#i've been thinking a lot about the glory days supers lately :(

[municiberg]

Some of my thoughts about Kronos Unveiled. Just thought I would put them here too.

[smokeybrandreviews]

I Missed You

I've been frustrated with US comics for a few years now. Sh*t has been a barren wasteland of content for some time. Well, i can't say that for the entire industry, mostly the Big Two, but they weight the industry down so much, it's hard not to focus in on them. If the two gods bleed, what does that mean for the lowly mortals, you know? IDW puts out pretty solid Licensed fair, though. Their Power Rangers and Sonic stuff is pretty good. I really loved the Transformers comics they produced until Hasbro wanted a bigger piece of the pie and pulled their rights. Still, Image is doing a pretty great f*cking job with my darling Cybertronians now, so I'm not too mad about it, but i digress. This is more about DC and Marvel and how they've finally decided to get their sh*t together. Even if it's not anything in the main continuity.

Fall of X

Before i delve in to the return of the Ultimate universe, i need to give a nod to the Krakoan Era of X-Men comics. That sh*t was brilliant. It's been a long time since I've given a sh*t about an X-Men comic so, to see how well that sh*t came together, i was stunned. Credit where credit is due, that man John Hickman has a vision! His world building is insane. I've been a pretty big fan of his since his work on Fantastic Four but what he did with the X-Men eclipsed that near completely. The groundwork he laid for others to move forward with, was strong enough to weather editorial nonsense and, eventually, Hickman's premature departure. It'd always the creatives who suffer but, as one of the greatest comic runs come to an end, i mourn it's loss. There seems to have been a bit of X-resurgence lately but it feels like it all started with those House of and Powers of X comics five years ago. That said, i think i am even more in love with what he's doing in the new Ultimate universe.

Return to Glory

I love the Ultimate universe. Mostly. It is a time capsule of tropes and cliches of the day but the idea of it always appealed to me. Apparently, it appealed to Hollywood, too, because the MCU is based HEAVILY on the modern take Ultimate brought to the comics. When they killed it off, i understood why. Ultimate comics had basically ran it's course. There were a lot of mismatched tone and terribly stories at the time. Some were great, Ultimate Spider-Man maintained a decent quality until it's demise (probably why Miles was allowed to survive Secret Wars) but that thing needed to go. Throw out the entire universe, which they did. Well, several years later, Hickman, apparently, sold the Marvel higher ups on a proper reboot with a limited series title Ultimate Invasion. Another 1610 refugee, The Maker, decided to reboot his home universe and, being a Reed Richards not shackled by morality, did just that. Marvel gave Hickman the keys to an entire branch universe, with branding enough to lured in suckers like, and he has not disappointed. yes, it does feel a little "Heroes Reborn" but that can be forgiven because, so far, it's pretty f*cking good.

Along Came a Spider

The initial offering of Ultimate comics consisted of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, and Ultimate X-Men. Obviously, Ultimate Spider-Man is my sh*t. I finally got my Endgame with Pete and MJ plus their two kids. I love this book just because of that but there is so much more to it than JUST that. It's written very well. This one is, more than the others, a character driven drama with occasions spurts of super powered action. It's f*cking brilliant, easily the strongest of the three individual books. Did i mention the art is gorgeous? It has that in common with peach Momoko's take on X-Men.

Turning Japanese

I'm a sucker for manga and anime. A cursory search of this blog will tell you that. My personal style is heavily influenced by Kubo Tite and Toriyama. I stumbled across Peach Momoko LONG ago on an image board somewhere and have been haunting her career ever since. It's f*cking dope seeing Marvel give her a shot like this and, so far, it's paying off. Her take on X-Men seems to be focusing on Armor but with a Coming-of-age twist. It's very unique and i am enjoying where she's taking the character. Hisako is basically Wolverine's fourth or fifth adopted daughter. That's it. That's as far as she gets in the main universe. Giving her the spotlight was an interesting choice, one that allows Peach to kind of juxtapose her mutation with the oft stifling expectations of conservative Japanese society. Plus, Storm is Japanese maybe? Or not because...

Wakanda Forever

Storm is an integral part of Ultimate Black Panther and is basically classic Ororo but, like, a teenager? Who has teamed up with Erik Killmonger? To save Wakanda from Konshu and Ra? I'm going to be honest, i don't like this book so far. I can't connect with it. It's definitely a slow burn, feels like a covert/espionage, spy thriller type narrative, which is fine, but it's taking WAY too long to get going. There is a ton of groundwork which needs to be laid so we're four issues in and just not getting the principal team together. It's a frustration, for sure, but i get it. Another thing taking me out of this is the Panther suit design. Sh*t is gross. You can tell everything in this Ultimate version of the world is heavily inspired by the MCU films but it's not hitting like it should. Ultimate Black Panther has potential but right now, I'm reading it just to keep up with events.

Ultimates

This one just dropped and, i must say, i like it more than any other Ultimates book to date. It's basically the origin of the team and it hits so much harder that any of the other comics to date. Lots of world building in the margins here and i mean that. Read all of the preamble and afterword because it gives you a very clear of what is going on with the current state of world affairs. The comic, itself, is pretty good. Legit shows the efforts to save the fledgling universe from The Maker and the failures. We get to see this take on Ant-Man and Wasp, plus a few licks of what is on the horizon. As a comic, it's underwhelming. As a preview of what's next, it's dope.

I know i said the big two but this one got away from me. I'll have to get to the DC stuff later and, obviously, it's about to be real Bat-Heavy. He seems to get just SO much love over there at Detective Comics Comics. That said, Marvel needs to keep betting on Hickman because this dude is delivering some fresh, fun, and brilliant takes on established characters. We need more of this unfettered creativity. That's what comics are supposed to be about in the first place.

[mushiemellows]

Okay SO I've been thinking a ton lately about the post-monoculture american franchise vacuum and how american art is in this really weird stage. It's happening in all levels, too, like I left working in contemporary art spaces last year because they're struggling to figure out how to present american identity in an outward facing way (rn big name contemporary art spaces are still very much stuck in that 2010s neoliberal palatable acceptability politics rut and they refuse to get interesting with it anyways).

So like, a few different things are coinciding with the way american mainstream media is structured that make it so right now, we are producing literally nothing on a mass cultural level. In some ways, I think that this is a good thing, america needs to step the FUCK back and reanalyze QUITE a lot of things. But regardless, culture is a byproduct of existence and therefore will be created regardless. There's two sides of mass scale art production, internal propaganda (art made by and for the people of the same culture) and external propaganda (art designed to advertise/project the image of/signify/idealize etc for those who are of a different culture). The way art production in america woks (namely: film, tv, AAA video games, a particular caliber of pop record label music) has been so stratified under the creator class of capitalism that the blood flow of culture is being cut off. The way global exporting also works, the mass marketability of a thing outweighs its cultral connections (think like, what's going on with Disney/Pixar movies atm).

It's easy to associate propaganda, particularly internal propaganda, as having strictly a nationalistic context, but keep in mind that I'm using a much broader definition. All art is propaganda because all produced art is an artist trying to establish or normalize a particular worldview. And I am two minds about this (as one should be when engaging with ALL art) but it boils down to like, for example, Captain America TWS. I can both like that film as a film, enjoy the ideas that it plays with, AND maintain a critical eye about how a nationalized protagonist icon is being fed to me (a post-modern aryan buff super hero symbol of america is still an aryan buff super hero symbol at the end of the day. The russians are still the bad guys. the black man still plays support. the tropes are still old. I'm getting off topic)

Anyways, so in terms of how america makes art right now, I think the three things we make quite effectively are youtube videos, indie music, and steam games that go for $15 and under. Everything else is a fucking headless chicken because shareholders and those with the MEANS to make art are only motivated by the PROFIT of making art, and therefore generally do not fund things that feel culturally resonant. But at the same time, America in the 20th century made A LOT of it's money in global art export, so there's this sense of like, lost glory almost. Like the profits are still being made or whatever so this shit's still getting produced but like. I feel more culturally connected to Stardew Valley than I do to the Rise of Skywalker does that make ANY SENSE?!

This is only getting worse because in america, the production of essentially everything gets shifted into in import. We don't make many things (except fucking WEAPONS jfc), we don't grow as many crops as we once did (the majority of crops I believe are for feeding livestock, and the only reason we don't import meat is because it would go bad lol) and the big shift of the last 25 years has been to start importing essentially all of our art (hey! I'm posting this on my blog devoted to the biggest global export comic in the world! What a coincidence!).

This process has only been amplified by the writers/actors strike. We still havent felt the effects of it because of how the pipeline works, that'll catch up in about 6-10 months from now. Last time we played this game, the void was filled by low budget trashy reality tv, but they can't really play that card a second time in a row so it looks like the next move is eastern imported media (kdramas and shounen manga tbh) (Netflix isn't investing their whole pussy into one piece because they think Luffy's brand of leftism is cool, they're doing it because infinite tv generating box prints money) (one of the reasons i like studying this fucking show and fandom is that it has so much potential to be bastardized by ai and bullshit and then the people keep putting the heart back into it and I just think that's neat, but it still is valid to criticize the infinite money printing box is what I'm saying)

There's this really fascinating void that is being filled by export because the means of art production under capitalism prioritize what's cheap over how communities have naturally created culture over the years. I moved 3,000 miles a few years ago and I ate at the same restaurants and bought the same groceries and watch the same movies at the same amc's. If we were living just like 150 years ago that would not be the case, that big of a distance should take you to a culture wildly different from your own in most other contexts (or like. Europe.)

What I'm saying is that I don't want a new face of propaganda, I don't want art assigned to me. I want to live in community and make shit with my hands and i want that to be enough.

Anyways, in summation, Franky's one of the best post-modern caricature the american man ever penned to paper because he processes the external projected propaganda while also acknowledging that the real fun shit that is kinda commendable is when we're dirty angry kinky fuckin rock and roll queers and true freedom comes from relinquishing positions of power in this essay I will...

[suuho]

Hey! Can you share your thoughts on Suga as an artist and a performer? This ask is inspired by all those gifs btw.

hi!! i have NOT forgotten about this ask, i promise. i was meant to answer this, like, a week ago, and then i got off track because my sister sent me a tweet and what can i say, i have the attention span and object permanence of a very small dog. sometimes. it HAPPENS. but i have not forgotten and that is why i am going to finally answer this.

under the cut because this is extremely long.

so, the thing is, it's been forever really since i've watched any bts live performances, they have just become so grating to me that i could simply NOT bear it, like. i have to love myself a little too, and i cannot deal with the rapid decline of their already subpar vocal standard, and the blatant disregard of the rap line's actual function. which is, you know. to rap. but all of this aside, i did sit down to relive the glory days of monster performances and, especially, rap line and yoongi solo performances.

which is why we will start this thing with my thoughts on yoongi as a performer. i even got out my hard drive with the bts concerts for this, which i haven't looked at in ages EITHER. *blows off the dust*

my favorite live performances he's done are: trivia: seesaw, outro: tear, cypher pt. 4, intro: never mind, boy with luv, and mic drop. i think? in that order. it's really been forever. honorable mention to interlude: shadow and black swan. black swan yoongi is something else and he shines in that song for reasons i will be getting into further down. it's kind of like the thesis of yoongi as a performer. but more to that later.

yoongi as a performer is very. hm. how do we get into this? this could (a/n: and will be!) be an endlessly long post. so, the main takeaway that i get whenever i watch yoongi is that he isn't a natural on stage. i think, whatever he does up there is hardly-fought-for and hardly-earned. yoongi is the kind of idol type that should not be an idol. that could not be suited less to be on an idol stage but he bodies it, because the yoongi who decided to become an idol is a product of his time and circumstance. the yoongi who became an idol is the kind of guy we saw in the late aughts and early 10s. the yoongi who is an idol can be traced back to a certain idol type that was super popular in the first and second generation of kpop, that only made it possible for a guy like yoongi to debut in the first place. you can draw a direct line from g-dragon, beast's junhyung, b.a.p's yongguk, block b's zico, and 2pm's taecyeon, to yoongi.

i have mentioned it before but pretty much everything bighit did with yoongi up until, like, 2016 (and especially during you never walk alone and the most beautiful moment in life) is quintessentially modeled after beast's junhyung. for good reason and unsurprisingly; beast was pretty much the biggest kpop group that existed at one point. yoongi and junhyung are the same type, visually and artistically, down to their similar vocal types. it's so obvious when you know what you're looking for. i had that epiphany when i was watching beast's 12:30 and good luck mv's.

anyways. yoongi is an introvert, above all, and you can tell when he performs. he will never know the sort of ease that hoseok possesses on stage, for example. when yoongi performs, he does not project his energy outwards. he is not a charisma bomb like hoseok or jimin, but he has a certain draw that makes you want to know more, look closer, keep your eyes on him at all times. he has a very commanding stage presence and especially up until 2018, there was a lot of anger and fury beating beneath yoongi's live performances. he mellowed out significantly for songs like boy with luv or dna, but if you watch him perform tear or seesaw or idol, you notice there is a certain sort of desperation that clings to him. that certain desperation wrote interlude: shadow, by the way. and i think he never let go of that feeling until he released that song (and black swan). everything had to be so immediate for yoongi when he performed. the energy he did project had no goal and was not aimed at anyone or anything; it just burst out of him. it's the kind of thing that drove him from the underground rap scene to the stage of wembley stadium.

that makes yoongi not the most likable performer in the world because he does not perform for anyone. when he is on stage, it is not for the crowd, it is for himself. i feel like yoongi spent the majority of his life as an idol proving something to the world at large, and to himself. to that kid that never thought he would make it there, but had all the swagger and arrogance to do whatever it took. (which is how we got idol yoongi)

something, something, this is why it all went down the drain after dynamite.

he shines in rap songs, unsurprisingly. yoongi is a passable, capable dancer, an okay singer if in his own range, but a very, very talented rapper. and his affinity for double time raps is driven by the desperation and fury i mentioned, i think, all the words he had to say had to get out somehow, no matter at what cost, and sometimes that meant squeezing them between the beats, the metronome. he is not just a 'fast talker'. in my opinion, that does a great disservice to his skillset. he is pretty good at what he does, actually. he is the most skilled rapper in bts, and bts has the second best rapline in the industry.

he is prone to arrogance, i know i already said that, and that makes him come across as plain unlikable very easily and has made him fuck up more than once. as a performer and as a human. it is not his best trait, but it works in his favor on songs like cypher pt. 4, idol, and blood, sweat and tears. it offers his rap an edge that neither hoseok nor namjoon can sell as well as he does. this is the classic idol rapper blueprint that has gone lost among the sauce of most 3rd and almost all 4th gen. we do not have performers like this anymore, because an idol has to be likable, needs to sell you a product, needs to be your potential love interest, etcetera.

yoongi as a performer: introverted, skillful, arrogant, commanding, sharp, desperate, furious, melancholic, occasionally gentle and sweet.

now, yoongi as an artist. well, that's a different beast, but not entirely. yoongi as an artist is in a way just another side of yoongi as a performer, but someone who allows us to delve deeper into who he is and what he wants to be. what he wants the public to perceive him as. which is paradox because yoongi as a songwriter and producer affords him to dig deep and say things that yoongi the idol, the performer, would never allow to be seen or heard. it's like a song allows him to confess things. and whatever is the result, well, it will be judged but not in real time. not directly out of his mouth. this is how we got the last, seesaw, his tear verse, and black swan. like, it is crazy to me that song he hasn't even written is so accurately a reflection of who he is as an artist. (the connection is dionysus -> black swan -> suga's interlude and sprinkled among that are first love, interlude: shadow and intro: never mind)

"born as an idol, reborn as an artist" led to "oh, that would be my first death i been always so afraid of," and ended at "honestly, it’s different from the future I hoped for, but that doesn’t matter, now it’s the matter of survival — however it is."

yoongi is cocky as a performer and he had no qualms of threading those parts of himself into his work, but i think what would truly kill him, and is partly why this recent development of bts is so hysterical to me, is if he would have to let go of the part of him that creates art. if yoongi would never be allowed to touch a pen or a piano, i think that would kill him. he lives and dies for this shit, and it makes up a lot of who he is as a person, too. it is no surprise that suga's interlude and black swan were released at pretty much the same time.

yoongi constantly lives with the success he has achieved and the dreams he has realized, and the dread that comes from how all of this has happened and none of it has turned out the way he had hoped for. a lot of his work is trying to come to terms with this super stardom and who exists beneath. and what happens when those dreams turn to nightmares. and how in the end, it doesn't matter, because he does it for the art. how much it pains him that he loves the success. what loving that success has done to him. the rot it infests you with, that you cannot help but crave. that kind of paralyzing fear it breathes into you.

on another note, the only reason why the most beautiful moment in life worked so well is because it was built around yoongi in so many ways. that entire narrative rises and fallswith him. he just, kind of, internalized and owned that. like, he is that manic pixie dream boy. if you are dead at the end of the story, you are dead at the beginning of it. it's so crazy! if i think about it for longer, i really do go crazy. yoongi's desperation, fury, tenderness. it all lives in that narrative. man.

i feel like i am just rambling at this point but yoongi as an artist is a safe space, a place for him to unburden himself, to do what he loves the most with no restraints, to practically stage an exorcism of a cripplingly introverted performer. yoongi as an artist allows him to speak his innermost thoughts. he is meticulous, sensitive, attentive. he has a great ear, a vision for what he wants to make, and a very definite style depending on the genre he produces for. his style reminds me a lot of the songs junhyung produced for beast (not a coincidence). so, here we are once again! full circle.

anyways. i guess that's it! i hope that answer was even just a little satisfying and i feel like i didn't even say half of what i wanted to, but this is so long already. thank you and have a good day!

[finnlongman]

Hello, I hope you're having a good day. Is there any manuscriptal (I don't think that's a word) basis for the tradition/idea of "Cú Chulainn dies smiling/laughing"? It seems to be a very prevlant motif throughout what I've seen/read in...pretty much everything that is not BMMM/Aided Con Culainn (unless I'm misremembering things). Is this another Oideadh Con Culainn thing that's prominent in the general image of the character/story but the exact source isn't known because OCC hasn't had a translation or is it more a folkloric element of the character that he just kinda...absorbed over time for various reasons. It's always been an engaging and intriguing part of his story for me and I'd appreciate if you were able to shed some light on its origins. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day

Hmm, so, it's definitely not in BMMM or in OCC -- here's the moment of his death from OCC, which is one bit I translated for my thesis so I already have it to hand:

“Alas that,” said Cú Chulainn, “I give my word and I swear by the noble gods, that it was not possible that it was not a heart of stone or bones or iron that was in me until today, and if I had thought that it was a heart of blood or flesh which was in me, I would not have done half of that which I did of arms or high deeds.” It is then Cú Chulainn faced the men of Ireland, and he put his shield to protect himself and he put his lance against his shoulder and he took his unsheathed sword in his hand. His soul departed from his body after that, and his upper part and breast against the standing stone. It is then fell the chief of valour and arms, glory and prowess, protection and bravery of Ireland.

The closest he gets to smiling in this whole section of the text is feeling "great gladness" when Láeg comes back to him on the battlefield and helps bandage his wounds, which is probably not what we're looking for.

There's an early modern poem about his death that has this same motif of him talking about realising for the first time that he had a heart of flesh and blood -- aka recognising his own mortality -- and I don't remember any smiling there, either.

And BMMM has no smiling either:

He came then to a territory a great distance west of the lake, and his vision failed him, and he goes towards a pillar-stone in the plain, and placed his body-belt around it so that he might not die sitting or lying down, but rather so that he might die standing. Thereafter the men came around him, and they did not dare approach him. They thought he was alive ...

(trans. Bettina Kimpton)

Most retellings do in origin derive from BMMM or OCC, and when they're by Irish writers, it'll often be from OCC. Remember, not having a translation into English makes it inaccessible to English readers and scholars, but being such a late text means it's in a version of Irish that's not all that challenging for those who have modern Irish -- making it easier to read than the more difficult and medieval language of BMMM. One of the reasons it hasn't been translated is because Irish speakers don't necessarily need it to be, unlike the earlier text where the language is more archaic and challenging.

However, a lot of those retellings will have gone through a few intermediaries, who've added details which get passed on. For example, Lady Gregory's version of the story, which looks like a mixture of the two, has a detail about a cuckoo towards the end that I think is her own addition. This is how I worked out that Lady Gregory was probably the source for Rosemary Sutcliff's version -- Sutcliff also references the cuckoo, which is very distinctive.

Happy are they, happy are they, who will never hear the cuckoo again for ever, now that the Hound has died from us.

(Cuckoos show up as, like, a symbol of grief in some of the medieval Welsh poetry, so I was super intrigued to know if this was actually in the Irish text as it would be an interesting comparative point with the englynion. But as far as I can tell, it's a Gregory detail -- although there's a lot of poetry from OCC that I haven't translated, so I may be wrong there. If it is hers, perhaps she took inspo from the Welsh?)

There's no smiling in Lady Gregory's version, though, which would have been my best guess, since she's so many people's introduction to the story.

The most popular source for the majority of Ulster Cycle retellings, like Standish O'Grady's stories about Cú Chulainn, is Keating. When it comes to the death tale, I don't think they're using the History of Ireland, because Keating's treatment of Cú Chulainn's death there is to say, "I don't have time to tell you this story, here's where to find it:

Know, O reader, that if I were to relate here how Cuchulainn fell by the sons of Cailitin, and Fear Diadh son of Damhan by Cuchulainn, and the death of the seven Maines sons of Oilill Mor and of Meadhbh, and of many other stout heroes who are not mentioned here, a long narrative would be needed concerning them. But if thou wishest to get a lengthy account of them, read Brisleach Mhuighe Muirtheimhne; Oidhidh na gCuradh; or Tain Bo Cuailgne; or Tain Bo Reaghamain; or Deargruathar Chonaill Cheamaigh; or Feis Eamhnan; or Tain Bo Fliodhais; or similar tales which are now to be seen in Ireland; and thou shalt find therein a copious account of the above-mentioned persons and of many other champions and warriors of their history and adventures.

Helpful! However, I think Keating tells the story somewhere else, because O'Grady tells us that he he does, and in this version the medieval and early modern accounts are combined, which creates some confusion for O'Grady: Láeg both dies and doesn't die, a fact O'Grady found understandably puzzling.

So, if I could find where Keating tells the story, I could check if it's a Keating detail (my brain gave that for me as a "keating deating", thanks brain), but if it were, I'd have expected to come across it in a few more of the places I've looked.

It could be a folkloric tradition or from one of the bardic poems or something, but my best guess is that somebody added it into their retelling because they thought it was a nice touch, adding a bit of poetic drama, and other people copied them because they liked it (and because a lot of the retellings out there in the world are derivative of each other rather than going back to the source material). The fact that I've never seen it doesn't mean it isn't widespread, though; my knowledge of retellings is limited largely to Gregory, O'Grady and Sutcliff, since I generally prefer to work from the earlier texts, and that means my knowledge in that regard is pretty incomplete.

If it were a 'canonical' detail, I would have expected to have come across it by now, and I've never seen this in any version of the story I've worked with. Doesn't mean it's not out there, though -- I'm learning new things all the time, and there are things in this tale I would have sworn down weren't there at all if you'd asked me two years ago!

So, yeah, this is a very long answer to say, "no idea, I'm afraid", but hopefully it was useful or at least interesting.

[lynne-monstr]

Hi, I'm Rei. I hope this is not rude or weird, but I just finished the TKA novel and somehow I still can't quite grasp the difference between the 4 Tacticians' way of thinking. Like i know that YX is more unorthodox and ZXJ is detail oriented, but don't they all pay attention to details? I found your blog and it seems like you have a deep understanding of these characters (esp YWZ), so I'm curious, what do you think is the biggest difference between them? Like do you think that they process information differently? Have a nice day!

hi!!! no worries, it's not rude or weird at all. it's fun to talk about fandom stuff! 💙

I think a lot of my headcanons for ywz (and everyone, really) are heavily live action + prequel based, since those are my favorite flavors of tka. but that's the fun of fandom, we get to pick and choose what we want to engage with!

I see yu wenzhou's style of tactics as very psychology based, in the sense that he devotes a lot of time to understanding how the people around him act (both opponents and teammates) so he can anticipate what they're going to do and get there first. this is supplemented by his very deep knowledge of glory. i definitely think that his rough start drilled into him that the only chance he has of overcoming his slow speed is to start defending before his opponent has started attacking. so he's always looking for that angle, that weakness where he can slip in through the cracks and strike when the moment is right.

For zhang xinjie, I see him as someone who calculates every possibility and their resulting possibilities and on and on, and then tries to force his opponent onto the path most favorable for him. his tactics are about controlling the world around him, and around his opponents and in a lot of ways it's an extension of his personal life. the part about him that makes him super interesting is that for all his very straightforward thinking and adherence to timetables, he isn't a control freak. he knows he can't calculate everything and so he has no problem passing authority to and from hwq.

I have a hard time getting a handle on xiao shiqin because he's so different in the live action and the novel. i adore live action xsq for his gentle manipulations, and so i base my headcanons on that. i like to think of him as someone who can manipulate his opponents to act in a certain way and they don't even realize they're dancing to his tune until it's too late.

lol this is where I admit I have zero idea about ye xiu. I find him a difficult character to relate to because he doesn't really have any weaknesses. for me, watching a character struggle to overcome their weakness is what makes me interested in them and as a result I haven't given him a whole lot of analysis. the only thing I've been able to gather about yx is that he knows so much about glory and he's so good at playing it that he always knows the best things to do and the best way to pull them off, and he has both the knowledge and mechanics to support that type of decision making. that's probably a shallow reading but it's all I've got.

anyway this was fun to think about, thanks for the lovely ask!! I'd be very interested in hearing your opinions, too, if you want to share!

[vivdunye]

present day, present time

and you don't seem to understand

fabled adages of science

so i was watching the snyder cut of justice league the other morning, i couldn't really begin to tell you why other than i needed 4 hours of background noise . but i tuned in at one point when the fictional super Israeli, wonder woman, narrated a scene explaining an alien technology "that was so advanced that it almost seemed like sorcery", and wouldn't yknow, that's a real concept actually, i recognized it immediately as clark's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

it's perhaps the most well known and oft quoted of the three, but i always felt like arthur c. clark's first 2 laws don't ever get quite enough love . i've been thinking heavily about the first law lately:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

i've been thinking about it in relation to this one quote from wernher von braun that i always liked:

Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

many people are afraid of death; of ceasing the awareness of life, because they don't know what will happen to themselves after, where do they go if anywhere? it's much more nebulous in the secular sense if you haven't a construct for the afterlife already . i've been thinking about death more and more often lately to a worrying degree . however, scientific thought for all its clinical detachment from all things spiritual has strangely enough always felt like the perfect module for contemplating the metaphysical . so i decided to do some research .

i want to recall right now thomas edison's first intended use for the phonograph . edison had originally envisioned the phonograph primarily as a means of preserving the voices of loved ones after death . he later went on to try and develop a "ghost box" or "spiritphone" . this device would allow humans to communicate directly with the dead . he was unsuccessful .

if hauntology has taught us anything, we technically do have ghost boxes now, but maybe not in the way edison intended or even predicted . we carry them everywhere and can check them anytime, channeling messages through them constantly . we actively become digital ghosts, online we are both present and absent . the present implodes with the past, we've over-documented everything so now we can experience an instant nostalgia . today's future becomes archaic, we live in the archive to try and remember what the future once was .

'haunted' and 'futuristic' become one and the same .

by this token i'm reminded also by transhumanism . as the technological singularity fast approaches, as progress charges forward at a constantly increasing speed, current estimates posit the 2040s as the point in which technological improvements will occur at a constantly self-replicating rate . in the time between now and then, transhumanism and the eventual merging of human consciousness with machinery are theorized outcomes of technological progress . one day we might be able to leave the shackles of our human bodies and transcend our physical forms as a joined digital consciousness .

and in relation to this i also think now of clark's second law

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

through the wired

this is the stage on which the anime Serial Experiments Lain is set . a story, that while constructed on the patchwork of fiction, is nevertheless symbolic of certain phenomena based in reality .

also i apologize if it wasn't apparent that this post was going to be about Lain . im lainposting boys

the first few episodes exist to misdirect the viewer right from the beginning . and only by returning to these episodes having thought through the rest of the show, does their purpose become clear . the first episode, aptly titled "Layer 01: Weird" , is meant to show us exactly one thing, that lain is fucking weird . we can't tell what she's thinking, we can't tell what she's doing, and that's exactly how everyone around her feels . lain is totally and completely disconnected, she doesn't keep up with current events at school, she doesn't communicate with her family, near as we can tell she has no actual interests besides her stuffed animals and totally phasing out of reality. the inciting incident of the series happens when someone tries to make a connection with lain, and that person happens to be dead...

or at least there body is dead, their consciousness seems to have escaped into the wired . lain's decision to pursue this connection is what lead's her to ask her father for a new navi (the series' name for a personal computer) and that's all that really happens in this episode . coming back to it from later episodes we know that lain is probably thinking a lot throughout this episode . the decision to not entreat us to any of her thoughts is intentional, it is to make us feel distant from her as viewers, the same way that the world around her is distant . as lain forms connections throughout the series, so too, will we form a connection with her .

we do not know how much time has passed since then and the second episode, but whatever has happened lain has already developed a significant presence in the wired . this episode is tricky in its presentation as it doesn't make us privy to which things lain is lying about and which things she's honest about . in it we have lain talking to someone on her navi, she types sporadically in an encrypted language, and someone who looks just like her appears late one night in a night club downtown . while lain won't admit it to her classmates it's apparent at the end of the episode that it was her at the club all along . the key to understanding her actions throughout the episode is to realize she is trying to keep her existence in the wired and her existence in reality as separate entities . the realization she has by the end of the episode, which she uses to terrify a gunmen into suicide is that there is no escape from the wired, no matter where you are you are always connected .

made in the late-90s, Lain was quite ahead of its time . it predicted not only how in the early 2000s the internet would be regarded as a separate world where anonymity and personas reigned—it also predicted how the internet would eventually and inevitably overlap with the real world, once people in the real world realized that the internet is the real world . people have a tendency to see one part of themselves as their "true selves", whereas the parts they show to others are personas, they think of these things as separate when in reality a person is an amalgamation of all of their personas . lain tries to change her personas by dressing and acting differently from when she's in the wired-mode and in normal-mode, but she doesn't realize how people have been doing this way before the wired existed . her classmates are all 15 but they all pass for adults when they've dolled up and hit the club . if the characters in the show seem a bit young for their attitudes then you may not have met enough tech-savvy teenagers before . the purpose of this episode is to ultimately to prove to lain that the so-called real world and the wired are merely two layers of one reality, which couldn't be more true of the world today .

let there be light300pMTK. .

in mythology, psyche was the mortal princess who fell in love with and, eventually, married the god cupid; in religion and classical philosophy, psyche came to mean the human soul, and in the modern, literate world, it retains that meaning as the human spirit; in freudian analysis, psyche refers to the totality of the human mind: the id, ego and superego .

every meaning of psyche is distinctly human: a human princess who achieves godhood, the soul or mind of an individual . if previous episodes introduced the blurring of the real world with the wired, then episode three; "Layer 03: Psyche" is the episode that starts to blur human identity online and offline . one doesn’t even have to venture into the wired to ask what is human .

by this point we know that lain is definitely up to something . at this stage it's hard to tell what, but all we get are little glimpses into her actions . she still seems to be hiding a lot from the world around her and from the viewer in turn . ironically, lain's blank-faced silence and response to the questions of those around her it's own incrimination . when a police officer tells her to speak up (regarding the gunman's suicide) even if she had nothing to do with it, he doesn't realize she's being silent precisely because she does have something to do with it . but her deer-in-the-headlights persona gets her out of it .

the lain of the wired and the lain of reality are slowly starting to mesh into one whole . it remains difficult to interpret the physical existence of "other lain" so to speak, and the show refuses to outright show her playing that character . at the least, we do get to see lain access the wired in all its chaotic glory and she does begin to take an active interest in expanding her knowledge as she learns about and installs the "Psyche drive", a computer circuit that lain procures in hopes of it enhancing her computer's processing power . on the smaller scale, when lain applies the psyche processor to her navi, she is installing a spirit or soul, an animating element, to her machine . notably, the psyche does not replace the main processor; psyche augments the main processor, interpreting the data that flows through it . the soul is not simply the brain, it is an elevated consciousness or meta-self. by this point in the series lines become blurred and the lains begin to merge (hehe) . all of this is set against the backdrop of lain trying to decide if she should remain in the physical world or fully integrate in the wired . she hears one voice telling her that death feels amazing, and god exists in the wired, that there is nothing left for lain in this world . however, lain begins to establish a connection with her classmate alice, saying her name out loud and commiting it to memory for the first time, alice asks why her friends are not more shaken up after watching someone shoot himself in the head the previous day . it's almost as though lain is clinging to alice as an excuse to stay in the physical world out of fear for changing over . this all sets the seeds for what eventually grows throughout the series .

i want to recall the final meaning of the word “psyche". that the word also meant “butterfly,” which is how the greeks imagined the soul to appear . no doubt the symbolism of a creature that begins as one thing and transforms into another is not lost on us here .

every event serves to emphasize the existence of one's own personal reality, and as individuals from all others, we desire a place to belong . however that too is an egotistical concept . in order for there to be a mutual understanding, it is necessary to recognize here and now, like the brain synapses, we are all—in a logical yet chaotic manner—connected .

each is seperate—yet they are one . by connecting, humanity gains first awareness of its function as a seed . and by connecting a human no longer remains a mere endpoint, a "terminus", but becomes a junction to another point, having won the right to continue itself . in a sense, the ability to connect is the ability to continue . this not only applies to the connection of axial coordinates but temporal coordinates as well . therefore, at the time when a conscious, intentional connection is made, surely the dead will rise from there intended place, appearing at the time coordinate of the connection's origin .

in that moment, the realization will dawn that the time in which we inhabit our physical bodies is but the starting point of the connection, and the very meaning of possessing a physical body might be questioned .

we recognize we are connected .

serialize thyself .

[miceenscene]

Hi Mice!

Since you're someone who has written in several fandoms, I have a question for you. (I'm loving your Mandalorian fic, by the way. A soulmate AU is perfect for the lonely tin can cowboy!) I certainly don't feel like I have my finger on the pulse of fandom or anything (I'm pretty much just a lurker), but I've started to notice an uptick in second-person, reader-insert fics lately. (I realize this could have been a super popular trend for ages, and I’m just discovering it, haha.) As someone interested in narrative theory, I find this fascinating. Second person narratives are used very rarely in literature; the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Italo Calvino's wonderful If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.

Have you noticed a similar trend? What do you think might account for it? Is it a convention of particular fandoms, or is this a trend across the board? Is it a kind of natural evolution of Tumblr fics?

I can't decide how I feel about it overall. At its worst, it seems a shameless update on ye olde Mary Sue. But when done well, the reader can be a well-drawn, engaging character, and it can lend an urgency and immediacy to the writing.

I'm totally not expecting you to be an expert here or anything, just thought I'd get thoughts from a writer I respect. Feel free to ignore this, if you’d like! Haha. Hope you're well!

Hey!

This is rather funny that you should ask because I was just talking about second-person fics in a group chat this morning. And so I shared your ask with them and got some additional insights.

I’ve certainly noticed an uptick in the amount of second-person I’m seeing, but I also have just added a much more Vibrant fandom to my collection after living for so long in one that is defined by glories past. The group says that they’ve also noticed an uptick; fandoms like Chris Evans or Hiddleston used to be much more OC focused are now heavily second-person focused instead. It’s certainly easy to see the evidence. The Mando/Reader tag is LEAGUES larger than Mando/OC on both tumblr & Ao3. (Same with the rest of Pedro Pascal’s shippable characters, but you mentioned Mandalorian in particular. :D)

As to why, there could really be any number of reasons. 

The group wisely suggested, and I agree, that the COVID lockdowns have a part to play. Everyone everywhere is just fuckin’ desperate for happy brain chemicals. And this fic here is about my current comfort character thinking I’m pretty and wanting to spend time with me. Weeeeeeee. Happy day dreams ahoy.

I think they may also come from a natural progression of Mary Sues/OC’s of the past. A reader-insert certainly cuts out the middle man. Like how fanfic helps streamline the writing process by doing the heavy lifting of world-building and partial character creation, Reader Insert streamlines even more by letting the reader themself also half-fashion the OC in their own head. (Though to be fair, the best reader inserts I’ve ever read have the ‘You’ be very much their own character. So some writers take that labor back from their readers to some truly fantastic results.)

I think also there may be something truly engaging in the semi-communal feeling of a second-person story. Every second-person story has a story-teller. There’s another voice telling you what is happening to ‘You’, another person specifically crafting a scenario for you. And it feels more personal because it’s addressed directly to you, and often highly subjective in nature (the ‘You’s feelings typically being the key reasoning for writing in the first place). This goes back to the Covid point but with Covid and even capitalism doing its damnedest to continually separate people (because we are so much easier to market to when we’re alone), it’s not surprising that the older forms of seeking community through storytelling are getting a renaissance. Dungeons & Dragons (and tabletop roleplaying) is a really great example of second-person storytelling that has exploded in recent years. Humans have always liked telling stories (our brains even tell us stories when we sleep). Just its no longer happening around a fire after a meal, but through my phone in the middle of the night, curled up in my bed.

Though even in published fiction, we may not see ‘You’ as a character but we do see characters crafted specifically for audience projection. Both in media like Doctor Who where you have the Audience Insert Companion that’s there to ask the questions about the weird bullshit that’s happening that the audience themselves might be having (and also to make googoo eyes at the Doctor to varying levels of success); or in stories like Twilight where Bella has far more in common with a ‘You’ than she does say Elizabeth Bennet. (Bella’s even managed to get the first person POV while still being a highly projectable outline of a character. She’s essentially one pronoun away from being a ‘You’. YA as a whole genre makes a lot of money off this exact concept. Tumblr and Ao3 just take it the next step forward.)

The key to a good story is engaging your reader. Second-person seems be a new trend to doing that. But if the last decade has taught us anything it’s that things that start online rarely ever stay there. Traditional Publishing moves slow so I don’t think we’ll be seeing Simon & Schuster promoting any second-person novels anytime soon. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there are smaller boutique publishers already making them and people already buying them. 

You said that you didn’t know how you felt about Second-person overall. And I don’t think that’s an incorrect place to be. Second-person is just a tool, like a paintbrush is a tool or a rolling pin is a tool. In the hands of a novice, it can leave something to be desired. And in the hands of a good craftsman, it can be used to create something truly astounding.

(However, all this to say, the use of ‘y/n’ (or any of its derivatives) will always be a big Nope for me. I’ve read enough second person to have it patently proven that it’s possible to write without it.)

<3, Mice

[iamanartichoke]

Can I still send smth for "i wish u would write a fic where”? Cause I've just seen this on twitter: ✨incorrect thor & loki ✨‏ @wrongbrodinsons "loki: what would the chef recommend? waiter: sir, this is mcdonalds thor: please excuse my brother, he’s not familiar with earth etiquette. what would the McChef recommend?" and absolutely need a fan fic with this convo here lol

Okay, so, I just want to disclaim this particular response by saying that Brodinson silliness isn’t generally my fic forte (much as my shitposting their Midgardian adventures might have you believe otherwise) so … this is just what came out. There’s some angst, some silliness, and a lot of drunk!Brodinsons and it’s super long because I am me, and I apologize. Also, I didn’t really revise this because if I think about it too much, I won’t post it, haha. I’m not super confident in it, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! Thanks for the challenging prompt, I do like to try things outside of my comfort zone. :) 

Word Count: 2485 

It is after their fifth bottle of whiskey that Thor’s eyes brighten with the kind of mischief he only adopts when he’s good and inebriated. Loki groans as he sees the look shift swiftly across Thor’s features. “No,” he says simply, taking another swig from his bottle. The whiskey is not bad, but it is not good either. However, most Midgardian liquors do absolutely nothing for either of them, and the few that do have an effect must be consumed in copious amounts.

It is one of the things Loki misses about Asgard, how sweet wine and mead would flow steadily at feasts and meals or in the taverns deep into the night. He misses the days when he and Thor would share ale over a fire, talking of the day’s exploits and laughing in sync. Once, life had been simple, if not necessarily good.

“What,” Thor says, raising an eyebrow at Loki. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. I know that look,” Loki points out with a roll of his eyes. He and Thor, in a rare mood that had struck them both after the evening meal, have settled themselves on the back porch of their apartment, their alcohol on a small table between their two chairs. The chairs are something called lounge chairs, which allow them to lean back and stretch their legs out comfortably. It was an undignified way to sit, to be sure, but Loki had to admit that he enjoyed the laziness of it, especially as he felt himself grow more intoxicated.

Thor plays innocent. He takes a long swig, finishing off the bottle he’d been nursing for awhile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Loki. I was just thinking we should get something to eat.”

“We just ate the evening meal about two hours ago,” Loki points out.

“Yes, but drinking always makes me hungry. You know this,” Thor returns. “Anyway, haven’t you ever heard of a midnight snack?”

Loki rolls his eyes. “No, Thor. As a matter of fact, I have not heard of a midnight snack. Why don’t you enlighten me?”

Thor gives his deep, rumbling laugh, which lasts just a moment too long. At this rate, Loki thinks wryly as he brings his bottle back to his lips, he will be pouring Thor into bed within the hour. Loki himself has been going much more slowly, allowing the warmth of the whiskey to work through him slowly and steadily. He is not sober, but nor is he as drunk as Thor. It’s a safe place to be.

“A midnight snack,” Thor explains, sitting up a bit and fixing Loki with an earnest stare, as if he is about to provide him with the answers to the universe, “is a snack … which is eaten at or close to midnight.”

Loki waits for him to continue. When he doesn’t, Loki cannot help his own laughter. Thor is such a dope, he thinks fondly. Loki may be more drunk than he’d realized, because it suddenly seems very funny instead of irritating. “You might have to write that one down for me, brother,” is all he says. “I might not remember your detailed and thorough explanation, otherwise.”

“True enough,” Thor agrees, with another laugh. He picks up a new bottle of whiskey, uncapping it easily as he settles back into his chair. “So, what say you, brother? Do you want to go on an adventure?” He gives a grin and wiggles his eyebrows a bit.

“Hmm. I rather think I’ve had enough adventure to last awhile.” Loki extends the bottle in his hand, swirling it around to determine how much is left. A fair amount, but less than he expected. “Don’t you?”

“Never,” Thor answers earnestly. “As long as I have a heart that beats, it will beat in tune to the battle cry of Asgard, it will echo glory and honor to Valhalla itself, it will -”

“Norns, I’m sorry I asked,” Loki cuts him off. “I used to hate that, you know,” he adds. He feels languid, lethargic, and the words slip from his tongue before he realizes he’d been thinking them. Once they are out, it is too late to swallow them back down again. He sips his whiskey, avoiding Thor’s gaze.

“Hate what?”

Loki waves a hand. “Your … unquenchable thirst for battle,” he elaborates. “I never understood why anyone would willingly seek out battle. Defending yourself is one thing, but …” He trails off, lifts his shoulders. “You never lost that, you know? That battle-lust. You were taken down a few pegs, to be sure, but you seek battle as ferociously as you ever have.” Loki grins, despite himself. “You’re just not so irritating about it anymore.”

Thor tilts his head, his eye flicking over Loki. He does not look unpleased with the assessment, but for a long while, he does not say anything, either. Finally, after a particularly large swallow of whiskey, he says, “I think that’s the most you’ve really said to me at one time in … quite a long time.”

“I speak to you all the time,” Loki reminds him.

“No, you don’t.” Thor adjusts himself slightly, crossing one ankle over the other. “You respond to me. You offer your opinion, warranted or not. Occasionally you make a joke. But you don’t speak to me about how you feel. You don’t speak to me about our lives before … well, everything. You don’t even mention Asgard anymore, though the wound must still be as fresh for you as it is for me.”

Loki does not speak of Asgard because speaking about it will not bring it back. He feels a slight twitch in his chest, where his heart lies. Indeed, the wound is fresh, but that is one of the many differences between himself and Thor. Loki nurses his wounds privately, bandaging them up with silence and repression, while Thor lets his bleed for everyone to see. “It would serve little purpose to speak of,” Loki answers, resting his head against the back of his chair. His face feels warm, which is one of the tell-tale signs that he is growing less sober.

“Perhaps,” Thor agrees, to Loki’s surprise. “But I wish you would try more often.”

A silence falls over them, weighted with all of the things they have not said. Loki takes a very long swallow of his drink, finishing off the rest of the bottle in one sip. He is sorry he said anything, sorry that his words punctured the relative peace that they’d had before. “Okay,” he says, setting his bottle down a bit too hard on the table. “Let’s go on an adventure.”

“What?” Thor blinks.

“I’ve had a change of heart,” Loki tells him, sitting up. His head spins. He was going to be feeling this tomorrow. “Come on, before it changes again.”

At once, Thor’s face splits into his wide, brilliant smile. Norns, but Loki loves that stupid smile. He is inebriated enough to admit to himself, but still sensible enough not to speak it aloud. Thor does not need any more reason to be arrogant. “Rhodey told me of a restaurant,” Thor says as he stands and offers Loki his hand. Loki grasps it, and Thor pulls him up, and they both stumble a bit.

“You big oaf,” Loki grumbles, righting himself.

“Rhodey told me of a restaurant,” Thor continues, as if Loki had not spoken, “where one might find a spectacular midnight snack. I believe he said it’s called McDonalds.”

“All right,” Loki says, weaving carefully around Thor to the patio door. “Is it far?”

“Only a few blocks. Now, brother,” Thor begins, setting his expression very straight, “this is an adventure, a quest, which we cannot fail. It must be treated with the utmost care and precision.”

“I didn’t know you knew the definition of those words.”

“Shut up. We must move quietly, stealthily, lest the others see what we are doing.”

“Thor,” Loki says, growing more amused by the moment, “no one else is here.”

��That we know of,” Thor retorts. He gives Loki a little nudge and Loki rolls his eyes, but he carefully opens the patio door and slips inside. The apartment is dim, but not dark. Thor, practically on Loki’s heels, keeps whispering, “Shhh!”

“I didn’t say anything,” Loki retorts, and stumbles over one of Thor’s discarded boots. “Shit. Thor, how many times -”

Thor clamps his hand over Loki’s mouth, giving him a frown of disapproval. Loki wants to snicker, but refrains. He has forgotten how truly silly Thor can be, when the mood strikes just right. When Thor removes his hand, Loki speaks again, in an exaggerated whisper.

“How many times have I told you not to leave your damn boots around?”

“I don’t remember.” Thor leans over and scoops up the boot, shoving it on before searching for its mate. Loki waits patiently for him. He cannot help a snicker when Thor steps too widely and loses his balance, collapsing onto the sofa.

“What were you saying about stealth, brother?”

Thor shoots Loki a glare, but it does not hold more than a few seconds before his own face collapses into amusement. When he finally finishes putting on his boots, they waste another few minutes searching for their keys, wallets, all manner of trinkets that one must carry everywhere with him on Midgard. Once they have thoroughly prepared for their adventure, they set off into the cool evening, Thor banging the door closed rather loudly behind them.

“You never were very good at sneaking around,” Loki remarks. He wobbles a bit as they begin walking, and Thor must notice, for he reaches out and grips Loki’s arm. Loki responds by gripping Thor back, until they are clinging to one another as if they were mere boys. “Do you remember when we’d sneak into the kitchen after evening meal for pastries?”

“Oh, yes!” Thor seems to have completely forgotten stealth; his voice booms around them, deep and warm. It sends a reverberating shiver weaving through Loki’s ribs. Neither of them are walking in a particularly straight line, Loki notices with amusement. All of this is so terribly funny. “We got caught more times than not, I believe.”

“Yes, because you were utterly incapable of stealth,” Loki reminds him. “You’d crash about, pretend we were sword-ing through dragons and beasts -” He cuts himself off and starts laughing. “Oh my, did you hear me lose that verb? Sword fighting, I meant to say.”

“Yes, hold on.” Thor lets go of Loki enough to bend over, pretending to fumble around on the ground. He comes back up a moment later, victory in his grin. He extends a hand to Loki. “I believe you dropped your verb, good sir.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” Loki says, plucking the empty air from Thor’s palm and making a show of tucking it into his pocket. “I’ll just leave that there, in case I need it later. Thank you kindly, my friend.”

“That is what heroes do,” Thor answers with an exaggerated swagger, which throws both of them off balance. It sets Loki off again, and when Thor laughs with him, his eye twinkles with more than just inebriation. It is happiness, Loki realizes.

By the time they get to the restaurant, neither of them are taking anything seriously. Which is likely a good thing, because Loki is immediately appalled upon entering the brightly-lit building. “Now, Loki,” Thor says seriously as, for some bizarre reason, they approach the counter. It is relatively empty, but the servants on the opposite side of the counter are looking at Thor and Loki warily. “This is not a usual restaurant. We must order and pay first, and then choose our own table.”

Loki looks at him as if he has lost his mind. It is entirely possible that he has. Still, Thor strides forward confidently, leaving Loki no choice but to follow.

“Welcome to McDonald’s,” says the boy behind the counter, his gaze flicking from Loki to Thor and back again. He is practically a child, Loki thinks. “What can I get for you?”

“I don’t know,” Loki answers, glancing at Thor. What kind of place has Thor brought them to? It seems utterly ludicrous. “What does the chef recommend?”

The child blinks. “Um, sir, this - this is McDonald’s,” he responds, as if Loki had not heard him say that very thing just a moment ago. Loki should be very irritated, but instead, he hides a smile behind his hand.

“Please, excuse my brother,” Thor speaks up. “He isn’t used to proper Earth etiquette.” The child’s brow furrows, but Thor goes on, in a very straight voice, “What would the McChef of McDonald’s recommend?”

Loki breaks up, turning his head and pressing it into Thor’s shoulder as he snickers.

“Uh.” The child sounds as if he is already sick of them. “A lot of people like the Big Mac.”

“We’ll have that, then.”

The rest of the transaction goes by, with Loki trying unsuccessfully to stop laughing while Thor takes great care with his words and movements. When they are finished at the counter, they weave around tables and find a booth near the back, where Loki collapses and lets out a breath. “I don’t know why this is so funny,” he admits to Thor, rubbing his eyes. “But the look on that boy’s face -”

Thor is grinning, sliding into the seat opposite Loki. “I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen you have so much fun,” he admits, and picks up a potato stick. “I miss it.”

“Do not get maudlin, Thor,” Loki warns, poking uncertainly at his meal. “Norns, what is this? It looks absolutely revolting.”

“This is the finest cuisine Midgard has to offer,” Thor responds cheerfully. “Or so I’ve heard.”

“All the more reason to flee this wretched realm,” Loki replies. “Will you remind me why we chose this place?”

“Because,” Thor says grandly, “I am king, and I am an Avenger, and thus I am needed here. Where else might we go? Can I really risk our people to the dwarves of Nidavellir? The trickery of the Vanir? The humans are relatively harmless to our people and, thus, we may co-exist for awhile. The Avengers, as well, will always need another pair of - oh, brother, might I borrow that verb?”

Loki rolls his eyes, stubborn smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He exaggerates reaching into his pocket and then extending his palm to Thor. “It is all yours,” he says.

Thor very carefully pantomimes picking up the verb from Loki’s palm. “Thank you kindly. The Avengers will always need another pair of fighting hands. Therefore, this is the correct place to be.”

“I suppose I defer to your wisdom, then, my king,” Loki returns magnanimously. He pokes at his food again. “But the food is still disgusting.”