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theflashdriver · 3 years

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Shipwrecked (Silvaze)

New silvaze oneshot! Marine crashes her newly built submarine, interrupting a picnicking date being had by a certain time traveler and fiery princess. Can Silver console the raccoon while still making the most of Blaze's day off? I hope you enjoy!

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The salty waterers of the Sol dimension were surprisingly warm today. Silver the hedgehog had long since learned that a hot day on the land didn’t necessarily mean the waters were good for swimming. For the first handful of summer days, that trick of the sun had caught him off guard, sending him into, and then very quickly out of, the icy cold sea. He supposed that they were now deep enough into the warm season that even the ocean was feeling it, a fact that was quite fortunate given his current predicament.

A psychically manifested scuba suit, including a breathing tank, was aiding him in a search for strips of metal that had been torn from a certain ship. He must have scanned the ocean floor for a good half hour by now and most of the pieces had been collected, but he had to gather as much as was feasible. If it wasn’t for the rocky nature of these waters, then he’d have surely finished this job in a matter of minutes. Alas, great stony spears seemed to jut out of the seabed at every angle and the commonality of seaweed and barnacle beds wasn’t helping matters. This wasn’t a terrible way to spend an afternoon, but the psychokinetic hadn’t expected today to go like this.

What had started as a very well planned and regular day had quickly spiralled out of control. The twenty-three-year-old hedgehog had woken up with butterflies in his stomach and excitement on his mind, knowing that Blaze had managed to procure a day away from her royal duties. Their bond had been rekindled several years ago, but it was only with the final restoration of the future that those flames had grown.

Silver had ended up staying in the Sol dimension and, following more than a few fumbled kisses and the feline’s much too subtle hints, gradually entered a more romantic relationship with Blaze. More romantic rather than actually romantic because, well, they hadn’t exactly talked about the shift so much as simply drifted in the general direction of deeper intimacy. Whenever he tried to bring it up, she’d silence him with a kiss or call him naive, just as she had when he’d historically asked if they were friends. It’d started as a way to obscure her own embarrassment, but she’d always enjoyed teasing him.

Reflecting on those moments made his heart pound and a goofy grin slip onto his lips, but the sight of something lying in a seaweed bed stole his attention. With the point of his finger, cyan aura ruffled through the seagrass patch and eventually managed to manifest around a single mass. The hedgehog heaved up his right hand and, matching the movement, a large rasher of metal rose from the depths. It was bent in a few places, it’d clearly torn against the rocks and been flung away by the swell, but it seemed to be in better condition than the bulk of the metal he’d found.

The hedgehog swam a little further, positioning himself above where the piece had crashed. Sure enough, it looked as though three more pieces had landed in the vicinity. Perhaps these were the last of the missing chunks? Blaze would chastise him for assuming that…

He dropped the strip he’d been carrying, a mass roughly the size of his torso, back down onto the seagrass before raising his hands to the sunny surface. Quickly, a bubble as big as his head descended into the depths and, following another gesture, fused into his psychic breathing apparatus. He heaved a deep breath, channelling more psychic energy from his palms before sending it to scour the seafloor.

His eyes shut as he allowed his sense of touch to guide the search, clinging to anything hard as he felt the sea and its flora alike slip through his grasp. There were actually five large pieces and seven or eight smaller fragments, it was difficult to count with his mind so full. Even if this wasn’t the last of the lost metal, it’d surely be enough to keep his partner busy. He clenched his feet, tightening his grasp on the metal to pull it after him.

Kicking his feet, the hedgehog managed to emerge at the surface and take to the sky. The now obsolete parts of his scuba suit vanished, resulting in the usual layer of cyan skin wore to fly. He was entirely dry, totally untouched by the seawater.

Flanked by the metal, he scanned his surroundings and quickly found their destination. Not too far away, around a stone’s throw from the horizon, floated a small and sandy island with a current population of two, soon to be three. As he approached, heaving his discovery behind him, its details came more clearly into view. The island was no bigger than a modest family house, home to three palm trees and five large grey rocks. Recently though, it’d seen the addition of one Marine the Raccoon’s crashed speedy-submarine.

The young shipwright, only thirteen, had designed the submarine to retrieve treasures lost on the seafloor. She’d been expressly told not to test it out without someone around to supervise her but, not one to be told what to do, she’d taken it out this morning, assumedly the instant Silver had left to meet with Blaze. The sobbing and babbling call that they’d received, just as they’d found a spot to picnic, had sent them into a manic dash. He’d swept the feline off her feet, abandoning their lunch, and taken to the sky. It’d taken less than an hour to track her down, a feat only possible due to the raccoon building a giant metal spire out of pieces she’d torn from her own craft.

Silver landed on the eastern edge of the island only to find that things were different from how he had left them. Marine had evidently run out of energy and crashed beneath one of the palm trees. The tide had quickly come in, swallowing more of what little land they had, but the speedy-submarine was still a ways away from being swept underwater. Somehow, likely due to the craft’s ludicrously powerful propulsion, Marine had ground it through the shallow waters for quite a distance before smashing it into a larger rock at the foot of the island. She’d managed to half-flip the submersible into the air and land it upside down on the island, the blatant damage she’d done exposed to the sky. The craft wasn’t especially big, it could roughly fit six people within its cramped interior, but seven breaches had clearly formed in the hull and all of its external gadgets had flown in various directions. It was fortunate that the propeller itself hadn’t been damaged.

Blaze was currently sat atop the cream-orange sub, clearly distracted by her work. While he’d been gathering the shed hunks of metal, she had been welding the craft back towards a more watertight state. She’d shed her usual royal robes before their outing, replacing them with a flowing black skirt and a tie dye purple shirt. Suffice to say, having planned things for weeks before finally managing to steal some free time, his partner wasn’t especially pleased to be working today. The thought of how to make things up to her had been weighing on him ever since they observed the extent of the damage. After all, they still had an afternoon and evening to share.

He approached the submarine on foot, still flanked by the dozen pieces of floating metal and watched as she pulled back from the gash she was sealing to wipe her brow with the back of her forearm. Despite how annoying this all was, he couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter a little. Perhaps it was the way the sun silhouetted her from above, maybe it was down to her change of dress or even the fact that she was using her power so casually, but, ultimately, why he felt this way didn’t matter. It’d taken him ages to understand concepts like romance and attraction, much longer than it probably should have, but, now that he did, Silver couldn’t help but bask in them. He didn’t just love her; he was in love. That fact was still so fresh in his mind.

It took Blaze throwing him a glance to snap him out of it, followed by a coy, “Did you enjoy your swim?”

“Oh, um, y-yeah,” He managed to stutter, turning to gesture toward the shards, “Are things going okay? I’m pretty sure this is the last of it. You should have all the important parts now.”

“I’m fine,” She managed to shrug and look back down to the hull, “I just hope we can get off this island soon.”

Catching the annoyance lingering in her tone, he couldn’t help but pipe up, “We can do something tonight if you want,” She looked down to him and, despite the intrigue on her muzzle, his confidence flagged, “J-Just if you want to, of course. I could cook something or maybe we could go out? Anything really, it’s up to you, I just don’t want to waste today.”

“Well, I suppose I could spare another couple of hours,” That smile crept back across her muzzle, “On one condition.”

She didn’t elaborate, but her tail swished as she awaited his response, “What condition?”

“You have to plan it this time,” Her coyness grew into a full smirk, “You’re in charge.”

Silver felt his heart skip a beat and his tongue grow very heavy. Throughout their time not explicitly dating, Blaze had taken the lead in most things. Even if he ended up doing the bulk of the preparation, as had been the case for their abandoned picnic, their outings and endeavours were driven by her. Sure, he’d show up and bring Blaze gifts from time to time but that was usually born of spur of the moment ideas rather than planning. The feline being the limiting factor on their outings had historically put her in charge of them, it was her time off after all and he hadn’t wanted to squander it.

“If you’re sure that’s what you want,” He managed to reply, “I have a couple of ideas-

“Surprise me,” In a single fluid motion, Blaze turned back to her work, still smirking, “You’ve got plenty of time to figure something out.”

The hedgehog swallowed, feeling sweat mount on his brow. He drifted into the air, tugging a slab of the metal after him, and quickly landed atop the submarine. Like putting together a puzzle, he tried to match a piece of torn metal to its respective hole. The action was barely enough to distract him from the pounding of his own heart but, fortunately, Blaze seemed to be caught up in her work. He managed to get a single large piece to mostly fit, positioning a couple of the smaller pieces nearby in an attempt to complete the shape.

As he finished and turned to grab another though, his eyes drifted over to Marine. Now closer, he noticed that the raccoon wasn’t actually asleep. Rather uncharacteristically, the shipwright had simply been sitting quietly beneath the tree. It was difficult to tell from so far away but Silver could plainly detect a certain solemness from her posture, her arms loosely crossed and back rigid. When he’d left for the ocean, she’d been working away at the hull as best as she could.

“Is everything okay with Marine?” He asked Blaze as she shifted from one hole to another.

“She tried to draw a blueprint in the sand to help explain some more complex repairs to me, but the tide came in and washed them all away,” The feline winced, “I think it’ll be fine without them, but she really wanted to help. I told her it’s fine but…”

The cat and raccoon pair’s friendship had changed a lot over the years. When he’d first arrived the two would occasionally get into spats that could last for days, usually deriving from Blaze’s longing to protect the youngster from her own sense of adventure. The princess was right to do so, Marine would get herself stranded or stuck fairly regularly, but Blaze’s own patience would occasionally wear thin and she’d end up angrily inspiring those very adventures. The raccoon would often leave in a strop, promising to prove Blaze wrong but very rarely doing so. Ultimately, the two of them had come to a sort of mutual appreciation over the years, likely urged on by a combination of familiarity and Blaze gradually letting down her walls. That change hadn’t stopped the raccoon’s adventurous tendencies, but it had made her a lot more responsible regarding them.

“If you’ll be okay doing this on your own for a little while, I could go talk to her?” Silver offered.

“I’d appreciate it,” She managed to nod, “Tell her that I’ll at least make it sailable again.”

“Alright,” He cast another glance to the youngster, allowing the remaining metal pieces to pile themselves in the sand, “I’ll do my best.”

He dropped from the top of the submarine but, as he made his approach, the raccoon had turned away. Rather than her typical green dress, she’d opted to go out in her denim work overalls and a simple t-shirt, perhaps suggesting that she’d anticipated some sort of issue. Her toolbox was sat beside her, messy as usual.

“Hey, Marine,” He could hear the hesitation in his own voice. He swallowed before dropping down to sit beside her, “It looks like Blaze will be able to fix your submarine up. It’ll all be fine.”

“Oh, that’s good,” She responded, offering no further insight through her words but a world’s worth with her tone.

Marine was more like him than she was like Blaze, even he wasn’t so oblivious as to miss that. While Blaze was frankly too good at obscuring her emotions and denying herself enjoyment, Marine and he were far more obvious in their expression. He could tell how disheartened she was by the tone of her voice, let alone her change in posture and wincing expression. Usually Marine was endlessly talkative, she’d talk for hours on end without even a moment’s thought, so for her to respond so simply was a clear indication of her current state.

The hedgehog’s hand found his chest fluff and began to awkwardly tug, “I think we’ll make it back well before dinner. Is there anything you particularly want?”

“Not really,” She glumly responded. For a moment, Silver thought that was all she’d say, “Shouldn’t you spend that time with Blaze? Seeing as I’ve already…”

“Don’t worry about that Marine,” Silver shook his head, “We’re just glad you’re okay. That crash could have been much worse.”

“Yeah, well,” She still hadn’t turned to him, “I messed up, again.”

“Marine,” He sighed, “It’s fine, it’s all fine.”

“But I ruined you two’s date. Blaze hardly gets time off as it is, she’s got to be boilin’ mad with me,” The raccoon protested, “And she’s right to be, she told me not to, that’s the worst part.”

“I told you, we’re just glad you’re okay. The instant we got your call we set out, your safety is more important,” A silence briefly filled the air and he felt the need to fill it, “As for the date, well, she still wants that to happen but…” That caught the Racoon’s eye, he couldn’t back out, “She’s put me in charge of it and I’ve got to figure out what we’ll do.”

“Oh, mate, that sounds like a lot of pressure for you,” She snorted, looking away again, “Try not to break under the strain.”

“Thank you for the show of confidence,” He mumbled, “She wants me to surprise her like she surprises me. I doubt she’s being serious about it, but I want to do my best.”

“I dunno mate,” She shrugged, “Sounds pretty serious to me. You’d better give it some thought.”

“Well, I’m open to ideas,” He said, more trying to get her talking rather than actually asking for ideas, “I could just make dinner or plan a walk, but this feels like it should be something special.”

“Probably, you want to make a good impression, show her that you can handle this,” The raccoon was slipping back into her usual tone, “She teases you enough as it is, imagine how much ammunition this could give her.”

“She already has enough to last the rest of our lives,” The hedgehog happily mused, “It’ll hardly be a drop in the bucket either way, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do this as best I can.”

“I guess so,” She mumbled.

The raccoon seemed to have realised that she was being led out of her wallowing and, rather than allow that, retreated back into herself. He had to keep this up, “You know, she used to chew me out just like she used to tell you off,” That got her attention, “Ever since we were tiny, she always took the lead.”

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me,” Marine bluntly responded.

“H-Hey,” His stammer put a small smirk on her face, “Well, you’re not wrong. She still does now, even if it’s not quite in the same way,” He continued, swallowing what little pride he had, “I used to come up with plans and run off on my own a lot, I’d get into all kinds of scrapes.”

“What?” She exclaimed, “But I thought she was the boss?”

“Eventually she got sick of me doing it and took charge,” He explained “Before that, I’d leave her behind, promising to beat a monster and come back, only to return all roughed up but insisting I was fine. She’d have to trick me into letting her see my injuries, I wanted to do everything myself and fix our world.”

“But wasn’t the future,” She made a vaguely t-rex like hand motion, “Overrun by monsters back then? They’d literally destroyed the world, hadn’t they?”

“Rivers of lava literally ran through the city and the sun was blotted out by clouds of soot,” Silver recalled, “My younger self didn’t really see that as an issue though. He thought it’d be easy, the kind of thing you could sort in a day.”

Marine snorted, almost chuckling, “That sounds like you.”

“The first time she stood up to me was incredible, you should have seen it,” Silver’s eyes drifted back to the feline, still welding the submarine, as he began to reminisce, “I’d limped in after fighting like an idiot, running all over the city, and she just pushed me over,” He heard Marine snort again, “She’s cute now but, back then, her frown didn’t fit on her face. Blaze was this tiny purple kitten and I’d convinced myself that I had to protect her, even though I was much shorter than her,” Now the raccoon was chuckling but Silver’s eyes didn’t leave Blaze, “I tried to make a fuss and get back up, but she properly pinned me down and mercilessly bandaged everything. By the time she’d finished, I was practically a mummy, I couldn’t even move.”

“That that really sounds like her,” Marine responded, finally reclaiming his gaze. She’d left her shell again, “It doesn’t sound like she was especially scary though.”

“Well, even back then, she could spit fire as easily as she could conjure it,” He grinned, “Once she had me trapped, she talked my ear off. She stood over me and just started shouting, letting out all of her annoyance, and, from then on, she never held back with me. If there was a problem, she’d make it very clear,” His gaze wandered back to Blaze, “Whenever I was about to do something stupid she’d just grab me but, eventually, she didn’t even need to do that. She’d call me naïve and it’d stop me in my tracks.”

The raccoon giggled, “Mate, she’s had you on a leash for that long?”

“She’s just cared for that long,” He bumped her shoulder with his, “I know she’s been harsh in the past but that’s only because she cares about you too. That was the only way she could show her concern.”

“I know, I know. She’s not as…” She seemed to be searching for the right word, “Stern as she used to be.”

“Things have changed, she’s learned that being more open is okay so she feels comfortable showing off her softer side,” The psychic agreed, “I certainly wouldn’t be in my current position if that wasn’t the case, neither of us would have any idea what to do with our relationship.”

“Now you’re the only clueless one,” She joked.

“Y-Yeah,” He quickly turned from Blaze as the feline threw a glance towards them, feeling the heat on his muzzle, “What am I going to do…”

“Flounder and fail probably,” She smirked.

“Flounder huh?” Perhaps it was born of that word alone, or it was bolstered by the shipwright’s creation and his time spent seeking out its parts, but an idea manifested in Silver’s head, “Marine, when you were in your submarine, did you see anything interesting?”

“Interesting?” She blinked, “What do you mean, mate?”

“You had to sail pretty far to get here,” He thought aloud, “Did you actually find anything? Any sunken wrecks or interesting spots?”

“No, there were no sunken wrecks, mate. I wouldn’t have crashed it if there was. I would have found my treasure and then headed back to rub it in everyone’s faces,” She responded, finally talking more positively about her experience, “I saw some pretty little fish and maybe a giant squid at one point but, besides that, it was all very boring.”

Setting his questions about the giant squid aside, Silver pried further, “Pretty fish? Did you see them anywhere in particular or just in general?”

Marine squinted, rubbing her chin, “Well, there was one place that they were pretty common. There was one of those coral reef places, a pretty small one though. There were all sorts of fish and crabs and stuff, it was real rough to navigate.”

That sounded perfect, “Once we’ve fixed up your submarine, do you think you could get there again?”

“Probably mate, why?” She questioned.

“Well, while carrying your submarine home would have been too much for me, I think I can manage a little bit of scuba diving,” He half explained, “Maintaining a couple of suits with my power shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Oh, I get it! Aww mate, that’s a brilliant idea, you two’ll can do that and I’ll keep-

Silver clamped his hand over Marine’s mouth, throwing a quick glance at Blaze. The feline hadn’t turned to face them, even though she’d undoubtedly heard the raccoon’s shouting, “Th-This is supposed to be a surprise Marine, remember?”

“Oh, right, yeah,” She muttered, forcing her way free, “But alright mate, I can totally get you guys there.”

The raccoon looked far more like her usual self. Her ears had even returned to their usual formation. Honestly, just having heard her laugh had relaxed him, “Alright, I’m going to go check if Blaze needs help fixing the submarine. Will you be okay?”

“Who, me? Yeah, I’ll be fine. Fine as ever,” He gave her one last nod before rising, making sure that was the truth. As he went to turn though, her voice called out again, “Thanks, mate.”

“It’s no problem, Marine,” Silver smiled back to her, “We’ll have this sorted in no time.”

He made his way across the sand, approaching the large pile of dented and worn metal. With little more than the flick of his wrist, the hedgehog again lifted himself to stand atop the submersible. The feline had just about finished sealing the largest of the remaining holes so, quick to respond, the hedgehog weaved his hands through the air and began to set up the rest of her patchwork.

“Hello again,” She called up to him, not looking away from her work.

“Good afternoon,” He hummed, psychically fiddling with the giant puzzle, “Didn’t think I’d see you here.”

“I didn’t think I’d be here either, it’s been an interesting day,” She was smirking again, her fangs were only just visible.

The feline shifted, moving to a slightly smaller breach. With the snap of her fingers a flame manifested atop her fingertip before quickly shrinking and growing brighter. Bracing against the hull, she began to trace that finger along where the two masses met. Sparks flew as she moved slowly, allowing the metal to reach a near molten state before leaving it to cool and fuse.

Though it was no different from Marine doing the bulk of her metalwork, Silver found himself more and more enamoured as Blaze continued. Despite the difficult nature of the work, there was something almost elegant to her movements, it was like watching her write or dance. The flames she’d hidden for so long were now just another part of her, an extension of her being that came to her as naturally as curling her fingers. What she’d once insisted was separate from her now worked with her to do all manner of good.

“Silver, you’re staring,” She reminded him, not so much as glancing up.

“S-Sorry, I just like watching you work,” He said, feeling a goofy grin grow on his lips, “It reminds me of how things have changed.”

“If you stand so close, you’ll get burned,” She warned, smirking as she continued to work.

Accepting her words but unwilling to depart, the hedgehog took to the air. In a single motion he went from standing upright to hovering upside down, still face to face with her but having put his body well out of the way.

“Better?” As she looked up to see him, her smirk almost failing to contain her laugher, he felt his face light up red. If his heart had skipped any more beats, being stranded would be the least of his worries.

“You’re so naïve,” She tutted, rolling her eyes. In an instant, the flare vanished from her finger. She scooted just a little closer, “But…”

“But you always-

Before he could finish, her lips found his. Still upside down, he was kissed and soon found himself kissing her. The warmth of her lips pressing against his, the lingering taste of the lemonade he’d made for them, and the inherent knowledge that the woman he knew to be so powerful was being so very gentle sent the hedgehog into a blissful daze. Even her smoky scent, that he was sure would irk others, so thoroughly and completely completed the experience that was kissing his beloved. As if the ecstasy somehow wasn’t enough, he felt her fingers brush through his quills and tilt his head to pull him closer.

This was still new to him, strange to him, and he wasn’t certain that he was doing it correctly… but did that matter when he was enjoying it so much? Maybe he would get better at this with time but, then again, maybe he wouldn’t. They had grown together and would continue to grow together, taking on new aspects and improving on their failings. Who was to say when their growth would stop or whether it ever would? All Silver knew for certain was that he wanted to keep growing with her and see just what that growth would bring.

#silvaze #Silver the Hedgehog #Blaze the Cat #sonic the hedgehog #marine the raccoon #silverxblaze

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canonconspiracy · 4 years

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Cosmic Power (Avery x Rival!Reader)

Fanfiction By: @rmorningstar21

Fandom: Pokemon Shield - Isle Of Armour

Pairing: Avery x Rival!Reader

Cross-posted to my Ao3 and Wattpad (rmorningstar21).

Warnings: Uh. Um. Hair braiding? Avery’s attitude? Avery’s about 20 in this if I remember correctly. Pokemon-related puns. FLUFF.

AN: Speaking of one-shots that have been sitting in my docs forever, here’s another Avery (My Pokemon Oneshot Collection is probably screaming for something else, but-).

Downtime on the Isle of Armour was rare, while downtime with the man who considered you his rival was far more of a rare occurrence. Typically, during these times, he would press you for a battle. Even if it had been so late that you were nearly slumbering standing, he would still ask. Once a day, the two of you would always go at one another, and every day, it turned out to be the absolute same. Your victory had been assured since the moment you stepped onto the Isle of Armour, and yet, somehow, he would learn from every battle with you. You had to admit it was nice, but spending some quiet time with him had been something you were fishing for since the beginning.

It would be a flat out lie to say you didn't want to feel how silky those long blond locks of his were. More than once, you complimented them in passing, or complimented his cerulean eyes. Never did you admit straight out that you found him to be outright gorgeous, stunning, ravishing, or any other insane ego boosters, but you would throw in the occasional compliment.

Sitting outside the dojo together, you lived in a comfortable silence. Avery needed a break, or to recharge his psychic energy, as he said, and you had been training for a week straight. He had not spoken up about you just sitting beside him, nor had he sparked any sort of conversation with you. Staring off into the beauty that the Isle of Armour encompassed, the two of you peacefully shared the same fallen log.

Taking another glance to the psychic type gym leader, you bit your lip gently, before quickly looking away once more. The way that you did so was not as subtle as you hoped, the gentle breeze your y/h/c locks made as you shifted back to the view catching his attention. Though you made it seem as if you were simply staring out at the roaming pokemon, Avery was always quite astute.

Cerulean eyes flickered over to you, a blond eyebrow raised in question. "My psychic energy is far too drained to read your mind, Y/N," he pressed. His gaze stayed for more than a minute, far more than enough time to notice the way your cheeks heated with crimson.

"I-," you started, furrowed your brows as you tried to think of how you could even ask to invade his personal space in the way you wished. Allowing a sigh to escape your parted lips, you just allowed the words to tumble off your lips. "I was wondering, ah, if I could braid your hair."

"You want to…" he questioned curiously, his tone fading as he contemplated it. He never allowed anyone to touch his hair, let alone style it in such a manner. The psychic gym leader had been perplexed to say the least, the thought of your nimble fingers in his blond locks both a tempting and terrifying curiosity.

"I, yeah," you said softly, barely above a whisper. Your cheeks darkened as you quickly tried to play it off. "It's fine if it's a no. I just think it would be nice."

Avery allowed a sigh to escape his lips, though he proceeded to use his telekinesis to place the hat he adorned to the side of him, pokeballs gently tucked underneath. "If you pull," he spoke lowly, a hint of warning in his tone, "I will never allow you near my elegant locks again."

"Understood," you hummed out, a smile making its way to your lips as you moved to position yourself better to do a small braid. You picked his left side, your nimble fingers gentle as you collected and separated the silky blond locks. As a hum of approval graced your ears from your blond rival, you could not help how your lips curled upwards more.

Each time you weaved his hair into a braid, you did so slowly as to not pull or discomfort the man. With each motion, you could feel the sheer silk of his locks, how well-maintained he kept his hair. The faint sounds of your surroundings could be heard, from the gentle patter of wild pokemon to the sifting of the breeze through the berry trees, but in this moment, it was just the two of you.

The contented way he sighed as you played with his hair filled your heart with warmth. Occasionally, you would steal a side glance to his cerulean eyes, admiring the handsome profile of his sharp features before doing another weave. Reaching the end, you found the bright smile against his lips so serene.

Though you had nothing to tie the braid with, it stayed rather well in his silky locks as you gently set it down, admiring your work. As you admired it, his head turned, cerulean gaze meeting you as his cheeks pinkened the slightest bit. "I can admit, that was rather pleasant," he murmured softly. "...thank you. Now, let me see your rotom."

You hadn't questioned why he needed yours, calling out rotom for him to use. In moments, the man had your rotom in camera mode, one swift motion pulling you upon his lap. Your flustered face, brilliant smile, accompanied his smirk, his head tilted far enough to show off the braid. With another snap, he had you more comfortably sitting upon him, resting back against his chest, as he moved his head to press a gentle kiss against your cheek. One last command and he sent the pictures to his phone as well, before allowing the rotom to head back into your bag.

As you queried a brow to the male, he chuckled in reply, wrapping slender arms around your waist. "You mustn't think I'm oblivious to your pining," he murmured as he held you close, closing cerulean eyes as his chin rested upon your head. "Admittedly, I feel a cosmic power to you as well."

#avery x reader #avery isle of armor #isle of armor #pokemon swsh x reader #swsh x reader #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon shield #pokemon x reader #pkm x reader #pokemon avery #reader insert #fluff

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selfdestructivecat · 3 years

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@the-local-lunatic13

THAT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!

Ok so this is gonna be a long list, since my head is only empty when it’s of greatest inconvenience.

Also please read the tags for potential triggers! Lmk if I missed any and I’ll add them right away.

Without further ado, here’s my interpretation of a Sanders Sides Pokemon AU!

* Ok so first of all, the sides are all gym leaders.

* I picture this in the Galar region, but probably with different towns and the like because I don’t remember any of them.

* Basically, just assume that all of the towns are made up, but that Dynamax still is a thing.

* Let’s start with Patton because his story is the least sad.

* His family runs a Fairy Type gym/pokemon nursery.

* Patton is the eldest in a large family, so he eventually became the new gym leader following in his father’s footsteps.

* He has two dads, one who was the gym leader and the other who is a pokemon breeder. They’re both pokemon breeders now and work in a Pokemon Center.

* They are definitely responsible for Patton’s sense of humor.

* Patton and all of his siblings are adopted, but they’re so close that they might as well be related by blood.

* Patton loves taking care of pokemon and would be a pokemon breeder full-time if he could

* But he also loves his family so he continues to run the gym to raise enough money to keep them comfortable and happy

* The Pokemon team I have come up for him is:

* - Togekiss

* - Boltund

* - Greninja (cuz frog)

* - Altaria

* - Frosmoth

* - Hatterine

* (If anyone has any better ideas for pokemon for any of the sides, feel free to throw your suggestions in the notes!)

* Moving on to Logan...

* Like Patton, he also inherited his gym, a Psychic Type gym, from his parents

* However, his family life isn’t nearly as happy...

* Ever since he was old enough to throw a pokeball, his parents have trained him rigorously to become the next gym leader

* They handpicked all of the pokemon in his team

* Except for a Lucario, which Logan caught as a Riolu when he was very young. His parents only let him keep it because of its battle prowess

* So Logan’s team is:

* - Lucario

* - Gardevoir

* - Alakazam

* - Raichu (alolan)

* - Malamar

* - Onix

* (Also this should be obvious by now but not all the pokes will match the gym’s type cuz that’s boring)

* Logan took over the gym when he was 15 and has been running it basically on his own ever since

* His parents still get the final say in all major decisions, even though they don’t really do anything

* Logan resents them, but doesn’t have the courage to stand up for himself

* ENTER PATTON

* Logan is at first pretty skeptical regarding Patton, since he doesn’t seem to take his job seriously

* After challenging Patton to a battle, however, that stance changes remarkably fast after facing a narrow defeat at the hands of Patton’s pokemon

* Even so, he tells himself that he doesn’t have time to become more than colleagues. He must be cordial with Patton so they can coordinate as gym leaders, but that’s it

* Meanwhile, Patton takes one look at this emotionally-repressed man and thinks to himself

* “Oh, this is the guy I’m gonna marry.”

* He then takes literally every opportunity to flirt with Logan

* And he is not subtle AT ALL

* Like he literally goes up to Logan one day and is like

* “I know you’re not ready for it right now, but one day I’m gonna marry you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

* And Logan is VERY confused and VERY flustered because feelings? What is happening to my heart!? Am I getting sick!?

* (And his parents would absolutely disapprove because they are huge homophobes and want Logan to have an heir to pass on the gym to)

* But eventually Patton manages to break Logan’s walls down and they become close friends

* (And eventually more)

* Now, the twins!

* Their situation is pretty similar to Logan’s, at least to a certain point

* Their parents own a Fire Type gym, and were so excited to have a child who would eventually take over the gym

* Two things happened that they did not anticipate

1) They ended up having twins

2) The mother died during childbirth

* Driven by grief, stubbornness, and resentment, the father had the idea that, in order to make the twins as strong as possible, he would put them against each other at every opportunity

* They would constantly be competing to become better than the other, creating an extremely toxic rivalry

* It didn’t work... at least, not at first.

* When they were very young, Roman and Remus were inseparable.

* Even when their father tried to put them against each other, they would rebel against him and not listen

* (Remus had no issue with this, but Roman quietly longed for his father’s approval, even though he knew it was wrong)

* They had a dream that they would run the gym together, and they would talk long into the night about the gym they would create and the pokemon they would train

* That was, until their father started to take a different approach

* He noticed that, despite the two boys receiving the same education and training, Roman had a better affinity for battle (at least when it came to fire types)

* So he started giving Roman more praise and attention

* Roman was thrilled to finally make his father proud

* Remus, on the other hand, was tossed to the side

* Roman was reluctant to give up his father’s attention now that he had received it

* (Looking back, Roman wishes more than anything that he had given it up)

* The twins were driven apart, Roman being trained to take over the gym, and Remus being completely ignored

* One day, Remus ran away, disappearing in the middle of the night.

* Roman was devastated

* He wanted nothing more than to search for Remus, but he knew that if his brother didn’t want to be found, he could vanish off the face of the earth

* Years pass, and Roman takes over the gym

* His father passes away from illness when he was 16

* He can’t find it in himself to grieve

* Roman continues running the gym, hating how quiet the halls are and missing his brother terribly

* One day, he receives news of a new Poison Type gym being established, one heavily criticized for its unorthodox (and, some complain, absolutely disgusting) gym structure and puzzles

* For the first time in years, Roman smiles

* Their relationship is not nearly as close as it was when they were children, and they still have a lot of that competitiveness that was hammered into them, but they’re trying

* And of course, their pokemon teams!

* Roman’s team is:

* - Charizard

* - Wigglytuff

* - Aegislash

* - Milotic

* - Gallade

* - Butterfree

(Maybe he should have more fire types but I like all of these Pokémon for him and they don’t really have a common type among them and ahhhhhhhh...)

* While Remus’s team is:

* - Garbodor

* - Muk

* - Tentacruel

* - Gengar

* - Mawile

* - Venomoth

* While catching up on everything that happened while they were separated, Roman asks Remus how he managed to establish his own gym so quickly

* Remus smirks, saying that he had a little help from a certain dragon...

* WHICH IS JANUS! HE HAS A DRAGON TYPE GYM!

* And this is where we get into that sweet sweet angst

* Janus was born in a small village surrounded by mountains

* A few months before his birth, a disease spread throughout the village

* This disease would coat the skin in angry red boils and drive the infected delirious with sickness

* One day, Janus’ parents found him shivering with a fever, the left side of his face covered in boils

* Fearing for their lives should they catch the disease, they brought the child into the mountains and abandoned him in an old, dark cave

* He wailed in pain and terror until his throat was so hoarse he couldn’t cry anymore

* Dialga, the legendary dragon-type pokemon with power over time, heard his cries and took pity on the child

* Dialga reversed the effects of the illness, curing the child but leaving shimmering scales where the boils used to be

* Dialga then tasked the dragon type pokemon in the cave to look after the child, not trusting humans to ensure Janus’ well being

* A family of Dreepies, Drakloaks, and Dragapults takes a particular liking to Janus, raising him as one of their own

* Eventually, when Janus is a bit older, he goes to visit the town he was born in (supervised by his dragon family, of course)

* Only to find that the village was gone, abandoned by the few survivors of the horrible plague that spread throughout

* Janus felt no remorse

* He knew that he could only rely on himself, and that if he wanted to survive in this world, he needed to be aggressive

* The following week, he said goodbye to his family, only taking with him his best friend, one of the Dreepies in his family that was now a powerful Dragapault

* It wasn’t easy, as he had to learn the language and social etiquette of the people around him (being raised by pokemon would do that to you)

* He even had to resort to stealing in order to survive, which kept him on the run

* Until one day, he met Remus, another kid on the run

* Together, they were an absolute menace. To this day, the two of them have never lost a double battle

* Eventually, they both opened their own gyms, Remus a poison type and Janus a dragon type

* When not busy with the typical duties required of gym leaders, they’re basically inseparable

* Remus is the one person Janus trusts whole-heartedly

* I headcanon them as either really close friends or queer-platonic partners, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide their relationship!

* By the way, Janus’ team consists of:

* - Dragapult

* - Mimikyu

* - Zoroark

* - Arbok

* - Salazzle

* - Kimmo-oh

* So that leaves one side left...

* Ima be honest, I based Virgil heavily on Piers, but bear with me ok?

* Virgil grew up in a very poor town with his mother, as his dad abandoned them when he was very young

* And when I say poor, I mean that there wasn’t even a Pokemon Center

* Even so, he didn’t wish for anything. He didn’t care about traveling or becoming a great pokemon trainer. He just wanted to be with his mom

* (His anxiety made it hard to leave the house, anyway, so he was in no rush to go on some grand adventure)

* His mom had a dream to open a pokemon gym that both 1) incorporated music and 2) was more down to earth than the grand stadiums that were now the norm for gyms

* When she was pregnant with Virgil, she was more than happy to give up that dream for her family

* However, when her husband, their main source of income, abandoned them, her dream became more of a necessity

* The entire town was on her side, knowing that a gym could bring money to their town

* Their “gym” was nothing more than a small, outdoor stadium, but his mother loved it

* The few curious pokemon trainers who decided to challenge the unofficial gym absolutely loved her, and slowly she started to gain a bit of notoriety

* Virgil was terrified. He was afraid that his mom would get hurt by the powerful pokemon that constantly challenged her

* (And he missed her terribly. She still made time for him, but it wasn’t as much as before she took on the role of unofficial gym leader)

* And so, his mom brought him his very first pokemon: an Eevee that always seemed to know exactly how to calm him down

* He loved his Eevee, and he felt a little bit less alone whenever his mom had to leave for work. He was ok.

* Unfortunately, fate had cruel plans for the young boy

* His town was cast into shadow as a maddened Dynamaxed pokemon appeared a few miles away

* His mom, the strongest trainer in town, left to take it down, despite how much Virgil begged her to not go, or to take him with her

* (She had to go. The second-closest city to the dynamaxed pokemon was still very far away. Help wouldn’t come for a while. She was all her small town had.)

* (...She didn’t return)

* The entire town was in mourning, holding a huge ceremony to honor her memory.

* Virgil was inconsolable, barely speaking and refusing to leave his room for almost an entire year

* If it wasn’t for the people in the town, who cared for him as deeply as they did his mother, he probably wouldn’t have eaten.

* The unofficial gym, without a gym leader, was abandoned, and its small glimpse of fame was lost, plunging the town back into a seemingly inescapable pit of poverty and obscurity

* Until one day, a group of thugs came and terrorized the town, letting loose their pokemon and stealing everything they could get their hands on

* Virgil was terrified, but he couldn’t just stand there while people got hurt. With only his Eevee and his only experience being watching his mom in her matches, he challenged the thugs

* He didn’t stand a chance. His poor Eevee was at its knees within moments

* Virgil was distraught, hating his weakness and how he couldn’t protect the town that had become his family. He tried to fight the thugs himself, only to be knocked back by one of their Pokémon’s attacks.

* He got back up and charged again, tears in his eyes and bile rising from how scared he was

* His Eevee, terrified for its master and inspired by his bravery, began to glow...

* ...and in its place stood an Umbreon, body pulsing with newfound power

* This scene rallied the other people in the town, who banded together to drive the thugs away, Virgil and his Umbreon leading the charge

* From then on, Virgil vowed that he would become a strong Dark Type gym leader and create the gym his mother never got the chance to

* He trained hard, swallowing his fear to capture and train more pokemon for his team

* Which consists of...

* - Umbreon

* - Houndoom

* - Galvantula

* - Gothitelle

* - Corviknight

* - Noivern

* The townspeople, much like Team Yell in Pokemon Sw/Sh, would often go to other cities singing Virgil’s praise and unwittingly causing all sorts of problems

* Virgil has no idea that any of this is happening

* Eventually, word gets out again regarding this unofficial Pokemon gym, attracting the attention of the other gym leaders

* Roman is sent to investigate

* He doesn’t expect much, given the general appearance of the town (it doesn’t even have a pokemon center, after all)

* He’s even more put off when he recognizes the outfits of the trainers in the “gym” as the strange people who have been causing trouble all over Galar

* Even so, he has a job to do, so he dons a disguise and plows through all of the trainers, eager to finish the gym so he can go back home

* His desire to leave vanishes faster than a Pikachu with Agility the moment he lays eyes on Virgil

* Just like his mother wanted, Virgil’s battles take place during a rock concert, so Virgil waiting on a makeshift stage with a guitar in hand

* (Virgil feels like he’s going to explode with nerves, just like he does every time a trainer challenges his gym, but the memory of his mother gives him courage)

* As his Umbreon leaps into battle, he begins to sing

* And holy shit Roman is in love

* The small area is filled with spectators cheering and singing along to the song, and despite it being a far cry from any grand stadium Roman has ever battled in, it has more spirit than anything Roman has ever experienced

* It’s the most fun he’s had battling in years

* Virgil is a tough opponent, a testament to his years of pushing himself, but in the end Roman has more experience

* Virgil is devastated at the loss, knowing it would be a blow against the gym’s reputation, but manages to put on a smile and offers Roman a pin: their unofficial gym badge

* Roman smiles, removing his disguise to pin the badge to his clothes and Virgil is like “holy shit that’s Roman the famous fire-type gym leader oh no he’s really hot oh no what have I done I GAVE HIM A HANDMADE PIECE OF SCRAP METAL OH NO”

* And Roman, ignorant to Virgil’s crisis, is like “cmon, we gotta get the paperwork done to establish this place as an official gym!”

* When later asked, Virgil would firmly deny it, but at that moment he had literally burst into tears

* Roman still wears the badge Virgil presented to him to this day, even though Virgil has repeatedly offered him one of the higher-quality badges they now give out as an official gym

* Virgil’s gym is the only one that doesn’t have Dynamax, since he still has some trauma from his mother’s death

* Prinxiety eventually happens because I say so

* And all of the gym leaders are friends also because I say so

I might add more to this AU if people are interested! And feel free to add your own ideas! I’d love to hear what you think!

Sorry for rambling, but if you managed to get this far, thanks for reading! :D

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duhragonball · 3 years

Note

I was thinking about Goku and Krillin's friendship and it occured to me that they spent months training with Roshi together but then only saw each other for maybe a day every few years. Have you ever had a realization that tripped you out like this?

This is a really good ask, anon, and I just wanted to take a moment to say so.

I have had a few ‘a-ha’ moments like these, but I’m kind of blanking on specific examples. I’ll see what I can come up with.

1) For openers, there’s the whole thing where the Red Ribbon Army has a Dragon Radar, but it’s nowhere near as sophisticated as the handheld one Bulma invented. I think the same holds true for Emperor Pilaf, but his gang is only three people. You’d expect the RRA to have the best equipment possible, because that’s their whole deal, and by normal standards they probably do have the best possible Dragon Radar... but Bulma’s is simply that much better, because she’s on another level. And it’s easy to overlook that, because Bulma’s supposed to be a genius teenager, like Donatello in TMNT, but the RRA’s Dragon Radar is the first hint that she’s even more special than we could have guessed.

2) Rewatching Dragon Ball in 2019, I gained a new appreciation for the filler episodes where Mr. Popo trained Goku. The first time I saw them, I was hoping we’d see Goku grow up and make progress over the three year gap, but instead they just focused on his early days on the Lookout, with Popo just saying things and Goku failing to understand. It was very frustrating to watch.

But in 2019, I noticed that all those episodes get paid off in the Piccolo Junior fight. Popo kept telling Goku to be “quicker than lightning” and “quiet as the sky”, and Goku just couldn’t figure out how to do that, let alone fight at the same time. He had to unlearn all the stuff that had helped him defeat King Piccolo, and he couldn’t do it... at first. But by the time he fought Piccolo Junior, he put it all together, as demonstrated with his big finishing move. Piccolo thought he had vaporized Goku, only for Goku to fly up into the air and crash into him. Why didn’t Piccolo sense Goku’s presence? Because Goku had learned to become as “quiet as the sky”. Why couldn’t Piccolo dodge it? Because Goku had learned to become “quicker than lightning.” So it vindicates those filler episodes pretty nicely. They weren’t just marking time, but they were setting up what the manga was going to do later.

3) I think last year, it hit me that Vegeta had probably never lost a fight before he went to Earth. That alone isn’t probably any big deduction. The only people stronger than him were all working for Frieza, and he knew to steer clear of them until he was ready. But it explains why he was so giddy about the zenkai effect. He had always known about it, but he never mentioned or cared about it until he experienced it for himself after losing to Goku, and then Zarbon.

Yeah, I think this occurred to me during a conversation about Vegeta killing Nappa instead of helping him. In theory, Nappa could have recovered and gotten a lot stronger, just like Vegeta did. But Saiyans Saga Vegeta didn’t care about that. He only gave his henchmen one chancemand discarded them as soon as they lost. This attitude would also explain why he never dared to challenge anyone at a higher level. He knew no one would show him any mercy, so the zenkai boost would have been meaningless to him.

So he might have regretted killing Nappa after he experienced the zenkai firsthand, although he was so drunk on his own increased power that he probably never stopped to consider it. But before Earth, Vegeta probably dismissed the zenkai as a crutch for lesser Saiyans. In his mind, a truly great Saiyan never loses battles in the first place. Or so he believed, until he lost a few times, and became stronger for it, and had to reconsider.

And that also explains how he warmed up to the Super Saiyan Legend over the course of one afternoon. He and Goku made such sick gains that week that he started to wonder if you could zenkai your way to Super Saiyan, and then he was begging Krillin to shoot him just so he could get a step closer.

4) In the same vein, it occurred to me at some point that Bardock was probably stronger than King Vegeta, and neither of them realized it. Maybe it was just a dub-ism, but I’m pretty sure “Father of Goku” has a line about Bardock’s power level being 10000. At the time it was released, 10k wasn’t that big a deal, but in the Saiyans Saga, Vegeta was somewhere around 18-24k. Later, he would claim to have surpassed his father as a child, so I think it’s fair to assume that King Vegeta must have been in that 10,000 neighborhood.

Which makes a nice subtle commentary on why the Saiyan Kingdom failed. They tried to breed better warriors, putting all their stock in the royal family, when the true secret lay in warriors like Bardock, who were constantly getting clobbered and healed. Prince Vegeta only started to make real progress once he began fighting on that same regimen.

5) Also about “Father of Goku,” Frieza only wanted Planet Kanassa subjugated because of the psychic powers of its inhabitants. I think the dub insinuated that the planet itself gave people those powers, but whatever the case, Frieza heard about these people with unusual powers and wanted them stamped out immediately. Just like he wiped out the Saiyans over the Super Saiyan Legend, and just like he planned to destroy Namek to prevent anyone else from using the Dragon Balls.

In short, Frieza fears and despises legends. Why? Because he’s so powerful that real people can’t hurt him, so his fears naturally turn to half-truths and folklore. He chases down ghost stories and rumors, because let’s face it, what else does he have to occupy his time. That’s why King Cold was happy to have the Saiyans working for him, while Frieza wanted them all dead. Cold didn’t share Frieza’s hangups. Cold barely knew what a Super Saiyan was, while Frieza thought about it all the time.

6) One day I thought about that timeline where Cell killed Trunks and took the time machine to find the androids. That specific timeline is pretty much empty. The Z-fighters are all dead, and so are all of the androids and Trunks. They don’t even have a Cell anymore because he went back in time and never returned. There’s still a population, I guess, because the Trunks of that world wouldn’t have just stood by while Cell absorbed everyone on Earth, but that’s about it. Bulma might have survived Cell’s attack on Trunks, but she’d be the only “name” character on the board. It just sounds like a pretty depressing world. Maybe this was the timeline Whis picked out to relocate Blunks and Future Mai in Dragon Ball Super.

7) It sort of blows my mind that the entire Majin Buu arc takes place over a couple of days. Like, episode 207 through 250 all takes place over one day. We know this because Goku only had 24 hours to be back in the living world, and that time was cut short by his use of SSJ3. Then the Elder Kai started doing his ritual to make Gohan stronger, and that took like 25 hours, I’m pretty sure. That wrapped up in #262, and there was no break in the action from that point onward, all the way up to the defeat of Kid Buu in #287. So yeah, eighty episodes over two days. It’s practically real-time footage, save for skipping over the Elder Kai’s ritual and Goten and Trunks practicing and sleeping.

It’s hard to catch on to this, though, because so much stuff happens in the anime version that leads you to think that it’s a much longer span of time. After Vegeta wrecks the stadium, the anime can’t decide whether or not Mr. Satan would stay there or return to his dojo. In the Fusion Saga, Mr. Satan wanders from Buu’s house to the nearest town, then he wanders to the next town over, doing his “Last Man on Earth” bit, except this all happens during the Gotenks/Super Buu fight, which barely lasts half an hour. In the afterlife, Chi-Chi is worried that she can’t find Gohan, but she wouldn’t have even been there that long, and wouldn’t she still be in line to meet King Yemma? She was one of the last Earthlings to die, so how did she end up in heaven so quickly?

8) I used to think Movie 13 (the Hirudegarn one) was canon, but the last time I watched it, I noticed all these glaring problems. They use the Dragon Balls in this one, which means it has to be set six months after the wish to make everyone forget about Majin Buum which means it’s been a year since Kid Buu was defeated. Okay, fine, except Gohan and Videl are still in high school. Shouldn’t they have graduated by then?

More importantly, their high school and Bulma’s house seem to be in the same city. I guess that’s an easy mistake to make. It took me a long time to even notice, but Orange Star High is in Satan City, which is a totally different place from West City. I mean, right? They’re not terribly far apart, but they’re not the same place either.

Then again, they seemed to make the same error in Episode 287, where Bulma’s out shopping and Great Saiyaman 1 and 2 foil a robbery. Are they in West City or Satan City? Maybe there’s more to this...

#ask duhragonball #dragon ball #Anonymous

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ptolomeia · 3 years

Text

Story Time: Restitution

Teen and up

Brotherly/Platonic DRLAMP AU, Clones, psychic powers, Believed Major Character Death, Protective brothers, Suicidal Thoughts, Grief, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Second Chances, Rescues, Brief appearances of first person narration, but we promise they don't last, Everyone Needs A Hug, And surprisingly most of them actually get one

Summary: Story Time: Once upon a time, there was a boy named Thomas who developed psychic powers. Let me tell you, it did not go the way I dreamt it would.

* * *

When Janus learns what the men who made them had done to their progenitor, he knows he needs to get his brothers out. As soon as he can, he defects and starts the work needed to take down the men who made them, and keep his brothers safe.

* * *

After Deceit kills Janus, Virgil is left helpless to watch as Deceit takes his older brothers away from him one by one, until all he has left is the ghost of Not Janus and the possibility of a new brother to hold onto.

AO3

Story Time: Once upon a time, there was a boy named Thomas who developed psychic powers. Let me tell you, it did not go the way I dreamt it would.

* * *

Janus was the first of them to fall to Deceit. He’d been the oldest and smartest and best of them all, and Deceit had killed him.

Virgil knew that made sense. Janus was the most powerful and smartest of them all. Deceit had to know that any plan he made with Janus still around to fight him would have failed, so Deceit had killed him. Ambushed Virgil’s oldest brother on one of his missions, killed him, and started trying destroying everything the organization that made Virgil and his brothers had ever worked on. Deceit was brilliant. Deceit was terrifying. All of their training had been turned towards making Virgil and his remaining brothers powerful enough to destroy him. Apparently they’d done well enough, because the orders had come down last night. Remus would be going after Deceit in two more days.

Virgil bit his lip and tried to keep his worry from even Patton, useless as it was to try to hide what you were feeling from an empath. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Remus could do it—Remus was incredible! Brutal, creative, literally invulnerable, he’d take out Deceit no sweat and be home within the week.

But… Janus had been Janus. And Janus was never going to come home.

Virgil just didn’t want to lose another brother.

* * *

It had taken Remus days to get this deep into Deceit’s lair, but he’d finally managed it. Infiltration was his speciality after all. Well, that and mayhem. It was amazing what you could do when you didn’t have to worry about silly things like “bodily integrity” and “extreme temperatures”. But until he had Deceit right where he wanted him, he could be patient. And then, once Deceit was left in itty-bitty pieces, the Men who’d Made Them would be so distracted by cleaning up the rest of his organization that Remus would be able to grab his brothers and get out. Janus wasn’t there to protect them anymore, and someone had to. Roman would be safe. And so would Virgil.

He just had to kill this bastard and the brothers he had left would be free.

Remus heard steps coming down the hallway he was hiding over and shifted slightly, ready to drop down and destroy. Show time.

He would have sworn the movement was completely silent, but the figure stopped just outside pouncing range. Remus kept his breath as silent as possible, rage burning in his chest. Just a few more steps, and Janus’s ghost would be able to rest easy. All he had to do was wait.

“I know you’re there,” said a familiar voice, and everything inside Remus’s head came to a crashing halt. He was dead. “I can hear you. I don’t know how you made it this far, but you might as well—“

The angle was wrong, and his coordination off, but he still launched himself at the hooded figure not quite below him.

Shadow arms reached out and caught him, throwing him against the wall and pinning him there, and Remus was left staring into familiar brown and yellow eyes. Eyes that were full of things Remus couldn’t name.

“They send you to kill me?” Janus asked, letting go of Remus and vanishing his shadow hands. Remus’s legs refused to take his weight and he kept on sliding right down the wall. Janus was alive. “I wish I could say I thought they were above that,” Janus continued, “asking you to kill your own brother, but I can’t. Not after everything I’ve learned. Not after what they did to Thomas.”

“You’re alive,” Remus managed, not yet able to process anything else. “They told us Deceit killed you!”

“Right, because people who would send someone to kill their own brother—without even telling them—are the epitome of truthfulness,” Janus spat.

“Jan?” Remus asked, and for the first time in years, he let himself sound like the scared little brother no one could ever know he still felt like some times.

“They lied to you, Remus. To all of us. When I found out the truth about Thomas—“

“Who’s this Thomas guy you keep mentioning?” Remus asked. And why didn’t Remus know about him?

Janus looked down at him, thoughts flashing behind his eyes. Remus wished he’d let on what some of them were. “Our progenitor,” Janus finally said.

“Wait, what?” Remus asked. “You know about our progenitor? How? All they ever said was that he developed psychic powers and that’s why they cloned him after he died youn—“

Janus let out a dangerous hiss and Remus froze. Indestructible and immune to physical pain or not, he’d learned young it was really, really dumb to push Janus in a mood like this.

“That is what they said, isn’t it. ‘Died young.’ Well, at least that much wasn’t an outright lie, even with all the truths they hid with it.” Something solidified in Janus’s eyes—he’d made a decision.

“Come on,” he said, coming up to Remus and offering him a hand. “There are things you need to know.”

Without another word, Remus took his—living—brother’s hand and let himself be pulled up. There was no way he was going through with the original mission anymore, and once he had calmed down, Janus would be able to help him figure out what to do. It wasn’t his job alone to protect his brothers anymore. Janus would make sure Roman was never used to control Remus again. That Logan got to relax. That Patton never had to reach into someone’s heart and break them ever again. That Virgil… That Virgil was okay. All Remus had to do was hear Janus out and then they could get started on fixing things.

They walked through the twisting corridors of the base Janus had claimed. Remus’s mind made notes of small improvements that could be made to the already impressive security. He’d tell Janus when he’d calmed down again. Finally, they turned through a door into a small office. Nothing fancy—No pictures on the walls or rugs on the floor or anything. Just a small desk with a single screen on it, attached to a computer, and a chair at the desk. Janus sat down and started typing in commands.

“This room was one of the first ones I set up, when I left. My bedroom is the next door down and I come here when it feels like too much. When I need the reminder of why I left in the first place, and what’s truly at stake.” He got up from the computer. “They’re cued to run one after the other.”

Remus hesitated. His thoughts were too fast, his body needed to move, he didn’t want to—

“Do I really have to sit for this?” Remus asked.

“There’s a lot to take in,” Janus replied, looking over at him. Remus shifted slightly from foot to foot. This was obviously important but he could never focus when sitting sti—

Janus pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Remus. Remus couldn’t help his grin as he caught the fidget cube, hands immediately going to the clicking side. It might drive everyone else crazy, but he loved it. It was always the first side of his cubes to break.

“Aw shucks, bro. I missed you too,” Remus said, trying for a joke and an easy smile and for once having terrible aim.

“I’ve missed all of you,” Janus said, and he wasn’t even trying to hide how he felt, the confident bastard. “But after you see this, I think you’ll understand why I had to leave.”

Raising an eyebrow, Remus went and sat at the computer as his fingers danced across the cube, clicking and flicking and twirling. On the screen was a familiar face—the same one he saw in the mirror every day, or whenever he saw his brothers, though he didn’t know the subtle differences that distinguished this one. He knew for sure none of his brothers had ever looked that care free and besides, the kid on the screen looked older than most of them. Older than Logan, but younger than Roman or Remus himself. 16 was Remus’s best guess. He could turn and ask Janus—Janus definitely knew—or he could watch the videos and probably get the answers he wanted anyway. He reached up and pressed play.

On the screen, the kid started to move, smile becoming bigger and even more carefree, “What is UP everybody!”

Remus sat and watched. First were the videos of Thomas goofing around and having fun. And then the powers started showing up. Remus recognized them. The rest of their powers might be a lot more subtle, but he’d know Virgil and Janus’s shadow hands anywhere.

The next videos weren’t Thomas’s. They were security footage of familiar corridors and a cell and a kid who’d never been trained in his life trying to escape and failing miserably. Then came the experiments. Baseline stuff—Just tests to see how much you’d improved in certain categories. Lots of them, sure, but nothing Remus hadn’t been doing for as long as he could remember.

The next video didn’t have Thomas in it at all. It was a meeting of the men who ran the facility. The ones who’d ordered all of them made. Remus knew them from their pictures on the walls, but had never seen them in anything else. Not before now. The meeting did not start well. Disagreements. Arguments. Yelling. Finally, agreement. Conclusion.

Back to Thomas, with the experiments getting worse. More intense. Pushing Thomas to do more and more and more—again, it wasn’t anything Remus and his brothers hadn’t had to do, but Thomas wasn’t trained to take anyof this. Clips of Thomas crying in his cell. Thomas begging to be let out. To see his parents. To see his brothers. Thomas didn’t have any brothers in the facility. Remus felt Janus standing behind him, watching the videos with him. Janus who had died. Janus who was alive again. His fingers moved across the cube more and more frenetically. Harsher experiments—Worse than what they’d done to any of them except Remus, and Remus was indestructible—and then—

The explosion.

Thomas losing control or will or something—Remus couldn’t read his expression, the second it all went wrong, besides the fear. Maybe Patton could have, but Remus couldn’t. He just felt—He didn’t know that either.

The last video. A meeting. Blame, anger, (no guilt). A proposal. A ‘solution’. DNA recovered. They could start again, as many times as it took to get it right. They could tweak the sequence, adding and taking away as needed. They could build a team powerful enough to do whatever they wanted done. Experiments could be run to see if more power could be created, harnessed, controlled.

They would start with a single clone—increased senses, increased mental capabilities, some animal traits for senses humans didn’t have. He would teach them much about how to build the ones who came after him. The project was voted on. Approved. Code name: Janus.

The video ended on the smiles of the men. The cube cracked in Remus’s hand.

“You understand why I left now, don’t you,” Janus asked quietly behind him. “I’d long suspected there was something rotten there—the way they used Roman to control you, for a start—but once I knew the whole truth? Once I knew who the ‘Thomas’ I’d heard whispered about behind closed doors was and what happened to him… I had to stop them Remus. They tortured a kid to death—” Remus almost wanted to point out he wasn’t sure if Thomas was older than Janus by the time he’d… he couldn’t pick between ‘died’ and ‘was killed’ to describe it, but he didn’t. Even if he’d been years older than Remus by the end of the videos, he still understood thinking of someone that helpless and alone as a kid. “—and then they made more of us to torture until they could get it ‘right’.”

“I’ll help you stop them,” Remus said, turning to face Janus, the sharp edges of the broken cube digging painlessly into his palm.

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“Do you think you can stop me?” Remus said, surging to his feet and starting to pace. “After what I just watched? After what I know they’re willing to do? We can’t just keep leaving our brothers at their non-existent mercy Janus!”

“Because that was my plan entirely,” Janus snapped before coming over and grabbing Remus by the shoulders. “You have to understand, Remus. This is dangerous, even for you—“

“More dangerous than it is for you? You forgetting which one of us is invulnerable here?”

“They’ll use Roman,” Janus said, giving Remus a single shake. “You might be physically invulnerable but—They never had to hurt any of you to keep me in line, but they know you fold when they put Roman under pressure. If they think you’re dead, they wont’ have a reason to hurt him. You might be indestructible Remus, but are you willing to risk him?”

“So start a rumour you’ve developed mind control powers or something—They’d believe it! Dammit, Janus, you need me! I get you don’t have the resources to take them head on yet, but I can help you get them faster because we need to get them out!”

Suddenly, Remus had all of his big brother’s attention.

“What happened?” Janus demanded.

Remus pushed down all his panic and the memory of Thomas’s last expression.

“Janus. When you died—when you left… They started experiments on Virgil.”

#Sanders sides #Janus sanders #Virgil Sanders #Remus sanders #Protective Janus Sanders #Sanders Sides Fic #Me and my writing

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your-mom-friend · 3 years

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I posted 1,213 times in 2021

42 posts created (3%)

1171 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 27.9 posts.

I added 137 tags in 2021

#fandom posts - 20 posts

#rem rambles - 18 posts

#dammit tumblr - 16 posts

#life advice - 13 posts

#crack post - 13 posts

#info dump - 13 posts

#rr crit - 12 posts

#donations - 11 posts

#fun facts - 11 posts

#signal boost - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 101 characters

#i'm lucky because i share a bed with my sister and she would skin me alive if i didn't do it properly

My Top Posts in 2021

Maybe I should make this a series I seem to be watching a lot

Right so I'm watching Saiki K. I'm only in season 2 but like

- Precious boy. I love him.

- rb to give him all the coffee jelly in the world he deserves it

- "I don't have any friends all these people that hang around me are just annoyances"

-"But I will routinely go out of my way to make sure they're happy" -Teruhashi's brother. Jail. Take him to jail.I won't bother myself to remember his name

-Kusuke. Maximum security Prison. Like rn. How has he not been arrested already? This man is kind of off his rocker and dangerously unstable. He has almost no boundaries. I think not killing people is a boundary he has but I hold no expectations for it. He pretty much tried to KILL his little brother like, several times

-Possibly the best part of this series is when Kusuo uses his powers for bigger things. Like the world-wide mind control thing. Or saving Yumehara. Or training with his powers. That one particular scene where the loan shark guys try to kidnap him and he fuckin' decimates them (gotta say, I like the whole evil look for him).

-Our aroace icon. i Love him for that.

-His whole friendship with Akechi. They've been through a lot. The idea of Kusuo never telling people about his powers because he told the one friend he did have and ended up destroying a classroom is so sad.

-I kind of really want there to be a Saiki Protection Squad. He gets in trouble and EVERYONE is there to bail him out of it. Kokomi, Kaido, Nendo, Aren, Hairo, Mikoto, Reita, everyone. Viciously.

-PK Academy Psychic Kids God Bless.

-The fact that he keeps repeating Junior year to stop the volcano

-He wants to keep a low profile but his friends include: the most popular girl, the most popular guy, a former gang leader and two out and pround psychics. I love kaido and Nendo but they're probably his most normal friends

64 notes • Posted 2021-10-20 16:19:24 GMT

Okay I am so in love with the idea of Kusuke being like, just a smidge insane. Like he's not dangerously obsessed with Kusuo he's just a normal obsessed when you're a genius with a god-like being as your baby brother.

I read it from a fic (definitely check out everything written by Suikorin on AO3 they're so good) but Kusuke's hair being the way it is because Kusuo burned him as a kid by accident. Learning to sleep only 17 minutes a night because he was so busy trying to invent the limiters.

Also the limiters being less so that Kusuo didn't destroy everything, and more because Kusuke didn't want to see Kusuo get hurt or upset by his ever-growing powers.

Them messing around and using so much force because they're literally the only ones they can go all out with. Never trying to actually kill each other though. And of course, they both use the "I'm telling mom!" card and it WORKS because Saiki Kurumi is a force to be reckoned with.

Getting older and Kusuke gets involved in a lot of dangerous shit but he's never scared because a) he is always 8 steps ahead of his enemies and b) Kusuo is always watching, and can and will come in and kick ass to save his brother.

They are very, very protective of each other, even if people don't usually see it. Kusuo is more subtle about it to not draw attention but Kusuke can see his influence. He, however, has no such qualms and can, will, and has pulled a gun on people who so much as look at his brother (or sister, depending on whether Kuriko makes an appearance) the wrong way. Kusuo appreciates it, even when he acts annoyed. Maybe it's nice to be the one being protected for once (even if he doesn't actually need it)

95 notes • Posted 2021-10-28 08:56:49 GMT

So I've been watching Assassination Classroom

Dear fuck I need to stop my exams are like 2 days from now

anyway y'all know how it is. Long post so buckle up

-I was pretty skeptical to watch it but my sister convinced me

-I love it so much

-I've just finished season 1 and I have opinions

-The whole series really hinges of Korosensei just deciding to teach a class for no reason huh. Like I feel like if they tried to logically answer "why does an octopus intent on destroying Earth want to spend the last year dutifully teaching middle schoolers?" the whole show would fall apart

-and I love it

-The opening scene of them firing on him as soon as he entered was iconic

-Really didn't like Karma at first. Kinda unhinged, even for this class. Especially when he tried to jump off a fuckin cliff what the FUCK Karma. I know the saying is "Karma's a bitch" but I didn't mean it like this.

-Nagisa. My son. Please protect him. I love him so much. The only one with a brain cell to record weaknesses.

-Damn I kinda...really don't like Irina. Like idk if that'll be a hot take in this fandom but what the fuck. Why would you try to seduce a middle schooler. Why kiss his brain out. What the fuck lady. I don't give a shit about you being a trained assassin part of that is reading a room and this room certainly wasn't spelling out "seduce the nearest child for information"

-Like I know she isn't a bad person and is a professional when she needs to be but I can't get over that initial thing. I might be biased but whatever.

-Also, Karasuma. 10/10 character. No flaws. Absolutely perfect. He's their dad. He gave them all a number to call in case they needed anything. They've al individually, without any input from anyone else, made the ringtone "You are my daAD, BOOGIE WOOGIE WOOGIE" This is canon because I said so.

-I headcanon both Karasuma and Irina as aroace just in different directions. Karasuma does not want a relationship, romantic or sexual, and just wants to live life as simply a tired dad to his assassin children. Irina also doesn't want a relationship, she just uses that to seduce everyone and she doesn't have to worry about catching feelings.

-The vibe I get from Irina trying to seduce Kurasama is the vibe I get from Teruhashi and Saiki. Only obsessed because he won't pay attention when everyone else pays too much attention, then develops feelings for who they are.

-I think my favorite part is how much almost everyone's heart is in the right place. And how everyone comes in with this clear-cut mission and goal and Korosensei just kind of...teachers them into being compassionate and letting loose. Karma. Ritsu. Karasuma, Irina. Almost anyone.

-Have I mentioned how batshit insane it is for the government to be like yes. We can't kill this unkillable creature that blew up the moon. How about we let him teach a class of middle schoolers, since he's gonna kill us all anyway. Absolute madlads.

-Yes I know the reason, no it doesn't stop it from being insane. And the government just has anti-sensei material to just provide for whoever the fuck wants it.

-Takaoka. Fuck that guy. Mostly because he reminds me uncomfortably of my father. Don't like that, not one bit. This man woke up and chose unbridled rage. Sir this is a Wendy's. Please chill.

-Oooooh Nagisa shaping up to be a whole ass assassin and everyone being like holy fuck lil dude dangerous as all fuck

-Karma not knowing since he skipped out

-I love their continued casual attempts at murder. "Hey no murder in the classroom till break time" students: *sigh* fine you're no fun

-I also love how hyped Korosensei is about being assassinated. Like whole ass giving them pointers.

-Plus his little quirks. Is he going to blow up the Earth and kill everyone? Oh yeah definitely. But infect his darling student's minds with the knowledge that he reads porn mags? are you insane? what kind of teacher-

-Really hating principal bitchface. Like I know that's his character but WOW setting up a class to fail with poor facilities and then making the laughing stock of the school on PURPOSE? That's messed up.

-I mentioned this earlier but Karasuma and Irina coming to be assassins and then just worrying about the kids and their future is everything. Is them being parental figures a tag? it should be

-I have FEELINGS about the howmany-part season finale (i lost count I actually have been studying in between letting this show consume me)

-Their plan was fuckin genius it should've worked and it WOULD'VE if Korosensei wasn't a little shit

-When they got sick I was like oh shit

See the full post

112 notes • Posted 2021-11-30 10:52:02 GMT

On Rick Riordan Criticism

Okay so a couple months back I heard about people hating on Rick. Honestly I just kind of dismissed it because I thought he did good on representation and was only reading the Trials of Apollo at the time.

Then I read the Tyrant’s Tomb (sue me I didn’t read it earlier high school has been a bitch). When I saw Arabic script on those pages, I literally had to fight myself to not skip the paragraphs before that and try to read it. I failed. I read the word. I was confused. It didn’t make any sense? The letters were disjointed and didn’t spell out anything I could understand. So I went back and read the paragraph hoping for context. None. I went and read the word backwards and only THEN did I find out it was meant to say Alexandria.

Rick, why? Why write it like that? Was Google Translate beyond you? I started to look back. I remembered reading Magnus Chase and meeting Samirah. I was super excited to see a HIJABI character. A MUSLIM character. I read about her arranged marriage to Amir. Okay, cool. My parents were an arranged marriage.

Betrothed? I’m from India, and I live in a Muslim country, but I’d never really heard about betrothal before. It made me pause but I just kind of moved past it. Samirah was Iraqi-American right? Maybe Iraq had different a culture. Maybe it was a Shia Muslim thing? I wasn’t looking to get into that drama so I left it.

I thought back to Blood of Olympus. I was kind of uncomfortable with Frazel’s age gap and Piper’s sexualisation in her claiming. I didn’t completely understand it but I remember being slightly uncomfortable but moving past it. After all it was only 3 years right? My parents were 5 years apart. Why did it matter? And Western media is no stranger to sexualizing people, maybe I was just being a prude. Piper singing Summertime instead of a Traditional Cherokee song to charm the king of snakes disappointed me too. I was excited to see how Rick would portray her voice singing a song that belonged to an ancient culture.

But we didn’t get that.

I read those books in middle school. When I could understand the need for representation but not understand what representation was good and what was harmful, regardless of intent. I was young. I thought Nico’s forced coming out was amazing and cool. It wasn’t. It was traumatic. I identify as Sapphic and being forced to come out to someone when you thought they wouldn’t accept you is beyond terrifying.

I’m older, I’m more aware. We don’t just need representation. We need GOOD representation. What’s wrong with the things I pointed out above?

Children shouldn’t be getting betrothed. Especially not that young.

Frazel’s age gap shouldn’t be that big. A year at most, not three. My parents may be 5 years part but guess what? They were adults. Hazel Lavesque is THIRTEEN. She’s barely a teenager. She doesn’t need to worry about relationships at that age. Literally every other character was in their mid-teens when they started dating. Including Frank, who is the other half of that ship.

Piper is already disconnected from her heritage and is written with racist stereotypes, however unintentional they may be. This was literally building up to her showing some pride in her culture but no.

There are so many characters that have been portrayed wrong or with harmful stereotypes. Mr. Riordan, you are a famous author. You can afford to hire a person of that community to come and read your books to make sure you aren’t perpetuating stereotypes. Instead you choose to give non-apologies and continue to do less than the bare minimum to learn about the cultures you write about.

Look, I’m not going to pretend I can be a voice to a whole community. I was born in a country of brown people, I moved to a country of brown people, and my whole life I’ve had my religion respected and my race was never an issue. I was sheltered for the longest time. I can’t pretend to understand the kind of discrimination and other struggles other brown people, other muslim people, have had to face in more western countries simply for existing. The only thing I can do is call attention to discrimination and racism where I see it and try to help. I can call people out on it and learn more about other cultures to be a better ally to people who have it harder than me.

I strongly encourage everyone that reads this post to check out the tag rr crit, and educate yourselves on what he got wrong and how he can do better. Fans that continue to say he’s not racist can talk to me in the asks or DM me

119 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 06:31:35 GMT

Still thinking about how we should've gotten Percy and Annabeth acting as the 7's older siblings/parent friends instead of...whatever their dynamic in HoO was.

It would make so much more sense too because Percy and Annabeth are around 17 to the other's 13-16. Plus, we know that Percy is pretty bitter about the Gods for being deadbeat parents and all the other shit they pull including but not limited to letting their children fight wars.

So like Percy being proud of Jason for being such a good leader and stuff but being low-key bitter because he literally spent his whole life training himself to be a leader and warrior just because he's Jupiter's on.

Jason being a little jealous of Percy because he's older and he's cool and got the preatorship in like a month where he had to work for it. But also him finally learning to relax because now he doesn't need to be the leader. He could still give relevant input without being expected to have all the answers. None of that alpha male "I should lead this team" bullshit

Leo and Piper having someone to confide in about knowing their heritage for just a few months before being thrust into the biggest prophecy in a century. For that matter Hazel and Frank too but with gaining confidence in their powers.

Percy and Annabeth being protective of these kids because by gods they're just KIDS. And yeah Percy and Annabeth are technically still kids too but, at least they had support systems. No one else within the 7 had anyone they could truly confide in without fearing that they'd disappoint someone until these two came along.

Rick seems to have forgotten how age gaps work in teenagers but they're important. The teens are a formative period of life because of huge changes within surroundings and yourself. As people, teens grow incredibly fast. Even someone 2 years older than them is at a way different place in life. Annabeth and Percy would definitely see Hazel and Frank's crushes and shut that down real quick because he's 3 years older than her and it's not appropriate.

After Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus (it should've been Jason and Piper but whatever), Jason tries to take the reigns but they suffer some type of loss and he realizes they're all his equals and he needs to play as a member of the team and not just the leader. There is no Nico bashing because he is also a kid and I won't stand for it

I had a point and it has devolved into my personal headcanon but feel free to add on to it

246 notes • Posted 2021-08-28 05:51:45 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #hooo boy

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness

Welcome back my Scottaholics! We’re moving right along fun and fancy free just a few days later from Book 2 to 3. Which fits: As I mentioned in my review of book 1 I first encountered Scott, Ramona and Wallace in a free comic book story, and VERY intrigued, bought volumes 2 and 3 from the same comic shop after reading it in line.. or maybe I went there again later and bought them. My brain is a foggy sinkhole. Point is I was hooked from then on out, and bought the next three volumes as I came out, and through the internet because by then i’d leanred to use Amazon. Ironic given Ramona’s work for them is not only iconic to the series but plot important in volumes 1 and 2. As is Scott’s package toss in the movie. But the story of my long wait for volume 4 can wait for February. Point is it was these two and Free Scott PIlgrim are the ones I poured over again and agian, obessing over as a teen and the ones that stick in my brain the most. But even with that last time the exaustive process of covering it exposed a LOT of volume 2′s weakness: While it has a lot of iconic scenes, including Scott accidently convincing a man to skateboard himself to death, the Ramona and Knives fight, the envy call, the flashback, and is still very enjoyable..it also feels the most like a collection of loose events out of the books. Good stuff and character and tone wise better than last time.. but not quite as narratively strong. The series was GETTING there, the art was solidfiying into it’s final form, the characters were in the right place, SCott was more likeable.. but it hadn’t quite hit it’s stride yet. Three guesses when it did and the first two didn’t count. Infinite Sadness is one of my favorite volumes, along with 4 and 6. And while part of that is nostaliga and a personal connection.. the bulk of it is just this volume being even BETTER on the re-read. I picked up subtle bits that I didn’t notice before that only enritched the experince, the pacing is sublime, the character work is top notch and compelling, the art work is finally crystlalized into what the series is known for, and would only get even better as it goes, and the fights are some of the series best. This is one hell of a story and I warmly invite you to join me as I break it down after the break.

Previously on Scott Pilgrim: Scott defeated Lucas Lee, the second Evil Ex, met Luke Wilson, and prepared to go to his ex girlfriend’s concert despite this being a terrible idea to discuss a gig. It was there he and Ramona found out Envy’s base player Todd, the douchenozzle who she cheated on Scott with, is also the douchenozzle Ramona cheated on Lucas with.

So we open.. exactly from that moment, with Scott and Ramona starring wide eyed while the band plays in an utterly dazzling sequence that’s been brought up a notch in the color remaster. Also one of a handful of moments that was barely touched from page to screen, with only slight adaptations to make it better on screen, and the addition of Metric’s now iconic “Black Sheep”. And when reading the scene.. I couldn’t resisit turning black sheep on as it matched it perfectly.. so yeah have the Clash at the Demonhead performance from the film

youtube

So while that worms it’s way into your head, let’s talk about the character designs for Clash Of the Demonhead, since volume 2 is the last time in the color editions O’Malley really talks about character origins and stuff. I could’ve missed something of course, we’ll see as we go won’t we. I just saved it for here as the Volume 2 review was running a bit long as is and while their shown on covers and on the back cover of the black and white edition, they don’t show up in person and in their full glory till the last panel, hence saving it for here where Envy and Todd are the main antagonists and Lynette is... plot relevant.

Envy was based on the front woman for the band Metric, Emily Haines, designed much like hanes to be a tough, confrotnational, sexy woman, his words not mine, who’d gone through a lot of change in a few years since according to him, and i’m willing to take his word for it since I don’t know the band outside of the one song he picked for the movie, a lot of the bands songs are about that. And honeslty it makes me want to check them out more, as does how awesome black sheep is I can’t belivie I took this long, and is supremely intresting as I hadn’t realized there was a good reason there wasn’t just an original song written for clash at the demonhead. I mean if you base your character on the frontwoman for a band why NOT use one of their songs.

Speaking of band, Plumtree’s drummer, Lynette Gillis, was the inspiration for Lynette Gycott, though the final version of her is more cold and robotic and less like Gillis than initially envisioned.

Finally Todd..was based on Scott, and while he evolved out from that a bit especially in powers.. the concept basically stuck as Todd is a stronger, dumber, more agressive and douchey version of Scott whose mistreatment of women is far more deliberate than Scott’s untetional douchebaggery.

So after some interview segments for some sort of documentary on the band with the crowd, we cut to our heroes after the show, all standing around and being nervous. Stephen’s first words are “Decent show eh, told you they were good”.

Admitely re-reading this one and answering a reader question, unrealted but it got me to thinking, made me realize Stephen wasn’t AS much of a dick as I thought: I didn’t think about the fact Scott and Envy’s blow up cost him their old band which was close to singing, and that Scott both as revealed in volume 3 and in bits here, was kind of a dick towards the end, intitating the breakup while drunk and belligernt and saying a facepunchingly dickish comment we’ll get to. So he wasn’t BLAMELESS and it’s understandable Stephen dosen’t hate her as much. She was friends with his horrible albatross of a girlfriend and didn’t break his heart.

However.. he’s still an asshole and deserve jeff blim’s theatrical fuck you up there. He still ignores Scott’s pain, or the fact that most of the breakup WAS Envy’s fault as we’ll see. We’ll get into it in full obviously but for the cliffs notes so I can yell at a fictional grumpy closted canadian man: She slowly drifted away from him, treated him like he had no say in a band he helped found or took his feelings into account in the record deal, and cheated on him with Todd and possibly another guy. And as seen here she used her fame to bribe her ex and friends into showing up just so, as we see, she can torture him and his new girlfriend a bit. Envy is not a good person and Stephen is ignoring that and his friends VERY obvious emtoinal turmoil. Especially dickish since by this point Scott has clearly swallowed his pride and agreed to a show with someone who really DEEPLY hurt him for Stephen and Kim’s sake.. and he’s not even remotely greatful for it clearly. The only reason he’s not the biggest asshole left in the building is because Todd, Envy and Julie, queen of bitches, is in there.

So after a save point gag that goes nowhere, Envy shows up to take the group back stage... awkward, uncomfortable and very intentional silence insues to makes Scott even more sweaty and nervous and Ramona visably and understandably annoyed. Knives tries to talk to her hero but gets ignored because Envy’s a bitch.. and so’s Julie who not only joins in the shunning of a fucking teenager who clearly loves this band, but also is clearly trying to conversationally surgically attach her lips to Envy’s ass. Her toadying is obnxoious as you’d expect and as transparent as you’d expect, trying to drudge up old nostalgia while Envy’s clearly barely intrested, and the only thing that makes it more tolerable than normal Julie is Envy clearly barely tolerates this and likely is only going with it because she could be a useful minon in the future.

Thankfully this is broken up. Unthakfully it’s by knives shouting her most iconic line:

Given Envy is shown to not be the best person.. her response is to have her cyborg goon belt knives in the face

Which leads to an even better line seconds later

Envy then to just .. complete the circle of being a bitch has NEil take knives out then mocks her when Julie explains why knives and neil were even here. And it’s VERY telling that even Julie, who was must minutes from humping envy’s leg and begging to go with her when she leaves, is visably put off by Envy’s attitude. So while Ramona is understandably fucking done with this, as even she has some shred of sympathy for the teenager who tried to stab her a day ago, Scott has to take a minute to have a flashback. We see two brief bits of Scott with Envy, at the start of their college band Kid Chamelon where they were all happy.. and shortly after the breakup where Scott is miserable, in the middle of the street, sadly saying their name while saying “I’m so alone”.. explaning that desert bit from volume 1.. and making it ten times more painful. Nicely done Brian.

So with Knives gone we get our usual character age intros and descriptoins, my favioritte being Stephen “wants a damn buritto dammit” which I can relate to and thankfully got it monday. He also does show a bit more of his noble self as, things have escalated to the point even he can see Envy has some sort of evil scheme planned and he walked right into it so he asks what her ulterior motive is. Julie pipes up with “She dosen’t NEED ulterior motives she was written up with in spin!”

So Envy grills Ramona a bit clearly trying to make her squirm..though at least when Julie TRIES to jump in she shoots her down, like some asshole pulling a yappy dog on it’s leash hard. Eventually Scott flips out and .. well I don’t want to overpanel this review but this is just.. quotes cannot do this justice.

The result.. is the reveal Todd is psychic due to being a vegan and he throwing scott through a wall with telkenisis, kyle!

It’s explained he has these powers because he’s a vegan and even was top of his class at the vegan academy. Citation... needed. Not because of his power but because Todd may be one of the stupidest beings that’s ever lived. And I once had a friend whose other friend told me, since they’d be going to diffrent high schools and he was trying to pass off his mummies curse of keeping him from destroying himself with his own stupidity, tried to run into a wall to loose weight. No I don’t get how this would’ve worked but having known the guy I guarnatee he was arrogant and dumb enough at the time to try it. Nowadays I assume he’s much better... I assume. You.. you’d have to be to have survived another decade.

Todd is also THAT kind of smug dickhead. Thankfully I haven’t met one in real life or online, as the two vegetarians I have known, one of my best friends micheal and my uncle drew, the former of whom now also eats fish and the latter of whom gave it up once he moved to places he could get meat that was raced humanely easier, but who I still respect for having that amount of self control. But Todd is a clear parody of the type of vegan and vegetarian who think their better than everyone.. by thinking he’s even BETTER than regular vegans because not every vegan can take the strain of psychic powers, with Kim naturally sniping at him.. then flipping him off when he says “don’t get snippy babe” and is very lucky he has psychic powers as otherwise he’d suddenly be wondering where his dick is and why kim’s holding a broken bottle.

Brian also pokes fun at the old 90 percent of your brain trope. You know the old one that claims you only use 10 percent..

But it’s only because your only ACTIVELY using it and the rest is simply other functions. But hey we got Deathstroke out of that claim so good enough. Todd claims it’s because the other 90 percent is curds and whey. This might be the greatest use of this outdated trope in human history. No.. no.. it is. It exactly is.

Envy brags that’s why he can’t beat him having clearly traded disappearing up her own ass for disappearing up todd’s, Julie was also crammed up there, it was getting crowded. Envy claims to have been with todd since age 11.. which.. is more.. delusion than anything and she brushes off Ramona rightfully pointing out that’d mean he cheated on her with Ramona as Rammy trying to distract her and trying to smack talk SCott more who has another flashback.

SOME YEARS AGO.. I DUNNO 5? 5 YEARS AGO?

We see Scott’s first meeting with Envy, who was rooming with Julie. Julie, it might shock you.. has not changed at all in 5 or so years. She’s seen bitching at her roomate Natalie V. Adams, the future Envy, for not wanting to get drunk and high and for hanging out in her room with all her anime posters and stuff. As you can tell, she’s a vastly diffrent person at this point, a nerdy interverted otaku and as you can probably guess now the flashbacks have started at the top, we’ll be seeing how she became the sexpot rockstar she is now and how that drove a wedge betwene her and Scott. Julie SHOCKINGLY does not take this well and as Stephen to kil lher if she ever becomes friends with her. I mean I would but If I could travel into fictional works I certainly woudln’t be wasting my time murdering Julie. I’d be asking kim out and trying to get into some cool video game ablities myself. I ain’t got time for that bitch.

Next cut Julie is ... even worse as she’s calling Scott some “jerky jerky ladykiller”, pointing out he’s hooked up with recurring background characters Sandra and Monique. Now GRANTED, Scott could’ve hurt them and Julie could be right for once.. we’ve seen he has a history of being an insenstive douche by pure accident. But.. from the sounds of it given his encounters with Sandra and Monique were both in seperate ladies rooms, as in casual hookups I assume are common in universities. As long as he used a condom and dind’t lie about being in it longterm, who the hell does it hurt. Same if he and Natlie ended up being that. He’s not a “ladykiller” if he got busy on a washroom sink. He just had casual sex in an awful location and given Scott is both horny and stupid freqently, I could buy he either inittated it clumsily and sandra and or monqiue went for it, or one of them thought he was cute and wanted a quick one with him and it just never went anywhere either due to lack of intrest or Scott being kind of a moron. I don’t buy he INTENTIONALLY hurt anyone, he MIGHT of hurt Sandra she seems kind of ditzy and might’ve not realized it wans’t serious.. but it just entirely sounds like a casual, consesual one time hookup with two seperate women. And as long as he wore a condom and repsected their needs what the fuck is it Julie’s buisness. BEcause their here freinds? I mean they told her but they weren’t expecting her to play dick sheirff with scott probably. And Natlie is not her buisness: their not really friends.. she’s just trying to ruin Scott’s day. I honestly get the sense she only hates Scott because she can’t get rid of him, Stephen won’t dump him as a friend and he fucked her friends once. Which makes me hate her MORE. Natlie/Envy however also calls bullshit and thinks Scott’s much too awkward to be a ladykiller. Accurate. I mean he’s good with women and gets dates easily, he’s just not inteitonally leaving them high and dry. He’s just not great with empathy.

Scott snaps back to the present and gets pissed.. and we get the real reason for the outburst as he shouts “You you ass! She USED to be NICE!”. It’s very clear that Scott blames Todd for Envy’s change into an cold and cruel person. But .. that’s not on him entirely. I do think Envy’s cattier, more cruel “play with prey like a cat with a mouse” personality at this point is due to Todd feeding into her worse impulses.... but the flashbacks make clear even before she saw him again she was slowly changing as a person for better, gaining a drive and passion for music.. and for worse, shutting scott out cheating on him and generally not carring about anything but her career, especially Scott. As much as he wants to belivie it she didn’t MAGICALLY change into a bitch overnight and beating todd won’t fix that. She became what she is as a choice. Todd just made what she became worse.

After the predictable result of Scott getting flung into the air and falling back down, he has another flashback and we see the next phase of their relationship: Scott, Envy and Stephen playing in a band for Stacey and Wallace (!), whose hair is certainly a... choice. And the two falling in love and julie grilling scott on if he and nat are a couple because why stop making me wish for a bus to hit you NOW Jules?

So we then get ANOTHER iconic line and another scene that was perfectly translated into the film

Comic gold no matter the medium.. Brandon Routh just nailed it and I watched the scene again before writing this just out of curoisty. Flawless stuff. Check it out

youtube

I will say however that while Movie!Envy’s response of just quickly covering is pretty funny.. I prefer the comic’s envy’s utterly baffled and pissed off “What are you talking about Todd?”. Even she can’t fathom what the fuck just happened. But since it’s late and Todd’s brain is pretty fried, Envy calls for everyone to get some sleep and they’ll regroup tommorow at 1pm at Honest Ed’s. Honest Ed’s WAS a famous discount Store in Canada that sadly closed in 2016, making what ‘s about to happen to it here sad in hindsight. It was known for big sales, big spectacle and i’ts larger than life owner who sadly passed a few years after this volume. But god bless him for giving this series one of it’s best settings. More on that when we get there for now FLASHBACK

Back in College, we see Nat’s change into envy as she sells all her stuff for some bitching new boots and cd’s and during sex with Scott asks him to start calling her Envy. Their still somewhat happy, as the next flashback has Scott remembering their 8 month anniversary and her playfully mocking him as the girl.. before we get a much starker one of him telling her he loved her and her not responding.. and looking at him.. more.. bored than anything.

Back in the present our heroes try to wait out the rain under a bank thing, can relate to the times i’ve visted the city and came out to rain, and when that fails Kim says she’s off and will see them at practice and tells Stephen to blow her when he asks her if she’s going to Honest Ed’s, then seems genuinly confused if he pissed her off before heading home. Swing and a miss stevie, swing and a miss.

Scott is hungry and sorta drags Ramona, whose not in the mood for anything, over to Pizza Pete’s a nearbye eatery. It’s there they happen to run into Other Scott... Other Scott is another guy named Scott. He dosen’t do much in the books. But the name Other Scott is objectively funny and he is objectively nice so he’s fine in my book and I applaud the movie for using him as Wallace’s love intrest. Though I wouldn’t be REMOTELY suprised if they were fucking in the books too. And of course with him is Wallace himself, who really is just.. entering this volume in the most Wallace way possible.

A little drunk, eating some cheap but good food, with a million dollar style and in just the exact right place at the exact right time. If that’s not Wallace Wells, I don’t know what is. Wallace and Other Scott were clubbin, not a huge suprise given Wallace has his own deep and complicated social life we never see and Wallace is naturally a little bit absolutley livid when he finds out Scott went to see Envy’s show anyway despite you know, putting him in a misery coma. Who do you think has to clean you and feed you when your like that Scott? Elves? Well I mean .. Wallace MIGHT be an elf.. but he stilld soen’t want to do either of those things. He breifly gets sidetracked by the fact that Scott is wearing his shirt.. maybe. I mean he wore it the other day but given their living situation it’s honestly hard to tell. Ramona reminds him of his priorites

That’s part of the fun of rereading these again so soon after rereading them in december: I’m noticing tons of little moments like this I didn’t really before. The two explain things, including Ramona pointing out Scott’s extra stupid around Envy. I mean it’s a bit mean to point out given this is clearly a lot for him.

Wallace brushes it off and promises to help him train like a true pal before being prompted to talk about this new boy he picked up Mobile.. who we wont’ see in person for a while but Wallace is clearly head over heels for and begs Scott to let him have the apartment.. or more accuratley Ramona, whose clearly not in the best of moods with Scott, to take him. His sales pitch is immaculate

So she agrees and a friendship is forged based on mutual hatred and being someone’s dipping sauce bitch. I’ve forged longer lasting friendships on far less. Also Wallace forgot his keys but wisely banked on his Gladstone Gander esque luck to help him out.. seriously i’m convinced he has a lower yield version of that. Or God wants to bang him but can’t because his penis is so powerful it CAN SPLIT A MOUNTAIN IN TWAINNNNN. You make the call.

So they sleep it off, and Scott heads home early next morning.. and forgot he gave wallace his keys. Thankfully wallace finds him, and even got him donuts for when he came back, what a guy, makes you cry and I did. He also shows off a new trick about using your chi to dust rain off you. Turns out Mobile is psyhich which.. dosen’t come into play but for vallad reasons: Scott assumes Mobile can just.. give him psyhic powers and training but a) he and Wallace JUST met and while they’ll remain together for the rest of the series, it’s a big ask to have him help train his best friend to fight a man as dumb and chisled as a mountain, and B) “It dosen’t work that way” meaning scott’s probably not psi adept and even if he can be taught, there’s not NEARLY enough time for him to get good enough at shielding himself from Telkenisis in time given Todd’s already fighting him today and has two other oppprotunites afterwords to beat his ass to death. There’s just not enough time. So scott collapses with a donut in his mouth.. are .. are we sure this isn’t just a more attractive more sucessful canadian alternate me?

We flashback to when Wallace met Envy and since i’ts post-becoming envy, it dosen’t go well and he hates her immidetly, and expects Scott to break up with her asap.. which while bitchy.. actually woudl’ve been a good move in the long run. And “Bitchily phrased but a good move in the long run” has apparently always been Wallace’s go-to move.

In the present Wallace helps Scott , who thinks everything sucks, realize it does not, with the help of fresh bacon and perspective, helping him avoid thinking Envy is “back” when she’s just vistiing and somewhat forces him to admit it’s not happening again nor should it. And implicity your both with other people, you’ve moved on, stay moved on. ANOTHER Flashback, this time with Envy asking Scott how he and Wallace met after dinner with Scott’s parents. It’s the story we’ve been hinting at since.. uh last volume.

And indeed it is somewhat gay! Behold! The origin of a friendship to piece the heavens or .. something like that. I’m tired.

It’s a quick breezy story that honestly both explains a lot and is what you’d expect; Wallace taking an intrest, Wallace presumibly realising Scott is straight off screen but deciding fuck it I like this guy let’s be pals instead, and jjust sorta showing up at his house. But since it’s Wallace and he and Scott both love gaming.. it just stuck. And it’s easy to see why. Scott’s a bit of an introvert and Wallace is a ton of an extrovert. Wallce is nice, naturally charming and endlessly cool, and as you can see it took him probably just an afternoon to go from freaking scott out for showing up randomly, to Scott talking the guy up and clearly being the bosom buddies they are now. The two just ballance each other out well. Wallace need’s scott’s weirdness and general heart, and Scott needs Wallace to keep him from running into the brick walls of life via his own stupidity and conflict avoidance. It’s what they do, they make it a two player game.

So later that day, and some off screen training later, presumibly to the song Two Player Game despite the fact it didn’t exist yet, our heroes (Scott, Ramona and Wallace), Villians (Envy and Todd) and other not so much evil as just cretionus assholes (Stephen and Julie) arrive. It’s also clear that Envy just made up the challenge as she went and I fucking love it, just saying they’ll run to the back, try and kill each other and no psychic powers, with Scott’s own handicap being “He isn’t a surivivor” which earns a rightful you unebleiviable bitch from wallace and a just ast rightful “fair enough” from Scott.

Stephen wonders what the deal is and Julie’s answer is... I don’t.. I can’t unpack this.

Meanwhile Wallace says “I hate her so much” Which I THINK was meant for Envy, but as a teen I interpited as being for Julie. Then again it being BOTH is entirely possible given no one can stand Julie for more than five mintues other than Stephen. And that’s because he’s still in the closet and hasn’t come out as bi or gay and thus sees her as a safe option or he really sucks with his taste in partners. Or a little from collumn a , a little from collumn b. So yeah Scott wants a Strategy and Wallace has.. nothing other than “Well he can’t use his powers so.. use that. I guess.. I dunno. I’m hungover” though Ramona warns he can’t go long without using them without freaking out. So gooood? I’m starting to think Kim is the most useful member in his crew for this fight.. and she’s the one who decided to nope out of it because she didn’t want to watch his ex pick him apart mentally and her muscly new boyfriend pick him apart with MIND BULLETS. Wallace isn’t really helping this go round, though he’s still a treasure, Ramona is trying but dosen’t have much, and Stephen thought bringing Julie was in any way shape or form a good idea. Which really sums up their entire relationship so it’s not surprising, it just makes me question why the two are friends at all.

No really, out of Scott’s three close friends.. this friendship feels the most like two guys who just used to hang out but have no real reason too other than convience. Wallace would go to bat for scott.. with an actual bat.. to Envy’s skull. He just dosen’t want to go to jail.. again. Kim pines for him, pun intended, and also does care, she just dosen’t show it because scott’s kinda a moron parade and an insenstivity brunch rolled into one. So she sticks around even though it hurts to. Stephen.. lost his big shot in part due to Scott (Though Envy’s pushness and lack of consideration for his feelings didn’t help), his shrew of a girlfriend hates him and he’s not that good at bass... and I just got it. While Tornoto’s a big city , he’s probably not sure if Kim would be doing this without Scott. He’s.. entirely still his friend because he needs a bass player and kim’s a damn fine drummer whose hard to replace. I just got it.. it makes him a self serving douchecanoe for only being someone's friend because he needs a bass player even though he doesn’t like him, but I at least GET IT now.

So the rush into Honest Ed’s begins and.. my god this whole sequence is sublimely redelcous. It feels like what would ACTUALLY happen if two guys fought for the reasons scott and todd are fighting: just two idiots dinking around in a discount store. Scott dosen’t even last a few seconds before shouting in response to Todd’s taunts “We are all dead”, tripping while looking for eyeware and well..

Meanwhile Todd starts to break down while shouting FATHEERRRRRRR like all good psychics. As for how long this beautiful nonsense has been going on....

Oh and if you thought it hadn’t gotten redicously hilarious enough... wait till you see what’s next.

No words.. should’ve.. sent a poet.. got a tubby asshole who reviews comics, disney shows and disney comics instead....

So we then get a montage in todd’s head with his SHOCKINGLY OLD dad telling him he dosen’t have the willpower to be a vegan.. Lynette telling him she’s his for the taking and Envy will never know as she opens her shirt, and

Gideon.. showing he not only consults the league but confriming what the audience and scott realized: He’s behind these assholes.. but it also shows how much. He’s actively coaching them.. and granted we KNEW the exes were in contact with one another given Lucas was having an understandable sigh about Matthew.. but this shows Gideon isn’t just some player and this isn’t some automated service. He brought them all together. The how ends up being hilarious, and we’ll get to that but while it was obvious he was the final boss this is a nice and terrifying bit of clarification. As for what happened next.. well Todd freaks out with his powers from not using them

Really sad in hindsight.. but still really funny despite the horrifying concidence. So yeah our hero declares victory but dind’t really when and things just kinda end. This segment went basically nowhere and acomplished nothing. .but was still really fun, with great lines and is one of the most memorable and awesome scenes in the series. It also shows the series growth between volumes: Last volume had a lot of cool moments.. but no real plot structure, just a bunch of things that needed to happen to get here. With Volume 3.. things are VERY tightly plotted, and even a fun but kinda pointless diversion like this... still fits in perfectly, giving us a second Scott and Todd fight to build him up, showing off just HOW powerful Todd is, and fleshing out the tofu headed douche a bit. As we’ve seen this volume still has it’s little slice of life moments the series does well. their just well put into a very compelling and fast paced plot, one we’re fully invested in as we see Scott’s torment and Ramona’s mounting anger at envy’s bullshit. It helps that Envy and Todd are the second best big bads of a volume behind gideon himslef in the fimale, with Roxy close at their heels if you were curious. Envy just oozes ego and superiority and is fun to watch every time, while we see moments once in a while that show she’s still human underneath even if she acts like a goddes.. and is admitely one of my types but that’s enough of that. She provides a nice contrast to ramona, also being standofish and mysterious but wheras ramona is clearly mysterious out of shame for a past she’s not proud of Envy is out of a past.. she has no reason to flee from and was never that bad.The only part Envy kept was Todd which was an objectively bad decision.

Todd meanwhile like all the exes as I re-realized.. is a mirror to scott. Each one has a piece of his worse traits amplified and expanded. So far Patel has been scott’s dorkyness, expanded from

To being a giant showy hipster douche desperate to seem cool and important. Lucas is scott’s afabliity and laziness taken to just outright avoiding a fight.. not nearly as bad as the others given he still has one of Scott’s best qualities with no drawbacks. But Todd.. is probably the ex that mirrors scott the second most. Besides both being base players with shaggy hair, both are delightfully stupid, both have a lot of charisma besides that and both are extremley good in a fight. But noticably.. Todd zigs a lot where Scott zags and the simlarites sort of stop. While both are objectively attractive, Todd is more conventinually chisled while Scott is more adorable, expertly reflected in the movie by having former Superman Brandon Routh opposite former George Micheal, Micheal Cera. Todd’s ablities are mental while Scott’s are entirely in martial arts and later swordplay. Todd has a rough relationship with his dad who never supported him and constnatly doubted him while Scott’s parents fully support him and love him uncdoitoinaly and despite his protests and annoyance with them.. it’s clear he still cares about them and loves them. And most damingly.. Scott treats people like garbage sometimes.. but it’s because he’s oblivoius. He’s a finaical burden on Wallace, cheated on Knives, gave Kim no closure, blew up Stephen’s chances at the big time, and in general can be kind of a dick.. but NONE of that is intetnional. It dosen’t make it okay, the books make that clear.. but it’s why we can still root for him: It’s something that can be fixed. Scott hurts people a lot but he lacks gneuinely malicious intent. He leaves a lot of pain in his wake.. but it’s because he’s socially inept, and again and I say this as someone with atusitim myself, defintely on the spectrum , so he dosen’t GET he’s hurting people unless they tell him. Something that will probably not shock you but I relate to and has happened to me in the past, hence while i’ll clal him a douche or stupid, because he’s both, I do sympathize with the guy as the whilrwilnd of descrution is just him being so intent on being seen as a good person and moving past things he can’t see the wreckage in ihs wake, and the series is about him growing past that mindset.

Todd.. is just an entitled dick who KNOWS he’s probably going to hurt people but does the things anyway because he thinks as a rock star he can do whatever he wants. As a Vegan he’s superior so he’s allwoed to do WHATEVER he wants. He’s so obessed with making his dad not see him as a failure he’s developed an Ego that can only be visualized properly using well.. Ego

That’s what his ego has become. He’s so up his own ass his head is coming out of his mouth somehow. He’s so in love with himself he’s probably googled “How to make a sexy clone of yourself”. He’s scott’s oblivoiusness and selfishness, but with genuine intent. He’s scott if he KNEW what he was doing was wrong.. and said fuck it anyway i’m a rockstar baby. Todd, is EASILY what scott could’ve been at envy’s side had they not broken up.. successful.. but an utter bastard who only cares about themselves. Anyways we cut to practice that night were Stephen is spiraling and Kim declines going to the show.. not for the obvious reasons of wanting to avoid another round of “watch Envy tourture scott before Todd beats his skull in with his psychic powers”, but because she has a date. Lucky bastard. The guys are naturally as tactful as you’d expect about this and suggest she’s doing a collage or puzzles before she shuts htem down and they awkardly recover and I laugh my ass off.

So Scott and Ramona head out, trading some talk and what have you and having some Sushi, not going there often because they can’t afford it.. but it’s cool Scott swipied Wallace’s card. When pressed on his douchebaggery Scott assures her.

We’ll get more into this next time, but needless to say Scott’s mooching is finally becoming a plot point next time. Speaking of next time on the way to the show Ramona realizes “Wait why the hell are we doing this” and convinces Scott not to go as they can relax, have a night off, cuddle and stuff, and then Scott can fight Todd tommorow at the big show. Why DO they need to sit in with two assholes who are only inviting them to fuck with their heads some more. Well okay one asshole while Todd is okay with all this he probably just mubled some “sure whatevers” while trying to solve a rubix cube while Envy outlined her plans to him before rearanging the stickers so he could win.. I Mean with his mind so it’s sitll a little impressive but still.

So they TRY making out, complete with being in their undies.. but it just dosen’t work as both of them keep picturing Envy’s face and that’s not good for either of them.

AND it was at this point fucking tumblr.. ate an hour’s worth of work I just did. Probably not something you need to know or care about but something that pisses me off greatly as I was approaching the end of the review and now have to either retype or entirely rethink what I JUST spent a while working hard on.

And this time I mean it. The only reason i’m not giving up and shelving this review for a bit.. is ithat i’m a stubborn bastard who refuses to give up that easily and who needed to vent about this to somewhere.

So Ramona finally comes clean about Todd.. and in a nice moment admits to cheating on Lucas with him “It wasn’t very nice but I wasn’t a nice person”. It’s a small thing, something I didn’t notice before.. but it’s actually a big step given how guarded Ramona is to admit to doing something this bad. Last volume, just a few days ago time wise, she lied entirely about this and probably has no idea Scott knows already. But she’s being honest, telling him the truth so he’ll be prepared for what’s coming and know the full story. The full story is they were both little shits who raised hell together till Todd disappeared for a while. He shows up as you’d expect, dickishily interupting class before explaning Dairy Scientests kidnapped and experimented on him. He also says this

So he proves his love. in the most badass and horrifying way possible: BY MAKING ONE OF THE TWO BIG NOTICABLE CRATERS ON THE GODDAMN MOON.

One of the series best jokes. Ramona also takes a hard pass to learning about envy and asks about Kim... not for any reason.. just thinks sh’es nice. It’s not like she wants to make out with her face.. a lot. Just.. girl things. SHUT UP. She’s also unsatisfied with Scott’s piss take version of his relationship with her. Closing out the chapter, Knives.. has somehow climbed a huge pile of billboardsi n the middle of tornoto.. which would be awesome.. if it weren’t such a beautifully sad image.

Whelp my heart just exploded with pain at this poor girl whose lost the love of her live, which is a goood thing mind you but dosen’t mean it dosen’t hurt less, her faviorte band and her highlights all in the span of a month. Moving on as we approach the final act, we get a brief scene as Todd orders some Gelato, which is itallian icec ream, very not vegan and Envy does not relaize this. Todd however rants about being a rock star, being so above people and as for the rules

We also get this lovely bit

And then they make out and i’ts treated as a big shocker despite.. us.. finding that out several dozen pages ago. We know already.

Back at Scott and Wallace’s place, Ramona shows up with cool new blue hairdoo, which I agree with Wallace is awesome and admits she changes her hair up every couple of weeks.. someething that in the color version we do see better. We also get a gag that no longer makes sense as he asks if that’s her natural haircolor and she says yay and the caption admits this was funnier in black and white. Eh one or two jokes for some really pretty colors is a fair enough trade.

Scott however once again bitches about his hair, despite Ramona pointing out to him and Wallace that.. there’s like dozens of haircut places within walking distance. I remain unsuprised thier that oblivous. But to shut her boyfriend up she agrees to cut his hair and while they do asks what Envy’s actual name is.. scott’s response .. is pretty heartbreaking “Natalie. She stopped liking it. Then she stopped liking me. So Scott shows up with his NEW HAIR CUT.. aka his old one just trimmed up a bit, but the one you see in modern merch and the game. A bit shaggy but not as long. Scott reassures Stephen whose spiraling with panic that it won’t be the same as last time and they’ll have fun. Kim, understandably and having not been told anything, wonders what “last time was”. After everyone chimes in Kid chamelon i’ts time for another FLASHBACK.. as you were probably expecting by now.. but this time I added some proper effects to spice it up.

So we find out more of whta drove a wedge between the two: Envy slowly but surely took a tryanical death grip on the band, adding some guy named Joel on the drums, possibly the same guy from Crash and the Boys, and bumping Scott to bass, without asking him or Stephen about this and just sorta.. demanding it. While her intetnions are understandable, she just wants the band’s best sound.. her actions are still head tiltingly obnoxious, and clearly show she had not studied rock history yet as usually taking absolute control of the band and ignoring your band mates is the easiet way to destroy a band. Sometimes it’s just envy, pun unintneded but welcome, but yeah.. it’s no wonder they didn’t last. Scott is also shown to be more and more uncomfortable with the band going from a fun thing he did with his friend and girlfriend.. to something that could make him famous.. something he’s very transparently not ready for and dosen’t want. And it makes sense: he was just a dumb college kid in love.. he didn’t start the band for fame or glory.. he just wanted to have fun. Same with his current band. And while in the PRESENT his lack of ambition can be obnoxious and will be a problem in the next volume, here.. he’s still in college and sudeenly got thrust into a career he dosen’t want with a person who no longer loves or respects him. It’s understandable that he’s a nervous , miserable wreck.

So in the present, Stephen is throwing up and asking for julie and Scott.. is a dick and ignores him. Were it anyone else and any other relationship currrently int he books I would actually give a shit. So he wonders around a bit, running into some teens who are intrested in him, word travels fast apparently, Julie, who for once displays a human emotion of concern for Stephen or the closest she can, and thankfully Wallace, Stacey and Micheal,who now has a spooky skeleton ring from the future and badly needs his own spinoff. Stacey TRIES to pump her brother up.. but it’s clear he’s in no good mental place for that and trudges off while Wallace, man of the year, worries about him. One GOOD THING about the astronomical setback that happened is in the orignal draft of this.. I forgot to talk about Stacey. Despite promising to. So here it goes: After this Stacey.. just sorta vanishes from the series. She’s still around and while not super promient gets a decent amount of screentime in the finale, she makes cameos before then. But from this book on she’s no longer a main character like she was in the first two books. There she had several scenes, lots of focus, and her own mini arc in the first one about Wallace stealing her boyfriends. There’s. an actual reason for this as O’Malley regretted naming her after his sister and thus basically stopped writing her unless he had to, sticking her in once in a while to assure fans he hadn’t forgotten her but removing her from the main plot. That being said while his reason is weak.. I dn’t think it’s the ONLY reason she slid into the background. The main cast already had 6 characters, and on top of that this volume heavily focuses on Envy, the next adds Lisa Miller to the mix, and every volume frmo this one on has increased focus on the ex of the week, building them up more as characters and giving them way more screen time. Stacey.. really didn’t have a unique niche or roll in the sotry the other 5 non-scott leads didn’t: Knives filled out the position as the baby of Scott’s friend group, Ramona and Wallace served as better voices of reason, Kim and Wallace had better chemistry with Ramona and thus worked better as her friends, and Stpehn. did nothing she did but still at least had a part to play as band leader and the only one of Sex Bomb-Omb with ambition. Stacey is not a bd character and DID deserve to still be way more prominent.. but her move to the back let Kim take her place and rightfully so. And not just because of the crush on kim thing, Kim’s just more compelling and tha’ts an objective fact. Still would’ve been nice to learn more about Stacey though.

Scott then frees his girlfriend from a conversatoin with Sandra and Monique, as Julie bitchily told both about Gideon which Envy told her about, because as your every couple of paragraphs reminder, Julie is a piece of shit. Scott then orders them some alchols, breaking his usual teetotling and runs into kim, hollie and joseph. with Hollie here to see the band and .. Joseph here to see todd. At least h’es honest.. for this volume. Anyways, our happy couple soon split off for a bit and while we bounce back and forth.. i’m just going to cover what hapepned with each seperately as SOMEHOW tumblr once again ate a good hour’s worth of work, this review is already a day late, and I have both abother one and a dental apointment today. So in short

Ramona and Kim: Kim fills Ramona in on her past.. via tone down, seemingly contridctary, and as we’ll find out later the true version of what happened: She was with Simon, he was a dick, Scott showed up he was also a dick, things happened. I guess. Ramona is disapointed, though Kim does provide some crucial info on her moving to tronto.. and reuniting with scott.

It honestly.. explains a LOT of why Scott is the way he is what happened with Envy. He saw Envy change entirley as a person.. and thus feels changing as a person , and smoking, is a sign of something bad.. when really it just means.. your changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst but we area LWAYS changing and it took me a lont time to realize that. The two are distracted from this though by Todd sloppily making out with Lynette in front of everyone.

We’re also reintroduced to Crash and the Boys, now redubbed the boys and crash, and seemingly playing music without intsturments. The thorughly lovely and rediculous explinaton for this and their new gloves and goggles, i’ll save for in a bit.

Scott and Envy, Scott and Knives: Scott goes out to get some air.. only to find Envy, who despite menally tourturing him for a few days insits they talk like regular people.. Scott wisely counters with “Nat when did we ever talk like real people” and while saying he won’t get to call her that again, it still chips down her walls for a second and shows that a bit of who she used to be, loath as she is to admit it, is still there.

Scott then spots knives... and has a moment of truth. And a hell of a series of reaction panels

It’s a VERY good scene.. that i’ve written about TWICE now but regardless, it shows Scott.. genuinely changing. Ignoring his past actions, running away from them and trying to pretend he never fucked up once... that’s been his go to. It’s his main flaw and hte one that takes the entire series to deal with as we’ll get into. And it’s here.. he faces it for the first time. He’s scared of knives at first.. but realizes.. he genuinely hurt her, and she’s where she is, cold, alone, and huddled in an ally lost and confused, because of him. Sure Envy hurt her.. but so did he.. and what’s worse. he did it just like Envy hurt him. Not thinking of her as a persona nd throwing her away when he didn’t need her. And so after books of build up.. he finally takes some responisblity and talks to her. It’s WHY the books work: Sure scott’s a dick, and remains a bit of one throughout, but.. he means well, isn’t inteitonally a standoffish prick, and slowly grows PAST this, and tries to be better, for Ramona.. and just because it’s the right thing to do.

So Knives reflects on the past few weeks, admitting that it’s been unbearably painful.. but she can’t and won’t go back to who she used to be. She’s lost her innocnce and all that, been dumped by the “love of her life”, been punched in the face by her faviorite drummer and treated like dogshit by her faviorite artist. Todd did nothing for once but gets no credit because of who we’re dealing with here. Point is.. it was a lot and while sh’es not HAPPY.. she’s greatful for it. Scott however.. steps up, saying what Envy did was wrong, she deserved better.. and finally, after how terribly he broke up wit hher.. apologizes for how he hurt her. And while Knives takes this as hope they’l get back together, Scott continues to be very mature, especially for his usual behavior, telling her no, it won’t happen, to give neil a try as whle she is dating him because he looks like Scott he’s not all bad, and that wallce was right: she was too good for him. And while Knives isn’t ready to accept it.. Scott did the right thing. Good for you man.

So while he, and later kim and stephen seperatly, get ready, Ramona.. runs into Envy. Whose oddly nice for ahlf a second.. before bringing up Gideon and giving Ramona a barrage of insults, clearly trying ONCE AGAIN, to knock her down and wreck her. Thing is while Scott clearlya nd understandably has baggage with Envy is easy prey for her manipulative elephant dung, Ramona. isn’t. All Envy’s done is piss her off more and more with each act of high school level mean girl bullshit... and sh’es done with it.

FIGHT’S ON. This Volume.. is honestly where Ramona really comes into bloom, pun intended, as the duetragonist of the books. While the book IS about Scott getting his life together and their relationship and he’s still her hero.. the books are also about RAMONA growing as a person, her own flaws and past, and the climax of all of them.. is just as much about her as it is scott. And this book has her own flaws come into play: Just like Scott she runs from the past, from who she was, and only faces it when needed, which will become more apparent as we go. But at the same time, we get to see far more of her personality as a result as her mysterious facade continues to drop. She’s prone to getting upset, but also clever and witty and knows her limits, knowing that going to that second performance would’ve just done no good and knowing herself very well, something Scott has genuine trouble with. She’s strong, sarcastic and knows who she is and what she wants and this volume finally brings that into focus. Not only that but her fight with Envy, is just as warranted, climatic and awesome as Scott’s fight coming up, as no one has stood up to envy due to her fame.. but Ramona.. dosen’t care. Someone’s gotta stop her, and Ramona’s taking up the job. And the awesome looking hammer.

That being said taking up a giant hammer against a beloved celebrity dosen’t win you any point, so Ramona finds herself discouraged, even if Envy can very clearly handle herself. Thankfully she gets some encouragment from exactly who you’d expect.

And Wallce.. turns out to be pretty useful. At least in this one fight. His shouting not only gives Ramona her fight back.. but keeps distracting envy, leaving her wide open. The tide turns though when Wallace has to pee, and Envy uses the distraction to knock the hamme rout of Raona’s hand and prepare to flatten her. But once again.. someone save sher in the knick of time.. and this time it’s the LAST person you’d expect, as Knives gives the hammer a flying kick.. and then crashes into a wall, and when Ramona, understandably not getting this since she tried to turn her into swiss cheese earlier this week, asks why, Knives admit’s she just wants Scott to be happy. Knives has grown too, and while she’s still obessed with Scott and waiting for themt o break up.. she’s no longer going to try and wedge her way in. If Ramona is what Scott wants, tha’ts what he gets.

All three are distracted by well.. this...

State of your outfits mates. Though that line is iconic. But serously the outfits are hilaroiusly and reaslitically mismatched. Kim’s home made and overdone gothica lolita outfit that dosen’t match her AT ALL, goth yes , poofy goth no. Stephen’s johnny cash outfit he clearly had lying around and Scott’s Dad Suit.

That being said.. still the best looking one of the three. But Envy takes advantage to regrab the hammer and try and murder the two of them.. but Scott sees this.. and well... you get it by now, one more time. Bake me away toys!

So we get the final weeks or days or whatever of the relationship. In a nice parallel to Scott playing Ramona a song he does the same for Envy.. who both questions what this is for then is confused why he’d do something so sweet. Next scene is her getting a call while their cuddling in bed from some guy she idntiefies as Jason and.. barely disguises is clearly cheating on Scott with. and could possibly be todd I dunno. After that we get to Kid Chamelon preparing to sign a deal and Envy.. trying to press Scott into sginging it, ignoring his obvious discomfort, and then casually threanting to replace him. While Scott does give us a face punchingly dickish comment about “How he started this band to meet chicks and maybe he met the wrong chick”... he’s still somehow in the right as while he’s being a manic dickhead... Envy has ceased seeing him as a person or even something she cares about and tells him to get a hair cut and leave.

We then get the breakup itself as Scott goes up to envy.. and she tells him to get out of her life. ack in the present, Scott’s grown enough to realize he has to stop her and does so.. by touching hte back of her knee which.. uhhhh.

So yeah.. he beat her with an orgasm, and that looks oddly hot. And i’m moving on before that last part of the sentence sinks in. Envy, once she recovers, orders Todd to do a murder on them, but Todd’s not there and Ramona, naturally, brags about him having cheated on her. Envy.. denis.. this.

I .. don’t have time to unpack that. This review is late, I have two other reviews to get to today. Time for ANOTHER flashback.

This time it’s Envy teling a story bok verion of her and Toddd’s relationship. It’s a real poetic and well done sequence. In a nuthsell: Envy and Todd were best friends and deeply in love as kids until todd moved away i’m guessing sometime in middle school. Deeply depressed, Envy sailed through life as sort of a ghost, TRYING to find another connection like that, but failing. Todd returned after she graduated though, and gave her a symbol of his love.. a hole on the moon. Yes another one. And they both promised to never waiver as he went off to the vegan academy. Clearly Envy did with Scott... but it paints her ambition in another light. One where she wanted to be big and bold enough for him.. but slowly carved out her old self to do so.

And as is obvious it was pointlness: not only did Envy love someone else.. but Todd never cared as much as she did. As Ramona points out, and relcutnantly because even she feels a little bad about this one, he did the moon trick with her.. and this time Envy CAN’T deny it.. becaue the evidence is right there.

And of course Todd.. makes his case even WORSE by picking that moment to come out of the bathroom, sipping up his pants, with panties on his head, and with Lynette following right after him. Envy.. tries to murder Lynette, her go to, but LYnette teleports out. Because she can do that. Though Envy does hit her cyborg arm so she looes that and the panties and Ramona offers to mount it at her place if Kim takes the panties, but kim admits she wasn’t scrapbooking, she said she was and was just making the dress. Horay, as ramona puts it “Col se can still be friends. Right.. FRIENDS.

Envy TRIES to cave Todd’s skull in, get some therapy woman, but Todd naturally tk’s it away but despite being the king of all assholes DOES care enough not to fight her. Envy... plays nice then knees him in the nuts like he fucking deserves. Todd then returns to being the once and future douchebag by TK’ing her into the crowd and bragging about it.

Scott dosen’t take this well, even after everything and the final fight begins. They have a bass fight.. but like the game i’ts redicuously one sided since Todd both is a skilled bassist compared to Scott.. and is still using his psychic powers lest you forget he’s a bastard man.

The Boys and Crash however show up to even the odds.. and their trainig is the reason they can play music without insturments as they can now manipulate pur sound. Fucking beautiful. But even they aren’t enough and Todd swats them aside.

While poorly is a bit harsh.. the vegan police show up, which is awesome, though the movie got thomas jane for one of them and had that high five so they win. But yeah.. while this is hilarous.. and the scene with them is great.. it’s also the weakest part of an otherwise near perfect book. It just feels a bit anti clmatic that after all this build up.. Todd is just.. beaten with a sloppy depower. The boys and crash would’ve still been a cop out, but it would’ve been a freaking cool cop out. The thing that saves it is afterwords Scott still gets an epic finish: after they devganize him for the gelato earlier, scott headbutts him epicly and wins. He gets money and.

A 1-up, which understandibly terrfies him but will come in hand in a few volumes. Trust me. Scot checks on everyone. Ramona’s fine, Envy is not and breifly blames scott before he points out Todd was a no good cheating dickwad, and Kim is obviously fine as nothing happend, but him asking is a nice bit of charcter growth. Kim asks about kinves but she’s okay and neil is helping her. But theshow must go on and since the headliners are dead (don’t worry he’ll respawn), in parts unknown and in emotoinal apocalypse, someone’s gotta play.

So our heroes have the show of their lives, and crowd reaction is mostly positive with Jospeh noticing htier levels were horrible, a hint for next time, and the crew interviewing everyone.. including a mysterous gentleman having a beer, who has no commenta nd walks away.

Gideon.. was here the whole time,but he’s not ready for Scott JUST yet. Still a really damn cool tease for the final boss.

So we close the next day, Scott and Envy sorta make up, with both apologizing for their behavor and while Scott gets no closure, envy promises to return.. and makes good on it. But.. that’s for the finale. For now Scott’s girlfriend and best buddy give him a moment to baste in his pathos, before heading off. And in a nice bit of metaphor, the clouds part, and our three amigos walk off into the sunset and a bright future. Three down 4 to go. Next time: Lesbian Artist Ninjas! Side Stories! Scott Gets A Job! The Band gets a producer! Kim gets a decent apartment and a boyfriend! Lisa returns! See you in feburary.

Until then if you liked this review, spread it around andi f ther’es a comic you want me to cover, my comissions are open. Until the next rainbow, it was a pleasure.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim and the infinite sadness #ramona flowers #wallace wells #kim pine #stephen stiles #neil nordgraf #envy adams #todd ingram #lynette gycott #julie powers #other scott #monique #sandra #college #comics #Brian Lee O'malley #oni press

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sebastianshaw · 3 years

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(OK SO this is a crack fic but it is written COMPLETELY seriously, since the challenge was to make this logically WORK. So, a joke was made in Discord about how Sebastian Shaw and Fantomex are actually the parents of Manon and Maxime, explaining why they’re French, psychic, and think SHAW is the adult they should go to when in trouble. And someone said, “well, they said their parents were students at Xavier’s before them, so that rules out Shaw and Fantomex” and I was like “well, rules them out in THIS universe” and I was challenged to explain how the O5 never returning to their timeline would result in Shaw and Fantomex being in attendance at the school, and I was like, you know what? Challenge accepted.) With the X-Men gone from the present, sent to their own future, a vacuum was left behind in the own time. Mutant threats still existed, including Magneto, and while other heroes such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were a match for them when need be, they had so many other villains of their own to face that frequently, the activities of the Brotherhood and other such villains went unchallenged. Xavier tried to locate new X-Men as soon as possible, of course---he’d found several promising young candidates with Cerebro from across the globe, from Ireland to Kenya to Japan---but it would take time to recruit and train them. Time that he, that humanity, did not have. It was time to call on his other student, his last student. . .and his first. Sage. Charles Xavier had met Sage---though she was not called that then---in Afghanistan, years ago, where the young girl had saved his life, and that of another man. A mutant man named Sebastian Shaw. Charles had not yet formed his X-Men yet, but the idea was already in his head. He offered both of them a place with him. The girl accepted. The man refused. Years later, Xavier’s intel, which had been keeping track of Shaw---not for any crime, he had been a good man when Xavier met him, but still a powerful mutant that must be watched---reported he had been accepted into the Hellfire Club. The Hellfire Club was not an evil organization per se, merely a social club for the super-rich, where they could come and rub shoulders with people of their own calibre. But, unbeknowst to most members, and to the world, there were a select few within each branch, an Inner Circle, dedicated to world domination not through theatrical open supervillainy, but subtle political and economic control. These people were not mutants, nor directly attacking others, so Xavier let them be, focusing on far more pressing matters, but he knew the truth of them, and the fact that Shaw, a powerful mutant with a brilliant mind---and, when Xavier had met him, a noble soul---was in their corruptive midst was. . .concerning. So he sent the girl, now called Sage and trained as the ultimate spy, to serve Shaw, to gain his trust, and to report back to Xavier upon his activities. And the things she reported so far were. . .concerning, but not alarming. Shaw had been accepted into the Inner Circle, as Xavier had known he would be---and rather hoped he would be, since it would give Tessa, as Shaw called her, access to the information within it---and he had found other mutants there, including none other than Emma Frost, a telepath that Xavier had run across before. They were allies now, apparently. Which made Shaw even more important to win over, since where he went, perhaps his new ‘friends’ would as well. So Xavier had reached out to Shaw, after all these years, and Tessa helped persuade the latter to grant an audience to the former. But alas, he was uninterested in Xavier’s offer when they did meet. “Are you mad?” said Shaw from across the table. He was still the hulking figure that Xavier remembered, though his form was now constrained by far finer attire and his face bedecked with far more lines. “Why should I risk myself and my assets to join in some fight against Magneto and his idiot ilk? I’m a businessman, not a superhero.”

It seemed it was not merely his appearance that had changed. Sage had informed Xavier of this fact, but it was disappointing to witness in person all the same. “You are a mutant, as is he” Xavier began, “And so is he our duty to protect humanity from--” “Balderdash!” Shaw cut him off, “Would you recruit a Japanese American to guard Pearl Harbor out of obligation because he shares a gene with those who attacked it? That’s the same logic humans use to blame all of us for the actions of some! I have no “duty” to strangers, Charles, least of all for such an asinine reason! No one---human or mutant---deserves anything from me! Not on the basis of my powers, or my eye color, or my race, or anything else merely an accident of birth, not my own self-determination as a man.” Seeing that this approach would not yield fruit, Xavier tried another. “Then, as a businessman, are you not concerned with the fact that the destruction wreaked by Magneto and others like him may threaten your assets? Your factories, the buildings where you conduct business, the buildings of your partners, are these not all at risk?” “If Magneto causes significant losses to other businesses, they likely can no longer afford to do business with Shaw Industries, as they will need to redirect money towards repairs,” Tessa pointed out. She could not overtly support Xavier, so as not to arouse Shaw’s suspicions of where her true loyalties lay, only subtly push him by acting, as ever, the neutral-minded data calculator. “Pfft,” Shaw waved a meaty, hairy-knuckled hand, “If the cost of repairs is so significant to them that’s an issue, they’re not on the level of people I do business with in the first place. What’s more, destruction can be profited from---Shaw Industries specializes in heavy machinery and machine parts, like those that will be NEEDED for the repairs! Magneto is a fool, but if anything, he’s giving ME opportunities---and has had the sense not to try to rope me into his idiocy as you have! Come, Tessa---we’re done here.” In the end, it was not Xavier who convinced Shaw to join him. Nor was it Sage. It was Magneto. By next month, Shaw had returned, bringing along none other than Emma Frost and a gravity-controller named Harry Leland, and told Xavier that they were allies from now until Magneto was dead. Xavier did not ask why. He simply accepted. Tessa informed him behind the scenes of what had happened----Magneto had attacked the Hellfire Club, berating it for being an elitist, corrupt institution that fostered the worst of humanity’s greed and apathy towards those they saw as beneath them. Lourdes Chantel, Shaw’s beloved fiancee and ironically a mutant herself, had perished in the assault, impaled brutally while trying to save Sebastian. Ned Buckman, Paris Seville, and the rest of the human Inner Circle had been slaughtered as well. And upon investigating their office, computers, and correspondences after their death, Tessa had found that if they had not died, they would have been the next threat to Shaw and his cohorts----they had been working with Stephen Lang, an anti-mutant bigot who was head of a federal research about mutants and how to combat them. The Inner Circle was providing him funding. . .and in return, he was going to let Ned Buckman, Sebastian’s trusted friend who had inducted him as Black Bishop, use his Sentinels to eliminate the mutants in their ranks, including Sebastian himself. Tessa told Xavier this. But she had kept it from Sebastian, letting him believe that the man Magneto had murdered was his friend. After all, if he found out that Buckman had planned such a betrayal, he might well decide to take Magneto’s place after he had taken vengeance for Lourdes. The experienced Hellfire Club combined with the new recruits for the X-Men proved a force that not even Magneto and his Brotherhood could face, nor any foe that they came across. While Shaw and the Hellfire Club were still not inclined to any kind of altruism, they maintained an alliance with Xavier even after Magneto’s final defeat. And with Tessa there to always find SOME way that a mission would benefit Sebastian financially or personally, he ended up joining them on quite a few, as did Harry and Emma. Xavier grew to consider them his students, not in the use of their powers but in learning how to overcome their own selfish personalities for the greater good. They were even issued uniforms, though Emma had a few choice words for hers before making personal modifications. The road was not always a smooth one. Nor did it have an end; there was no point where these selfish, amoral people became purehearted paragons of virtue with entirely noble motives. But there was. . .progress, however small, and for that, both Tessa and Xavier shared a secret pride. . . and relief. The X-Men continued to grow, and one of the new ‘hires’ was a man known only as Wolverine. His past was mysterious, even to him, and Xavier’s telepathy, despite being the most potent in the world, still could not uncover it all. But Tessa’s unparalleled skills as a researcher and data gatherer, combined with the resources of the Hellfire Club, could. She traced his origins back to a secret government project codenamed Weapon Plus, which was devoted to creating super-soldiers to serve good old Uncle Sam. Wolverine was the result of the tenth attempt, Weapon X, which Canada had participated in as a joint venture, hence his national origin. But they had gone far, far beyond that now. Sage discovered that their current base of operations was “The World”, a facility in Britain that warped time to grow and develop an entire civilization solely for the production of super-soldiers. The result was to be a team called the Super-Sentinels, a mutant-hunting team of "superheroes" with a base in a Weapon Plus space station, which would commercialize the genocide of mutants to make it that much more palatable to the public. Needless to say, the X-Men, Hellfire Club included, had other plans. Their combined forces stormed The World, freeing its inhabitants---those who did not try to kill them, at least. Among them was Charlie Cluster 7, or, as he came to be known---Fantomex. With nowhere else to go, he resided at the school, where he became a student. Like the Hellfire Club, it was not training with his powers that he needed, but to learn how to be a human being regardless. He knew of humanity only through television, but the Hellfire Club soon began giving him opportunities to immerse himself in the creme de la creme of human society, passing himself off as an eccentric foreigner---a Frenchman named Jean-Phillipe Charles. Despite being raised in what was technically England, and rescued by English-speaking Americans, Fantomex was a vehemently avowed Francophile, insisting upon learning the language and even affecting a heavy accent. Shaw and Emma found this most grating, but, alas, they were themselves in no position to make complaints about someone faking--or covering--an accent. Speaking of Shaw and Emma, while it was Emma who had initially suggested Jean-Phillipe’s immersion in humanity via the cultured and upscale Hellfire events---”You want to learn from the RIGHT people, darling, after all”-- it ended up being Shaw whose presence he gravitated towards, and Shaw found himself with the faux-Frenchman suddenly upon his arm in many of these. Shaw assumed he was just trying to be close to ape his behavior instead of Emma’s, since he was a man and thus it made more sense to mimic him. Turned out, Fantomex wanted to do a lot more. Long story short, this was how everyone found out that not only was E.V.A. a sentient spaceship and Fantomex’s external nervous system, she also served a sort of. . . womb . . .intended by Weapon Plus for Fantomex to propagate new super-soldiers with the DNA of mutants who proved worthy adversaries during his intended quest to eliminate them. And, reacting to his attraction to Shaw, E. V. A obtained a DNA sample from him, and once her systems found it indeed worthy, she went about creating and incubating the two new beings. Shaw was hardly happy when he found out---he didn’t want more child support bills, dammit!---but everyone else agreed he was NOT allowed to try to terminate the creatures, for they were mutant babies regardless of how they came about. “Oh, I see,” Shaw had grumped, “A woman has the “right to choose” but when it’s ME---” “Well, you are certainly welcome to try,” Fantomex invited, and his smirk was obvious even beneath his white mask, “I warn you, though,---E.V.A. is ze proverbial mama bear.” Shaw did try, several times, and found out EXACTLY that. When the twins were at last “born”---ejected from the techno-organic egg sacs in which E.V.A. was nurturing them within herself---and everyone had a look at them, it was plain they were not just pale, but albinistic. “Leucostic, actually,” Fantomex corrected Harry Leland’s observation, “Leucostic is similar to albinism, but zee animal has black eyes, rather zen red. I say “animal” because it normally does not exist in humans. But, neither do psychic abilities, which E.V.A informs me they will develop in early puberty. Ze original programming for my offspring is to grow at an accelerated rate and manifest powers quite early, but she was able to suppress this aspect of their coding, so that they may have more normal lives.” “Oh yes, because looking like the contents of a teen boy’s sock is going to allow them SUCH a normal life anyway,” Shaw snorted, crossing his arms, “So they’re unnaturally pale and they have psychic powers---are you sure it isn’t EMMA’S genes that your little pet scooped up instead?” “E.V.A is a partner, *Sébastien*, not a pet,” Fantomex corrected smoothly, as he had many times, “And these are indeed, alas, your children by genetics. But zey shall not be in any other sense. Fond as I am of your cantankerous charm and beefy appendages, zee fact is some of us are not cut out to be fathers---myself included.” “Xavier says you’ve arranged to have them raised in France,” Shaw stated, sounding disdainful in an of-course-you-did way. “Oui. After all, how can mon infants be anyzhing but French, like myself?” Shaw simply groaned slightly, and everyone else shared the sentiment. But, they were Jean-Phillipe’s children, and since Shaw, as the co-father, technically had no objections, the aforementioned arrangements were carried out. The twins, whom he named Manon and Maxime, were brought up in France, and while for their own safety Jean-Phillipe was not the one to do it, he was around, and honest with them about his relationship to them, if omitting the exact details of how their conception differed from the norm. And Shaw, despite his claimed disinterest in the pair, did visit occasionally, if only out of curiosity in how his offspring was developing, though he found them as disappointing as Shinobi---what horribly normal insipid little snots! Yet, they seemed to like him nonetheless, perhaps because he did not mistreat them as he had used to do to Shinobi. He had. . .learned a little better, by now. That, and Fantomex would have trounced him for it, not that Shaw would admit that part. The twins were not aware that he was their other parent. But they did know, because Fantomex told them every time they asked about their mother, that both their parents (he was careful never to say *maman*) had been students at Xavier’s, just like they soon would be. They couldn't wait.

#fantomex #manon and maxime #fic #writing #crack #out of shirt

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nelllraiser · 3 years

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into the fold, two: surrender | adam & nell

PREVIOUSLY: into the fold: part one TIMING: the ma’al cult investigation. PARTIES: @walker-journal and @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: nell and adam dive deeper into the cult. CONTENT: sibling death mention, torture (implied), gaslighting (demon telepathy)

The intrusion of the eldritch on Neveah Alcott’s palatial home had initially been a subtle thing. Corruption came in degrees, and just as Neveahs parties were initially just high society networking that occasionally dabbled into idle metaphysical conversation, so too were the tiny within changes Alcott’s manner easy to dismiss as tricks of mood lighting or fanciful imagination until it was far too late.

Those ‘idle conversations’ became more pointed speculation and the reading of certain disturbing texts readings as shadows darkened with the discrete crevices of the Neo-Gregorian architecture. The nooks behind statues, pillars, and within arches grew deeper until those shadows became actual holes into nothingness rather than the mere absence of light. Those avant garde readings proved to be strangely magnetic, even to those with no previous intellectual interest. As dalliance turned to obsession, angles within the Alcott residence started to be ...not quite right...not lining up correctly even when one squinted.

More people were invited to these readings as doors in manor started opening to rooms that weren’t on the building's floorplan, only to lead elsewhere when opened again later. After Helena’s first ‘demonstration’ of bloodshed and symbology could attract the attention of beings beyond the confines of four dimensional space, guests started to report seeing the horrific landscapes of alien worlds beyond the house's windows. As high society parties devolved into debauched experiments to ‘expand consciousness’ through dangerous excesses of sensation, the manors’ light bulbs started to shine with colors that didn’t exist in the electromagnetic spectrum.

It had been around the time Helena performed the first ‘miracle’ by being briefly possessed by her otherworldly patron, that the walls began to bleed.

Now Adam sat in a dark room where the floor breathed, fleshy surface moistly yielding beneath him. The walls and ceiling stretched inward as the faces of hellish things strained against the fabric of reality. Maws, mandibles, and not quite human vissages pressed in a menagerie of faces from every angle as creatures from beyond the veil struggled to rip their way into this world.

“Nell…,” Adam managed to gasp past the broken spasming of his ribs, “you there?”

It hadn’t taken all that long for Nell to begin dreading the trips to the mansion. It wasn’t so much the bleeding of the walls, or even the screams that seemed to shatter silence out of nowhere that turned her stomach. No— she liked to think she was fairly ironclad when it came to things such as those at this point in her life. Instead it was the slow and steady transformation of the people, Neveah Alcott’s loyal followers, that made her insides squirm. Many of them hadn’t the faintest idea of what they were being readied for, harvested for as they pledged undying dedication to the woman whose ‘miracles’ left them wide-eyed and breathless despite the brutality of it all.

It had taken most of what Nell had to make sure she didn’t succumb to the trials and tests of the demon, and the witch had been sparing her magic and strength specifically for nights such as these when she wasn’t sure whether the shifting of the floor beneath her was due to the emerging hellscape or loss of blood. It would have been easier if she could use her usual protections against the less savory side of demons and their effects, but such a thing wasn’t thinkable when she was meant to be embracing the demon that lay in wait, getting closer to phasing through the thinning veil every day. No doubt any resistance would be perceived as opposition, and that wasn’t the behavior of a willing and wanting devotee.

Nell’s eyes were closed when Adam’s voice found her, cutting through the fog of her mind like the beam of a lighthouse on land’s shore. In a moment they were opening to the twisted visages of the creatures waiting to emerge into this world, but she quickly searched for Adam’s face amongst them until she found it next to her, reaching a hand toward him instinctively as he looked for her. “I’m here,” she answered, the tail end of a cough finishing the words for her as she covered her mouth, pulling her sleeve away to find fresh blood amongst the dried bits of it. Her first thought was to check his injuries as she usually did during a quiet spell of their demonic endeavors. “Everything in one piece?” she asked, already trying to scoot closer so she might try and take a look.

Adam stirred again at Nell’s voice. Bloodshot eyes opened. Adam’s gaze was unfocused at first, as if he were looking at some other world entirely. But his broken fingers found Nell’s outstretched hand and that physical presence seemed to anchor him. The red-rimmed brown of his eyes eventually found Nell’s face.

“Uh more or less,” he rasped, a weak attempt at a smile stark against a livid canvas of bruises and lacerations down his face and neck.

Adam had been conditioned to quietly endure suffering and even agony if it was necessary to preserve humanity’s destiny. But spiritual wounds that’d sapped his Hunter powers have become all the more serious in the sadism and darkness of this place. Day after day the cult’s rites wore Adam down physically as the tendrils of their master’s psychic influence drilled down into the bedrock of Adam’s selfhood. Little by little, Adam felt himself giving ground inside.

Adam struggled to sit up, but broken ribs protested so much that he abandoned the attempt. He himself fall back against the fleshy softness of the not-quite-stone floor.

Adam adjusted his head as the now literally blue-veined marble throbbed with cardiac warmth against his temple.

“How’re you holding up?”

Nell cradled Adam’s broken fingers gingerly, thankful for the grounding effect his touch had, but reminding herself not to squeeze his hand in reassurance for fear of making things worse. A pinpoint of frustration surfaced in her stomach, wishing for what wasn’t the first time that she could mend bones as well as she closed up flesh wounds. “I guess I can’t ask for more,” she managed to say while matching his half-hearted attempt at levity. “Actually that’s a lie. I can and will ask for more, but I know it’s not gonna do anything.” As she spoke she reached her free hand towards the gashes she could see making a jagged and broken path across his neck, beginning the work of magically willing them shut, scabs beginning to form where open wounds had been before. It wasn’t anything as useful as healing fingers or ribs, but it at least made her feel like she could provide some relief, no matter how small.

“I’m not super sure if I’m just lucky enough to see two of you- or if there’s actually some doppelganger who’s decided to give up the long con and just lay right next to you.” Who said you couldn’t mix potential impending doom with a bit of flirtation? Despite everything, she was determined to keep things light for a moment longer, hoping it might somehow hide the truth of their shared misery. When she’d finished with the gashes on his neck, Nell tried to lower herself closer to the ground to begin work elsewhere, but it seemed her noodle-like ams had other plans when they gave out halfway through her descent. She landed roughly next to Adam, and a grunt of pain paired with a gasped curse of “Fuck,” worked its way through her lips.

Sometimes Nell thought about what it might be like to give in. To fully immerse herself in the whisperings of the walls inside this mansion, and let herself be truly taken into the fold. It would stop then, wouldn’t it? The pain she watched Adam go through far too often. Her own injuries, and the constant ache in her body she couldn’t seem to shake since joining up. Fighting had always been second nature to her, as if she’d been born with a stubbornness that made it impossible for her to give up no matter how far ahead or behind she might be. There’d never been any exception to that rule, and yet here she was— doing her best to keep herself semi-vertical and thinking about how the easy way out was looking more and more appealing every day. If she were being honest it wasn’t just about making sure she and Adam were safe. There was a space for here whether she wanted to face that truth or not, a place where her talents would be embraced rather than shunned or cast out. This was a coven that wanted her, not one that had turned their backs to the witch. “You know...do you think he’d settle for just...one of us?” she asked quietly as she lay next to Adam, her voice barely above a whisper as if she were worried that Ma’al might be listening at this very moment. “Like if I just hung out here with the cult and really gave it my all- maybe you could go keep working on getting your strength back and stuff. It might not even be so terrible.”

“Shouldn’t use up your power like that Nell…” Adam rasped even as pain became more manageable and the clammy numbness of blood loss stopped crawling up his body. Adam may not understand magic, but he intuited that everything Nell spent on him was strength she didn’t have to save herself later. This forces in this place were looking for any chink in their armor and Adam swallowed down guilt that Nell was leaving herself vulnerable to keep him from sinking.

Adam’s gaze was drawn to the walls and ceiling as alien forms protrude into this reality. Spined proboscises stabbed blindly. Mouths with multiple interior rings of saw-blade teeth punctured outward like bladed xylophones before folding back in on themselves. Tendrils slick with acid fumbled around for organic matter to dissolve and absorb. Flowery blooms opened to lash out with hungry stigma while even stranger orifices extended luminous filaments or branching nerve clusters in search of fresh lifeforce to drink. Some of the faces pressing in through the walls were even vaguely humanoid, just with eye-sockets and too many mouths in all the wrong places. The stone and wood of the mansions structure buckled, like a dam about to give way before the tide. There was a taut tension in the air, as if reality itself was straining under some vast weight.

Adam looked into that wall of horrors for longer than was safe, and found his mind wandering dangerously as something weaved insidious thoughts in Adam’s own inner voice.

Why did Adam fight his true nature? He’d had always been addicted to the wrong things, craved the fucking, fighting, and killing like a drug instead of being pure and purposeful. Sure, he’d shackled himself with a code, hoping pious bullshit some dead martyrs had come up centuries ago could make him something more than just an adrenaline junkie that got his rocks off from killing. Adam had been a good little soldier, dutifully risking his life to save people who never even know he existed.

But look at you now, Adam had told Adam. Broken, repressed, and bleeding out while those normie motherfuckers just keep slaughtering each other in rich mens’ wars. Admit it, your mission is pointless. You were made into a weapon for a cause that is already lost.

Adam looked at the woman who’ve risked everything to follow him in here.

Shouldn’t he just be free? Free to fuck, fight, and kill without guilt. Why not take his strength back, and use it how he liked? It was his life wasn’t it? What claim did others have on it? Why was he afraid of what he wanted?

‘Didn’t Nell deserve to be loved by a real man, not someone’s else’s wind-up soldier?’ asked a quiet voice that knew all Adam’s deepest insecurities.

Adam put a small and feeble pressure on Nell’s hand, bloodshot eyes alive with forbidden thoughts as they looked at her with the wrong kind of hope. “I dunno but…”

“I’m an oathbreaker and you're an exile,” the fallen Hunter pointed out softly. “Maybe like, this place we could just…,” Adam didn’t finish the question, but raised torn eyebrows to Nell as if trusting she understood what he was asking.

“I want to,” Nell insisted stubbornly, not pausing in her work of closing up every wound she managed to find on Adam. By the time she reached the end of her efforts the black spots in her vision had widened, and a part of her was thankful for the way they blocked out the terrors of the surrounding walls. It was easier not to get caught up in the unsettling yet mesmerizing shifts that the twisted images went through when you couldn’t see half of them. She tried to wait until the world had stopped swimming to begin on the cuts decorating her skin that were bleeding a little too much for comfort, not all that keen on passing out here and now. It was taking the majority of her strength to make sure she didn’t slip into something of a forced sleep, her body practically begging for rest and a chance to recuperate the magic she’d spent while she swayed where she sat, forcing herself to sit upright, and hoping that would be enough to ensure she stayed conscious.

Despite Nell’s best efforts, her head swam with the visions on the walls, and for a moment she could have sworn she saw her own face among them. The bones of her cheeks looked sharper, harder than the reflection she saw in the mirror, but there was a confidence that couldn’t help but be alluring, a promise of power and the ability to ensure that no one would ever make a victim of her again. She could make them afraid if she really wanted to. Most normies were already there when it came to witches. Surely it wouldn’t take all that much to rake others into a similar boat? And if they were afraid, there’d be no one to lop off the heads of sisters in clearings in the forest like a knife through butter, or trap Nell beneath a Ring while brain biters stole bits of her she never thought possible to lose. What was stopping her? The judgment of others? The fragile and paper-thin concept of right and wrong? Was it wrong to want to protect herself? Wasn’t releasing the demons within the walls of the mansion the perfect way to achieve such a thing? No doubt a town that was razed would be one that wouldn’t lift a finger against her or the ones she cared about.

It was the press of Adam’s hand in her’s that made her realize she’d lost track of time somewhere in the middle of her wanderings, and her fingers pressed lightly against his own while she blinked herself back to this plane of existence. A mirthless chuckle fell from her, because she knew he was right. An oathbreaker and an exile. The world didn't want them, so why should they want the world in return? But as her vision cleared and her black eyes searched Adam’s, there was the smallest reminder somewhere in the back of her head. They’d come here for a reason, right? She hadn’t wanted Adam to fall. But was it really falling? Focusing on the man in front of her, her brows furrowed, a frown claiming her lips while she spoke. “We...that’s not why we came here...was it?” What if they’d both secretly hoped to be taken into the cult? Perhaps Ma’al had simply awakened a part of them that was already present. No- there was a promise she was meant to be keeping. A promise to the hunter that she wouldn’t let him go under, because that wasn’t something he’d wanted. “That’s not why we came here,” she said with more certainty this time around even as another voice within her tried to poke holes in the words. “You...want that? To stay here?”

Adam knew Nell was right, that wasn’t what they’d come here. Something was leading them astray.

But the walls breathed, bulging and distorting inward as multitudinous alien things strained against the skin of the world. The bleeding painting on the walls asked Adam if that was true.

Hadn’t he already been astray? Was really it so bad to realize you were lost?

“Only if you’ll stay with me,” he murmured.

Let me set you free. It was the slithering voice of Kevin, and the words the dream-being had uttered within the caves of the catacombs that echoed through Nell’s mind as Adam made his admission. Even then Nell had nearly given in to the promise of peace and the sheer relief of simply letting go and giving up. She’d barely managed to shake free of the tempting offer when it was a stranger making it, but now that it was the familiar and comforting features of Adam that was making the proposal she found the words all the more intoxicating— certain that warmth and safety would be found on the other side of them. “I want to stay with you,” she said while reaching out her free hand to place it along the side of Adam’s face, thumb resting upon his cheek as she weighed the gravity of her words. This was one of the only things she was certain of these days- that Adam was one of the more stable pieces of her life, and she was more than willing to follow where he went. So many people had left in the last few months, other magnets that had kept her carefully balanced between one another. Winston, Bea, Blanche, and now Jared. They’d gone the ways they’d needed to one by one, and though Nell didn’t resent them in the least it was undeniable that their departure had left her adrift. So if Adam wanted to find the peace they deserved here amongst the cult, and so did she...what was there to stop them? “I’ll stay with you, and we can just be here together.” Away from the world that was determined to throw whatever pain it could their way.

Hey Ma’al,

It's me, Adam.

Guess it's about that time?

If I do this, let you in...there’s one condition

Soft spring sun refracted through townhouse windows, golden rays playing across the kitchen.

“So anyway,” Adam said, trying not to get dish-soap on his jersey as he put plates in the washer. “Dad said Winn and Mr. Woods might be coming over later to help fix the roof...”

Sunflowers swayed in the warm wind outside the window, the nostalgic golden haze of the afternoon casting golden petals stark against their black centers. Light glinted off the harbor bay and the commercial bustle of the Sink District as tourists poured in from ferries to peruse shops and Spring Festival stalls.

Adam turned to look across the rooms with gentle brown eyes that’d never beheld violence beyond a locker room scuffle. He ran an unscarred hand through his hair and gave Nell a lopsided grin. “Hey...Nell? What’re you thinking about?”

Nell had been watching the gentle arc of the sunflowers as the breeze played with them, more than pleased that they’d grown so beautifully in the past year and already thinking about what she might plant next. “Hmm?” came her questioning hum, head turning towards Adam with a look of chagrin at being caught staring into space. The light of golden hour played over her unmarred skin, the only lasting signs of imperfection being the dirt under her nails from the garden, and the roughness of her finger pads. “Well I was definitely listening religiously,” came her knee-jerk reaction of a tease. But as she took in the perfectness of Adam’s grin and the sun lighting his hair her own smile claimed her lips, softening in the slightest. “Nothing. Nothing, really.” Her mind was at peace, finally serene with a lack of problems to solve and shadows of witch-killers to fear in the night. “Just thinking about how I’m...happy.” She took a few steps towards him, beginning to close the space that had found its way between them. “Happy here with you.”

#// it's casual #soft and fine #sibling death tw #torture tw #wickedswriting #gaslighting tw #ch:Adam #into the fold two: surrender #chatzy

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hearthwitchhome · 3 years

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Story Time: Restitution Ch 1

Teen and up Brotherly/Platonic DRLAMP AU, Clones, psychic powers, Believed Major Character Death, Protective brothers, Suicidal Thoughts, Grief, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Second Chances, Rescues, Brief appearances of first person narration, but we promise they don't last, Everyone Needs A Hug, And surprisingly most of them actually get one Summary: Story Time: Once upon a time, there was a boy named Thomas who developed psychic powers. Let me tell you, it did not go the way I dreamt it would.