and shitty situations because of WP. I’m hoping that things have straightened out with them after that fiasco and that Act 3 will turn out a bit better, and hopefully sooner than Act 2!

#> Speak your mind.#hiveswap spoilers

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