#it literally just had his clones show up and stab him to “death” from behind

[altocat]

If they didn't have the budget to have Genesis fall off a dinky little platform how the hell are they going to tackle Cloud literally chucking Sephiroth down the reactor shaft?

....Maybe Sephiroth is just gonna get the Genesis treatment while Cloud Ides of March's his ass.

[itsclydebitches]

Hey Clyde, did you check out Wonder Egg Priority at all? The first ep is super promising, but the series as a whole is one of those real fascinating disasters from a story and a production standpoint that might be up your alley as a thing to pick apart haha.

I’d warn that it’s also reeeeal offensive and this generally gets worse as it goes though.

Hi, Phoenix! How are you and Cube doing?

Okay, I hadn't watched Wonder Egg Priority when I received your ask this morning. Now I have. In a fit of intense curiosity I settled down for a rare binge session and tore through all twelve episodes + OVA in a single sitting. It is now nearly 3:00am as I write this because I, oh so clearly, make fantastic life choices.

A question for you: what did I just watch?

The rest is going under a read more partly for spoilers, but more-so because WEP—and the summary I'm about to give, because I feel like I need to try and explain this to tumblr's faceless void for my own, dwindling sanity—comes with about every trigger warning under the sun. Seriously, if you are triggered by anything that we might think of as a "standard" trigger (meaning, not unique to you and your own experiences), best to proceed with caution.

Right! What the ever loving fuck happened in this show? Well, let's work through this chronologically. Two genius, frat boy brothers (I get their names mixed up so I'm not even gonna bother) are locked in their apartment and closely monitored because of Super Secret Science Research. Even though, I think, they're the ones who created this company. Not important! What is important is that they're bored enough to create an AI for funsies, thinking of her as their daughter and letting her name herself Frill. Frill is the perfect, cutesy, also genius child who has a habit of popping her lips — which the camera focuses on in an incredibly creepy fashion. One day Brother #1 (the hot one) falls in love with a random woman we know nothing about and Frill gets jealous.

"Jealous in a general sense?" you ask, thinking this show is in any way normal. "Like, just of her Dad giving attention to someone else?"

"No," I respond, patting your hand. "Jealous because she's in love with him." Which, beyond the subject matter itself, comes completely out of nowhere. Frill has a line about what you'd do if some woman stole your husband away. I, fool that I was, briefly considered that these two guys were lovers, not brothers. Oh no. They're brothers. Frill just considers Dad #1 to be her "husband."

So, in true evil AI fashion, she murders the wife, leaving only her newly born child behind. Who is a daughter.

Uh oh.

Dad #1 locks Frill in a coffin-esque hole in the basement and goes on with his life. Things are great! Until years later when the daughter reveals that she has fallen in love with her uncle (Dad #2 to Frill). She knows (somehow??) that both her dad and her uncle loved her mom, so if the loser uncle will just wait a few years he can marry her instead! He brushes her off, but the next day she’s found dead of an apparent suicide.

Realizing that this was somehow Frill’s doing, he marches down to the basement and confronts the murderous child they’ve had locked up for years. She’s now surrounded by screens in, again, true creep AI fashion. How did she get all this while she was locked up? Oh, just the three bug girls she created as friends prior to killing the wife. They’re devoted slaves, I guess. So the uncle says enough of this insanity and seemingly sets Frill on fire.

OH and Frill’s subtitled dialogue also puts “uncle” in quotation marks, implying that the daughter was always Dad #2’s??

Anyway, both brothers are now super obsessed with death and claim that they think Frill has had a hand in lots of girls’ suicides, even now after her own death. This is brought into question later when it’s revealed that they might have just concocted this scheme to try and bring back their daughter. I’m really not sure. Regardless, they use hand-wavey science to create eggs that I guess contain the souls of young girls who have committed suicide, then they sucker in other young girls who have lost people to suicide to try and rescue their loved ones in a dream world, saving others along the way. A tomboyish girl, Momoe, lost a classmate who admitted to loving her, but who Momoe rejected. Rika, a former junior idol, used and rejected an overweight fan only to learn later that she’d starved herself to death. Neiru, the 14yo president of some science company (yup) was attacked by her sister before she jumped off a bridge. Finally Ai, our protagonist, is a victim of bullying who managed to make friends with a single girl, Koito, who then jumped from their school building for unknown reasons. They’re all given the chance to bring these individuals back to life, provided they protect other victims of suicide by defeating the monstrous traumas that drove them to that act in the first place.

And you know what? That concept was great. However, the execution ranges from “Okay, that was pretty good for an anime. Kudos there” to “That’s the most offensive thing I’ve seen in my life.” Needless to say, unpacking all the battles they fight would take a lot more than this already absurd summary. Basically, if you can think of something horrible to happen to young girls (and one trans guy whose existence in that egg undermines the whole message of the episode), there’s an attempt to tackle it here.

During all this the four girls become friends and Ai works through her suspicions about Mr. Sawaki, a teacher at her school. What’s going on with Mr. Sawaki? Uh… everything! He’s somehow connected to Koito’s death, he’s dating Ai’s mom, and Ai apparently loves him too because her friends say so, even though this is never actually addressed and she barely interacts with him. It’s all quite the complication.

In time though the girls complete their “mission” of bringing their loved ones back to life. Rika and Momoe manage it first, only to find that Frill’s bug-girl lackeys have arrived to kill them. Why? Because that’s what Frill does, I guess. Momoe’s crocodile familiar (cute animals the girls were gifted to help them fight) takes a killing blow for her and the bug-lady then proceeds to carve up his corpse and force feed it to Momoe. Fantastic!! Building off of that, the next bug-lady who Rika encounters kills her turtle too, following in the footsteps of her bug-sister by, presumably, forcing her to eat parts of its head. Ai refuses to sacrifice her familiar to stay alive, but luckily the suicide she was protecting turns out to be herself from a parallel universe (that's a thing now!) and she takes the killing blow herself, which is done by pulling out the eye she’s sensitive about (she has heterochromia.) So parallel Ai passes on (again?) and the three girls don’t work through this trauma at all, instead becoming more traumatized through the realization that the loved ones they brought back no longer remember them. They’re alive, but the relationship they all had with them is dead.

It’s about this point that the main storyline wraps up and I’m relieved that there’s an OVA to finish things off. Surely they can somehow bring this all together in 45 minutes.

…25 minutes of that OVA is recap.

So with only about 20 minutes left, we learn that Neiru, the only one to not complete her mission yet, has mysteriously gone missing. It turns out she was an AI/clone/something all along, made to replace her sister and, presumably, that’s what caused the whole stabbing-suicide incident. She successfully brings her sister back, but stays behind in the dream world because Frill promises her she can become human. How is Frill here when she’s dead? How will Neiru become human? Isn’t Frill the “temptation of death” or whatever? There are no answers. A flashback finally reveals that Koito was having a relationship with a teacher at another school, he committed suicide, she transferred, she tried the same thing with Mr. Sawaki, he kept refusing her advances, and finally while threatening suicide to get his attention, she accidentally fell.

(So why was she in the suicide egg if it was an accident??)

Except, all this information comes through Mr. Sawaki himself, there’s a whole subplot about whether he’s really a villain, or if Ai is just making him into one, and this show might as well be titled How Much Pedophilia Can We Put into One Anime? So make of that what you will.

A dead character randomly shows up, but it's fine because she's actually just a version from a parallel world. How did she get here? Why is she here? Lol, it's cute that you think these are answered.

Rika, the character who cuts and almost committed suicide halfway through the show, breaks down saying how much she misses her dead loved ones, right after her friends refused to let her go on another mission that would surely end in her death and… that’s it. That’s all we get about her.

Momoe too, though she’s hopefully just vibing somewhere with that longed-for boyfriend.

Ai transfers schools and then one day randomly remembers that she loves Neiru and rushes back to start cracking eggs again because that will? Somehow?? Let her see Neiru???

When I say there are too many unanswered questions to possibly list here I really, really mean it.

Finally, in a personal attack on me, the protagonist with a name that is literally AI is not in any way an artificial intelligence.

And that’s it! Congratulations, you now “understand” WEP. And see, the funny thing is that the off-the-rails, bat-shit crazy aspects kind of catch you off guard? Yeah, the first episode is fantastic. In fact, I think I got through about six episodes thinking that this was a solid, if at times really messed up anime, but I was willing to shrug off a lot of stuff due solely to the amount of sensitive material they were attempting to cover (which is always quite difficult to do). Probably the only reason I was able to binge so fast was because the first half of the series was so engaging. The characters are charming. The animation is GORGEOUS. There's actually a ton of good here that is also worth yelling about. But then the plot comes in like a freight train and I was left staring dumbfounded at my screen as more and more insanity kept happening. Having watched the "explanations" I am now more confused about the show I just saw.

Phoenix, if you’ve bothered to read this rambling, 3:00am rant: thank you. I think? Idk if I should actually be thanking you or cursing you for tuning me into this, but it was definitely an experience, that’s for sure lol.

I'm off to bed now RIP the chance of having normal dreams ✌️

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

(sees another fandom that I can ask you about and cheers) Orphan Black! Thoughts? I don't know Dr Who but Tatiana is one of my favorite actors period.

Anon you are so sweet! I'm always happy to chat about fandoms and characters and whatnot, and I will never not appreciate the majesty of Tatiana's acting. That is one of the greatest parts of the show hands down.

Orphan Black, to me, is a show that had incredible potential, but didn't really live up to the excitement it created. (Loooong post ahead.)

The thing is, Orphan Black builds a chilling mystery and background, the world it gradually creates as it goes for about the first two seasons, got be very invested and made me wonder a lot about where it was going to go and what the answers were. The setup is brilliant, right from the start with that iconic cold open of Beth's suicide. The unknown is what really helped this show get as thrilling as it was, because the actual answers behind the unknown were kind of hit and miss, and it seemed like far too often, the show just wasn't interested in telling it's story. Hijinks where the clones impersonate each other in slice of life events? That's fun at first and it really works well as they're still getting to know each other. But after a while, it gets tedious, and it seems like the show would rather fuck around and have dance parties (seriously, that scene was such a #BigLippedAlligatorMoment) than focus on the story and the threat that the sisters are facing. Virtually all of Allison's plotlines are like this, they feel like they belong in a different show, and for some reason the writers insisted on giving her one of these storylines like, every season. After Allison passively murders her own friend out of suspecting that she's spying on her, I just don't feel like an arc about her running for some PTA office position even matters. It doesn't feel right.

Speaking of that, here's another example: Donnie. Why did the end of the first season suggest that he was this secret mastermind working for Leekie? The whole idea just deflates in Season 2 and doesn't really go anywhere. He just goes back to being the bumbling sweetheart he was before. Why even have him be the spy? Maybe it should have been Ainsley. Do you want to know the exact moment that I think Orphan Black went wrong? Like, the specific scene? When Leekie was killed off. The character who had thus far been the Big Bad, gets taken out in the stupidest possible way, a literal accident on Donnie's part, and it's even played for laughs. After that point, the show really struggled to regain it's footing, though I don't think it completely went off the rails until about Season 4, and it was still generally hit or miss. Like, some stuff was really good. The introduction of the Castor clones, the development of Rachel's character (I'll get to her, trust me.) and the reveal of Kendall Malone. But it seemed like so much else was just forgotten or otherwise not resolved. Whatever happened to Cal? Sure, the show wanted to focus on the sisters...but Kira deserves to know her father if she wants to. That's just one example. It's a crying shame because this show is sometimes incredible. The metaphor that I always use for situations like this, is a card game. The show has all the right cards in its hand, they're just not being played.

The two strongest characters, at least to me, were Rachel and Helena. One of these characters was superbly written and went through a devastating arc. The other was Helena. We need to talk about her. In Season 1, she really cemented herself as a memorable presence with her trademark accent, her scars, her whole damn personality (again, hats off to Tatiana) and of course, that iconic screechy theme music that accompanied her. Which at first made us jump, but eventually made us cheer. I adored Helena, and I loved the development of her relationship with Sarah. Who went from shooting her in Season 1, to being deadset on rescuring her in Season 3, being furious with Siobhan for betraying her. (This is unrelated but Siobhan has the same " twist villain fakeout" at the end of Season 1 that Donnie does, and it's quite frustrating.) And yet, I swear, the writers just didn't know what to do with Helena half the time. They put her on a bus for long stretches, including one point where she just up and leaves Allison's house in Season 4, for no given reason. And the characters just kind of...don't care. The same thing happens when she gets arrested. No one cares to try and find Helena, even though she's unstable and often a danger to those around her. Even though she's by herself with no real ability to function in society. Even though she's pregnant. There is no excuse for this, and no Sarah, that "I'm sorry, I avoided you" scene in Season 5 is not going to cut it. It's such an afterthought.

I'm being rather critical, but I hope you can tell that this is from a point of passion. I genuinely enjoyed this show and getting to watch it. Just that sometimes it didn't feel like the show cared that I was watching. However, this was not true whenever Rachel was onscreen. Look, I'm a Merula Snyde stan, so you can probably already guess how I feel about Rachel. Despite her crimes, despite her constant slipping back the dark side, I felt so bad for Rachel at the end of it all. That scene with Kira really sums it up. "Who hurt you?" "All of them." And no scene is more intense than when she stabs out the eye cam. Like, I'm sorry, I pitied Rachel pretty much from Season 2 on. Her parents were horrible to her, and I'm supposed to think Ethan is the good guy here? He kills himself in front of his own daughter, telling her that she doesn't deserve him. And then Sarah shoots a pencil through her eye, causing brain damage and requiring a long recovery. I'm not saying that Sarah was wrong to do what she did, just that if I were in her shoes, I'd still feel a degree of guilt for Rachel's condition. In the end, I'm devastated that she was barred from Clone Club, when she made the right decision at the point it mattered. But there's just too much history there, and Sarah won't ever forgive her. (Though again, I do feel as though there's blame to share.) Rachel is my favorite character and I never expected her to be. But she's just so complex. Side note: "Enjoy your oophorectomy" is so damn quotable. I don't know why but I love that line.

So, Rachel's my favorite. Who's my least favorite? It might surprise you. It's Delphine. I'm sorry, but I just...I couldn't get on board with C*phine. Not after Season 3. I was waiting for the point that the show would push to finally redeem Delphine for her turncoat role, for all of the hell that she put Cosima through. By Season 5 though? I realized that as far as the writers were concerned? She already was redeemed. Even though she did nothing to earn it, except be presumed dead by Cosima. The way she treats Cosima in Season 3 is actually disgusting. Her reasoning for breaking up with Cosima is circular. She has to love "all the clones" in order to be with Cosima, and the way to do that is to take over Rachel's job, which means they can't date anymore? I'm not the only one who thought that didn't make sense, right? Oh and let's talk about how she stalks Cosima's date, breaks into her house, and threatens her life. Red. Flags. Cosima even says the line, "If you're not going to be with me, just let me go." I'm sorry, that should not be something she has to beg for. Delphine's behavior made me want her to stay far, far away from Cosima. Who is, incidentally, a sweetie and I absolutely adore her. I legit have trouble remembering that Tatiana's playing her because she just looks and acts so different. That said, even though I immensely disliked Delphine, I am so very glad that they made one of the clones gay. Just like I'm glad that they made one of them trans. (Though...Tony wasn't handled especially well.)

In general, I do think the earlier seasons were stronger. The Brightborn arc, while interesting, didn't really contribute much to the overarching narrative. We got the backstory on Beth's suicide and finally learned the truth about her, I suppose. Still, even though Beth is one of my favorite of the clones, and I never expected her to be either...I feel like the actual reason given for why she took her own life was rather illogical. She apparently did it because the investigation was putting the clones in danger of another Helsinki. Okay, but just because Evie Cho says you should off yourself, doesn't mean you have to. You could just, like...stop investigating. And if you die under mysterious circumstances without explaining anything to the sisters, they're not going to be put off from the investigation. They're going to look into this even more, because they don't know why they're not supposed to. The reveal that she and Art fell in love toward the end adds an extra gut punch, but it also doesn't make sense because wouldn't Art have referenced it during the period that he thought Sarah was Beth? On the other hand, Season 4 also introduced MK. And I have such a soft spot for her. I adore that sheep-masked sweetie. Everyone always asks "Which clone would you date" (because fandoms can think of nothing else I guess) and I never see anyone give any love to MK. Her death absolutely tore me apart. I am glad Siobhan avenged her even if she went down at the same time. Side note, her last word being the affectionate "Chickens..." Broke me.

Season 5 was a strange beast. In general, it seemed like we were finally getting some answers to the questions that were hanging over us. Exploring the deep mythos. But then they kind of turned it around and made it just be a Wizard of Oz style fraud twist. Westmoreland isn't really inhumanly old, he's a charlatan. I don't know why that was necessary in a science fictional show. I've seen the interviews and I get what they were going for, it just feels like it would have been cooler and far creepier if he was actually that old. The puppet master pulling the strings the whole time. We also finally get some answers for Kira's superhuman healing abilities (though we never learn how she's telepathically connected to the clones) and I'm loving it, but the trouble is, it's inconsistent. Ethan "Why is this guy so popular, he's an asshole" Duncan told Rachel specifically that Sarah being able to have children was a fluke, that the clones were "barren by design." I don't know, the whole concept of Revival and of the "magical island" was really foreboding and tied in with the earlier references to The Island of Doctor Moreau. Especially that song about "Revival's Children" just...the shudders, man. But just having it be a regular old scam is...a letdown. I know it may be more realistic, but I don't always need realism in my scifi. The finale is interesting, in that it's mostly an epilogue. I'm glad the clones (sans Rachel) got to live happily ever after, but there are two gut punches right at the end that are total nitpicks but they bother me. Helena naming her kids after Art and Donnie? And writing a memoir that she names "Orphan Black?" Those two tropes can go die in a hole. They can enjoy an oophorectomy, because I'm so sick of them.

The potential of Orphan Black was practically infinite. The results of Orphan Black fell frustratingly short.

[wornoutmouse]

Illumi x Poc Reader

I wrote this cause I don't see any Poc readers with hxh like I do mha😫 Also not sure if I'll make this into a story what do you think?

You weren't the strongest nen user in the world, hell you weren't even in the top 50. So if someone were to ask you why you were currently having dinner with the most feared family in Padokea you would have no choice but to just shrug your shoulders. You glanced around quietly eating your meal as your posture became stiff as a board the longer the silence became. You were not naive to the fact that there were many eyes on you both literally and figuratively.

Sitting across from you was a rather large man with long white hair calmly eating his food. He was almost a mirror image of the older man to his left. Although shorter in stature you could practically taste the power radiating from him.

'This must be Illumi's grandfather' you thought

Next to the old man was a large boy with shiny black hair similar to Illumi's noisily chewing while focusing with a mobile game in his right hand. Someone you deducted to be his sister sat next to him in a black and pink kimono quite similar to the one your were forced to wear before arriving, she ate her food quietly. Finally turning towards the lady of the house who's hard gaze you could feel on your face ever since you arrived.

Clearing your throat you opted for small talk trying to lessen the tension. "Who made dinner, it's delicious." The woman clapped her hands together in a gleeful manor, "Do you really think so? The new butler prepared it but I found it a bit dry so they were promptly fired!" She replied voice getting hard at the word fired. It was not hard to understand that fired was Zoldyck for killed. You stared down incredulously at the rice and beef on the table that was practically oozing in tenderness and moisture. "Oh really?" You respond lightly trying to keep a blank face as the woman snapped her silver spoon in half bellowing a obnoxious, 'Oh dear!'

You swallowed shallowly as you watched a servant immediately present her a new fork. You came to a decided conclusion that this woman was off her rocker. You opened your mouth to speak again before a quick sharp pain spread up your leg piercing through all the layers of your kimono. Tensed you pluck some beef into your mouth at the same time you plucked the object out of your flesh. Based on the thin length leading to a round end you shuddered glacing at Illumi who was now missing one of his needless from his vest. This was obviously a warning to stay quiet.

After the meal Illumi ushered you down the hall and up many stairs before shoving you into a dark room causing you to trip and almost fall. You huff angrily turning to your captor, "What is this about Illumi?" You ask flicking his needle towards his face marveling at how easily he caught it gently between his long slender fingers returning it to his place above his heart. "It was only to get you to stop speaking. It wouldn't have been long before my mother threw a fit and that would be rather annoying." He replied nonchalantly his dark eyes staring into yours before promptly turning and walking towards a linen closet.

You combed your hand through your disheveled afro that you were unable to fix after Illumi had made you open his heavy ass 'front door' you personally called bullshit on that one. But had no choice since you were immediately threatened if you refused.

"If you are unable to open at least one of the doors then you are not worth my time and will be disposed of."

Plopping down on the plush bed you gasp as you sank down a few inches grasping at the silk sheets. "What could I have possibly done to upset your mama? I opened 2 of your stupid doors and I put on this kimono just like you asked!" You asked exasperated as you tugged on the kimono that had clung to your round figure no matter how much you loosened the sash. Illumi closed the closet turning with two stacks of purple linen in his hands perfectly folded. "That is true. Infact she was estatic at your efforts at first. But that all changed of course when I told her that I was open to marrying you."

Your heart sunk into your stomach like your body in the bed at those words. You shuttered at the thought of marrying this deranged man and bearing his fish eyed offspring. His monotone voice and blank face only fueled your reasoning as he spoke about marriage as though he was shopping for bread. "What the hell do you mean marriage!?" The only reaction you received was a show blink, "You managed to intrigue me, anyone capable of that needs to be monitored closely and what better way to do that than marriage?" You roll your eyes and gestured universally, "How about, I don't know, literally ANYTHING! Be roommates you know, like normal people!" Illumi looked almost as though he was pondering on the idea before shaking his head

"No, besides it's about time I've settled down don't you think." You dead panned absolutely positive that your ideas of settling down where vastly different. "I'm sure your mother does not approve of you marrying someone you just met." Illumi's mouth twitched up hinting at a smirk, "No, things like that are common around here, her problem is about how weak you are." He paused for a moment waking towards making you mean away as he sets his long arms on either side of you, caging you between the bed and himself examining your features before continuing, "And she's not too keen on mixing different backgrounds into our pure Japanese heritage." Your blink slowly trying to calm your heart beat at the proximity before scoffing looking towards the window to your left so you wouldn't cry in fear, "Offend me why don't you?"

He leaned away plopping one of the purple stacks into your lap, "Let's go shower." He says heading to the bathroom stopping when he realized you weren't following. "Well, come along." You looked at him like he'd lost his damn mind, which he had apparently. "You got me messed up if you think I'm getting in the shower with you Playboy continue your journey and leave me alone." You say rolling into your side facing away from him in order for you not to go back on your choice in fear only to relax at the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing.

FLASHBACK

You gasped in exhaustion as you ran as far as your legs would take you. Flying through the dense forest trying to keep a close ear on the sounds of twigs snapping at your right. 'I'm totally fucked' you thought as the sound easily caught up to you.

You didn't understand how you got into this situation. You were simply visiting your uncle at his new estate. You knew he got his wealth in greasy ways but not enough to put a hit on himself.

You propel yourself off of a branch trying to get higher into the trees. You wondered if your uncle was still alive. He was a more advanced nen user so if he doesn't survive you surely won't. You pushed yourself harder through the trees thinking back to seconds before the ambush.

Your uncle was giving you a saphire necklace that he had aquired through questionable means. The only thing that gave away something was wrong was the fact that the estate was completely silent with no sound of his rowdy partners celebrating through booze and marijuana. At that realization, he ushered you though the bedroom window just as his room door slammed open. All you saw before you jumped was long ebony hair and dull black eyes. You landed on the ground in a awkward way, spraining your ankle but wasted no time pushing through the pain; breifly recalling what your mother said when she sent you here.

"You just learned nen basics so you're not adept to protecting yourself. Your uncle Ricky messes around with dirty folk so if he tells you to run then run baby and don't look back."

So here you were, flying through the air just 2 months after your first nen training, putting everything you knew to the test. After long last, you burst through the trees finally able to see your surroundings illuminated with the moonlight.

You began bounding across the tops before something sharp stabbed through your sprained tendon, causing you to fall far and hard back into the forest.

You groaned, sitting up and blinking rapidly, you try to adjust your eyes to the change in scenery. Standing up shakily, you take a step forward before you feel a large weight land on your back, pushing you face down into dirt and dried leaves.

"There is no use resisting child. Stay still and I will consider making your death quick~" Came a silky voice above you. "Such wasted potential~" Before you could respond, everything went black signalling that your clone had met it's demise. You blinked yourself bringing your consiousness back into your real body. "Wow that nen trick really did work, maybe that old lady wasn't crazy." You mutter wincing at the ghost of pain you felt drumming through your ankle. Once you casted your nen on a pile of twigs, you quickly ran in the opposite direction. Only watching from it's own eyes so the movements would seem fluid.

"I should hurry it won't be long till they realise they were tricked."

You quickly ran into a small tourist town and headed to the nearest bar so you could ease your pain. Sliding onto the stool you wave over the bar keep. "A shot of vodka for the road!" You call out, already grimacing at the taste you'd have to force yourself through. The bartender looked at you and smirked before sliding you a root beer float.

You stared at the ice cream floating in your glass before looking at him like he was crazy. "Sorry sweety but your babysitter said to give you something light."

He gestures behind you, and you turn to look choking sightly as breath catches in your throat.

Right behind you were familiar dull black eyes pearing down at you. This man was tall, at least 6 feet plus with pale white skin, and long hair. He was dressed like a Christmas tree with gold bulbs adorning his green top. "Can I help you?" You ask trying to feign innocence. The man stiffly sat down in the stool next to you ignoring you for the time being. "Barkeep please give me what you gave her." He said point to your float. Once he received his, he looked at it for a while as the ice cream sunk into the root beer. The silence was terrifying but you found yourself getting lost in his sharp features and his calculating hands as they wrapped around the tall glass.

"How did you do your little trick?" He asked pulling you out of your trance. You blink slowly, "What trick?" You ask tensing as his head turns towards you looking into your eyes almost daring you to lie

"I told my colleague to rid the area of any strays in the area. He informed me that he was persueing the 'cute Cocoa girl with the curly hair." He faced his drink swiping the dripping cream and slowly licking it off his finger never breaking eye contact. "So you can imagine my surprise when I find my self persueing the same girl. So I want to know how you did it."

You fold your arms and began drinking your float indignant to the situation. "Sorry, family secret, I can't tell you." You suddenly feel something thin yet sharp pressing into yout neck as a sultry voice chuckled from behind you. "How sneaky of you my dear, tricking me into following a ploy."

The ebony haired man watched your face looking for a reaction and you looked back the best you could without provoking your neck being slit. With a sigh the man drunk some of his float licking the ice cream from his lips, "Stand down Hisoka, we don't want a repeat of last time." And you could only imagine what that meant. There was a chuckle, "Oh Illumi my dear your no fun~" the mystery person replied. But the force was removed from your neck.

[potatoofpotato]

The No-Kill Rule means far much more to a character like Batman, than it does to literally any other superhero.

No-Kill rule. Heroes in comic books are supposed to be beacons of light that show us that we can be better as people. How many of us had our lives changed because we had people like Superman to look up to? How many women looked to Wonder Woman as their hero? How many people could relate with someone like Spiderman, who was just a regular guy who gained superpowers? So of course, showing these heroes butchering the villains in cold blood was something that just wouldn’t and couldn’t fly back in the Golden Age. But things are different now. People have a want for more action, people generally want more violence. People want the hero to kill the villain. They want to see the hero kill the badguy and end it all! If the bad guy was dead, there would be no more problems. And yeah, it makes sense in some way. Spiderman’s problems all would be over if he just threw Green Goblin off the empire state building. Or smashed Rhino’s head with a cement block. Or etc. Green Lantern’s problems all could have been lessened if he willed a green sword and stabbed Sinestro through the chest. Any superhero’s lives would be better if they just killed. However, Batman is different. For Batman the no-kill policy is far more than just a cliche. It’s his life. To Batman, all lives are precious. Every life is sacred. No matter how cruel and murderous they are, Batman does not have it in his heart or even in his capabilities to kill someone. Because of how his parents were killed, because of how his mind was warped, he couldn’t bring himself to be a murderer. To him, every crook, every villain, every person had someone who cared. SOMEONE. To that person, if he killed someone, he’d become that thug who took his parents. It’s his biggest weakness, his biggest achilles heel. The thing is, he’s just as messed up as the Joker is. Yes, he could potentially be in Arkham as well. His mental upbringing, his very being, his every self cannot fathom killing another. Look at the scene from Batman: The Animated Series, when H.A.R.D.A.C  created his own Batman, the clone was almost a perfect replica. Down to his inability to kill. How he viewed all human life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuuSOuWNvNE The fight between Batman and Robo-Batman ended with Batman seemingly dying and robo-Batman absolutely losing his mind with an overwhelming guilt to the point where he literally kills himself whilst destroying H.A.R.D.A.C in the process. That is what Batman is. That was who he is. So when you see Batman suddenly gun down a car with his batmobile in one scene, then threatening to murder Superman in another scene. Or when you see him pulling out two guns... it makes you go, “That’s not Batman.” Do not forget, in Batman Beyond, it wasn’t JUST his old age being the reason he gave up being Batman, but it was when he picked up a gun and pointed it at a man who would have killed him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llBexiLzK5U Look at the raw look of genuine horrified fear as he looks at he gun, dropping it in pure disgust and walking away in shame. Bruce Wayne would never. Ever. EVER use a gun to kill another person. It goes against his very moral code. More than any other superhero. If you see Wonder Woman stab someone through the chest, you go, “You go Wonder Woman.” But if you see Batman beating a man half to death merclessly, leaving nothing but a walking corpse left behind, you don’t go “Yeah that’s awesome!” you go, “...that’s not Batman...” If people want a Batman that kills? That’s fine. But have it be another person. Give someone else the mantle of Batman. But for Bruce Wayne? The No-Kill rule isn’t just a policy, it’s what makes him, Batman.

[supremeprince-bensolo]

The Rise of Skywalker thoughts/review

I’ve now had two weeks to process my thoughts on the movie. Immediately after, I was actually feeling quite okay (but mostly sad due to the fate of my favourite character). But I didn’t hate the movie, I actually loved most of it after the first initial viewing. I went with my family who are casual fans. My dad said it’s his favourite SW movie, my mum loved it too, and my brother thought it was a satisfying ending to the saga. My feelings were a lot more complicated. There were things I loved, but also things I absolutely hated and thought should have been done differently.

First off, I had a bit of a memorable experience at the cinema. The projector stopped working twice (only in Australia will the temperature cause the projectors to malfunction!). But it meant they rewound the film a little so I got to see the scene where Rey shoots lightning to take the transport ship down (and Kylo strutting up looking like a prince) and Dark Rey/Kylo showing up on the Death Star twice. So, thankfully they stopped during Reylo scenes so I got to see them again (but if only it had stopped right after the kiss and they couldn’t get the projector working again…).

I was actually looking forward to Palpatine being back. He is the ultimate evil and the person who seduced Anakin to the Dark Side which started this whole saga. I could buy that he was behind everything. And as much as I’d hoped to find out how he survived, it didn’t bother me too much that they didn’t tell us. The Sith use the Force in very unnatural ways so it doesn’t surprise me that he somehow managed to cheat death.

“I have been every voice (Palpatine), you have ever heard (Snoke), inside your head (Vader).” The entire time it was Palpatine. It was him pulling the strings, wanting revenge on Vader by ruining the Skywalker legacy and grooming Ben into becoming a stronger and more loyal Vader. He made Snoke, literally (the jar full of Snoke clones was creepy). Kylo believed he was talking to his grandfather when he talked to the Vader mask, but it was really Palpatine feeding him lies and manipulating him. This entire sequence was unsettling and really worked for me.

‘The dead speak!’ In theory, Palpatine’s return could have worked very well. But it’s between movies that it all happens. There is a lot of exposition in the opening crawl, perhaps a bit too much. It was overwhelming. There was no build up, he’s just back and no one questions it and we’re straight into the action.

And also Kylo finding out that it was Palpatine who had been this voice in his head, that should have had huge ramifications. He should have had an identity crisis and started questioning everything. But there wasn’t time, there was too much plot to get through, no time to sit with a huge reveal like this I guess.

I was actually very surprised how well all the Leia scenes fit in. I can only imagine how limiting it must have been with only old footage from TFA, but considering the circumstances I think they did a good job. Having her training Rey and the reveal that Luke had actually trained her to become a Jedi, and she even made her own lightsaber. I did enjoy that. And it was very impactful to have her final word be ‘Ben’.

I hate that Rose was completely sidelined. She had one minute of screen time and had absolutely nothing to do. She was a important character in TLJ and this movie completely ignored her. She literally saved Finn’s life in the last movie and he didn’t even acknowledge her.

I enjoyed the trio adventure! It was just a lot of fun! Great to see Rey and Finn together again. And I loved how Rey and Poe were constantly at odds with each other couldn’t stop arguing. I love how they disagreed on everything. It made for a fun ride. Fun, but ultimately devoid of any real depth.

I didn’t like the whole thing of Finn constantly wanting to tell Rey something. He loves her? He’s Force sensitive? Who knows because we never find out. Poe was looking jealous (because he thought he loved Rey?). And Finn completely ignored Rose (which was awful). And Jannah being yet another love interest for him? I wasn’t a fan of any of that at all.

I actually like the idea of Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter. I would much prefer her to be a nobody, but I do like the concept of her being a Palpatine. In theory, it is the basis for a great story. Vader’s grandson and Palpatine’s granddaughter falling in love and bringing balance to the Force. It could have been great. All the set up was there for it to be a compelling story that tied everything together. But the way the movie dealt with it was a letdown.

So I guess they didn’t completely retcon Rey’s parents reveal from TLJ. Her parents were nobodies, but by choice. To protect her. So… they sold her for drinking money to protect her? They apparently cared about her yet they left her with Unkar Plutt?

What didn’t work about Rey being a Palpatine is that it was essentially to explain that she’s only this powerful because of her bloodline. But what that does is undermine her. Why can’t she just be powerful on her own? I guess it also gave her a reason to want revenge on Palpatine, but that should have been Ben. You know, the actual descendant of the bloodline that he tried to corrupt.

The MacGuffins. The cave where they encounter an injured snake which Rey heals by passing on some of her life force to it, showing off her healing abilities which come into play later. Conveniently finding the Sith relics and an abandoned ship where Rey’s parents were killed. The dagger, which is map to the Wayfinder on the wreckage of the second Death Star. And it’s also the dagger that was used to kill her parents. The Wayfinder which leads them directly to Exegol. All these things that are necessary to get from point A to point B in order to further the plot. But there were just so many of them.

And all the fake out deaths. We thought Chewie died, but he didn’t. C-3PO’s memory was wiped, but R2-D2 restored it. Zorii Bliss may have been on Kimiji when it was destroyed, but she wasn’t. Either kill them or don’t. It just felt like there were no stakes because they weren’t bold enough to actually kill anyone.

All the Force Bond scenes were great! Kylo sensing where Rey is and SNATCHING THE NECKLACE!! First time they’ve connected in this movie, and possibly the first time in months?? There was a lot of tension between them. It showed how much stronger their bond has gotten. This is a long way from touching hands. The lightsaber battle through the bond in Kylo’s chambers causing damage to each others surroundings. Loved that!

Basically all the Rey/Kylo scenes were great! But the one thing I couldn’t believe that these two idiots were still so at arms with each other. I know they felt rejected from everything that went down in TLJ, but really Rey? She didn’t seem like herself. I guess this was to show us her dark side and the extent of her power. I LOVED Kylo strutting over to her on Pasaana like the prince he is. She was obviously a little impressed (and relieved!) that he managed to survive her little backflip/slice trick. The tug of war over the transport ship, neither could overpower the other because they are equals. And then Rey shoots FORCE LIGHTING OUT OF HER HANDS and he just looks on in awe at her. She can’t believe what she just did, and damn, just imagine how amazing would it have been if she’d accidentally killed her parents by bringing their ship crashing down. She looked absolutely traumatised by what she did to that transport ship. Missed opportunity.

Kylo repairing his mask did mostly work for me. I love the symbolism of it. He destroyed it in the last movie so he couldn’t hide anymore, but now he decided he did want to hide again. The obvious red cracks in the repaired mask representing how torn he is inside, and if there are cracks it means the light can still get in. I did like that. But I do feel like they just repaired it cause it looked cool and not for the symbolism but I’ll take what I can get.

Crushing the Wayfinder in his massive hand was something. The power he has. The lightsaber duel on the Death Star wreckage was EPIC! With the waves plummeting around them. Very visually stunning. And as always, Rey is the one who is angry. Kylo blocks her attacks and defends himself, but he never makes the first move. He wants Rey to join him. He wants them to team up and defeat Palpatine together. He wants her to take his hand and and he knows she will one day.

The death of Kylo Ren. His mothers voice distracts him, Leia uses the remainder of her life force in the hopes of bringing him back. All she wanted was for him to come home. That’s all she ever wanted.

“I did want to take your hand. Ben’s hand.” After Rey stabs him, symbolically killing the Kylo Ren persona, she heals him. This moment was so sweet, and emotional. After everything, I’m sure he doesn’t feel that he deserves to be healed. He looks on at her in awe, the only person who has ever showed him this kind of care and compassion. She looks so sad and regretful of what she did. And his scar is also healed.

That moment is important because that is when he realises he wants to come back. He does want to become Ben again. After trying so hard to kill that identity, the realisation that the woman he loves wants to be with Ben, not Kylo, is the motivation he needs. It’s love that brings him back. Love from from his mother and the love he has for Rey. Kylo Ren is dead. Ben Solo is reborn. I LOVED that moment.

I also loved when Han shows up to Ben. He shows up as a memory (I assume it was only a memory although it’s not entirely clear). Han tells him to come home, but Ben says he can’t. Leia is gone, but Han points out that her cause isn’t. He can go to the Resistance. He can still choose to do the right thing.

“I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” He has the chance to replay this moment in his mind, and this time, he does what he wishes he had done back then. Instead of killing his father, he throws his lightsaber away, completely shunning the identity of Kylo Ren and chooses to be Ben Solo. He calls him ‘Dad’, and the way he said it is so fragile and so broken. And then his father puts his hand on his cheek, where his scar used to be. I loved that scene. It hit all the right emotional beats and was a huge turning point for Ben.

Hux being the spy was hilarious! I couldn’t help but laugh. We all suspected he’d try to overthrow Kylo, but this was just ridiculous. His character turned into a joke and then he was killed and the new officer took over just like that. What a waste.

Force Ghost Luke appearing to Rey. And only to her. After TLJ I thought he’d be haunting Ben, his nephew, and try to knock some sense into him. But he only appeared to Rey to give her Leia’s lightsaber and his old X-Wing. Oh, and he and Leia knew that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter and yet they helped her anyway. I’m sorry, they helped this evil’s offspring and completely neglected their own blood?? And Leia gave up becoming a Jedi after foreseeing Ben’s death at the end of her training. If she was scared of him dying she should have actually tried to help him, instead of neglecting him and sending him away. They all failed Ben and it just hurts.

“It’s not a navy, sir. It’s just people.” When everything seemed hopeless all these ships suddenly appear at lightspeed. But these aren’t armies, it’s the people. They were never alone in the fight. They never were. Good people of the galaxy came to help them fight. I loved that moment!

THE RETURN OF BEN SOLO!! He was wearing this crew neck sweater (which even has a hole in it! Adorable!). That little ‘ow’ when he lands on the structure (his final word, sob). The moment when Rey senses him close and their bond opens up. They relief on her face at seeing that someone came back for her. The look in her eyes and the blue illuminating her face. That was amazing!! And then passing the legacy lightsaber behind her and BEN TAKES IT and does this Han Solo shrug and obliterates the Knights of Ren!! The power of their bond. That moment was INCREDIBLE!!

Palpatine wants Rey to kill him so his spirit can be transferred into her and she can ascend as Empress. So lets get this straight, he wanted to kill her as a child, and he wanted Kylo to kill her, but now he wants her alive and wants her to kill him so she can take his power? What was his plan? I don’t even know. I was very unclear by what he was trying to do.

“The life force of your bond…a dyad in the Force. A power like life itself. Unseen for generations.” As Rey and Ben stand together with the lightsabers ignited, Palpatine senses their bond. They are a ‘Dyad in the Force’. Essentially, they are two halves of one soul. They explicitly give an explanation as to why they are so deeply connected to each other.

When Palpatine throws Ben down the pit, not gonna lie I was worried. The last Skywalker, gone. Rey hearing all the voices of the fallen Jedi was a powerful moment. Anakin, Luke, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu among others. With their help, she single handedly defeats Palpatine. But after they blatantly told us that Ben and Rey’s power combined is a power like life itself, they should have defeated him together. She shouldn’t have been able to defeat him alone. And after everything that Palpatine has done to the Skywalker’s, Ben should have been a part of his downfall.

And do not even get me started on the fact that the voices only came to Rey. They completely forgot about Ben who was down in the pit. He had to pull himself out and he manages to crawl over to Rey and cradles her in his arms. And he looks around for help, for anyone to help, but he’s all alone.

He uses his life force to revive her, because he can’t bear the thought of her dying. When she takes his hand, I swear my heart almost stopped. She takes Ben’s hand. She’s stunned, like she’s waking up from a nightmare, and then her face softens into a smile when she sees him. When she sees Ben. This was who she wanted all along. And the kiss WAS EVERYTHING!! She kisses him, and he kisses her back so desperately. And BEN’S SMILE!!! That lit up my entire world. He felt loved. He’d found his belonging. For a fleeting moment he was happy…

And then he falls and dies. But this whole scene was incredibly moving. He gave his life for her. He succeeded where Anakin failed and saved the woman he loved. He made the ultimate sacrifice. But it was cruel to have him finally find peace, to finally be on the path to a better life, and then take it all away. Ben never had the chance to really live. And now he never will. He chose to come back. He did the right thing, and he should have had the chance to keep making good choices. But instead they took the easy way out and killed him.

After all the fake out deaths I was waiting for him to show up at the end very much alive. But there was nothing. Rey didn’t mourn him. She didn’t tell anyone what he did. He didn’t come back as a Force Ghost. He was just forgotten. He was neglected, as he had been his entire life.

Rey’s new lightsaber. The hilt looks to be made of her staff and the blade is yellow. Neither light nor dark. It signifies that she’s found balance. I liked that.

Rey Skywalker. I get the whole sentiment of rejecting your bloodline and choosing your own family, but in a saga that has been about this one family to kill them all off and then have someone else take over their name? It’s insulting. The Skywalker family were all defeated. How is this a satisfying end to their story? And if anything, she should be a Solo, not a Skywalker. Or better yet, just Rey. Why does she even need a last name? Why can’t she just be Rey?

And she ended up alone on a desert planet, which is exactly where she began. She ended up in the same place she started. Except now she’s been on this adventure and she did find her belonging. But it was all taken away and now half her soul is dead.

So, I certainly have a lot of issues with this film but I didn’t hate it completely. There was a lot I loved. But it seems that they cared more about the spectacle and nostalgia rather than writing a cohesive conclusion to the saga. The seeds were all planted for them to nail the ending, but they didn’t. This movie was one big action packed mess with no clear vision.

This was supposed to be a fairytale but it ended in tragedy. How the hell is this satisfying? I do not understand. The last Skywalker died. Rey ended up alone with half her soul dead. This was not a happy and hopeful ending. This is not the ending the Skywalker Saga deserved.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 10 Rundown

Another great and satisfying episode, yet it leaves us with a better cliffhanger than even the one going into this last winter hiatus. I have to commend them for that, even if I hate how badly I couldn’t wait for the next episode. But while so many of the scenes were really good, it almost feels too good to be true. The heat going off and Watts being as in control as he was could be the worst things get this volume, but I can’t help but anticipate the moment it goes from bad to worse. Spoilers for next week, that moment is coming soon.

Fortunately for my recurring annoyance at their bad habit of doing this, the episode does not start in the aftermath of this Grimm attack like they had for the one following Penny being framed and the riots after Jacques laid everybody off. Instead we open to Mantle still in turmoil and distress. Grimm are running and flying everywhere, Atlesian soldiers are killing a few but still taking casualties, and people are running for their lives in mass, one group barely avoiding getting trampled by a stampede of Mega Goliaths, or Megoliaths for short. We briefly see the Happy Huntresses doing a good job of defending civilians before a Sabyr runs by them. Another Sabyr tries to attack a Faunus mother and son before getting literally cat-called by Nora who jumps from the top of a building to bash it to dust. Marrow and Weiss are with her, and get back to work as they see another wave of the vicious cats running in. Speaking of cats, Blake is being chased by a Megoliath and 3 Ursai, and only dodges the smaller beasts by using Dust based clones to take them down or put them in the path of getting trampled by the larger pachyderm. The Megoliath can’t handle corners as well as she can and crashes into the front of a building in trying to keep following her. The beast is closing in, but she dodges to the right and it instead runs right into a rooted Elm who stops it dead in its tracks and even lifts it into the air by its tusks. Yang rushes in and plants her sticky bombs on the thing’s belly before Elm throws it a few dozen feet into the air where Yang blows it up. The three are winded but still urge civilians to get to the nearest shelter, knowing full well that even if those shelters are going to fill up fast there’s not much safe alternative right now. Qrow and Clover are taking Teryx out from the rooftops before getting unheard new orders and leaping away. Back to the first group of heroes, Weiss shows off a little and impales a Sabyr that had leaped over Marrow’s head on her Knight’s sword. She then looks at him from behind the blade and laughs that he had gotten scared by that and is holding his tail for safety. Ruby had done the same peeking around the edge of something to laugh 4 episodes ago. Guess some of her partner’s habits are rubbing off on the Ice Queen~ The civilians they’re protecting are backed against the border wall as alarm lights are still turning on all around them, making for a very panic inducing environment. They beg Nora to let them be taken to Atlas where it’s safe, saying they won’t survive here and decrying Ironwood for not doing anything to help. Nora tries to quell the outrage, promising they will be taken to safety, just give the huntsmen and huntresses a little more time.

But they soon get something better than “a little more time”, screens all over Mantle lighting up with a broadcast from Robyn Hill and General Ironwood who are hand in hand to prove there will be no lies. Such a useful Semblance Robyn has~ Ironwood is telling everyone about Salem right here and now, though he leaves out the part about her being Ozpin’s immortal evil ex and just says she’s the ancient and malicious force behind the attacks on Beacon and Haven. We see shots of our other heroes killing Grimm in Mantle, like Ruby with Harriet, and Ren and Jaune with Vine, as they realize Ironwood is coming clean. Even the villains are shown hearing what he has to say, Cinder and Neo watching the broadcast on the latter’s Scroll while Watts and Tyrian hide out in an alleyway. Speaking of those two bad boys, Ironwood publicly outs them as being responsible for all the recent hardship and freezing in Mantle and says that the panic and distrust they’ve sewn is exactly what Salem wants. It’s a pretty rousing speech, especially when he says that the people have what it takes to overcome this threat if they all work together. A pack of Sabyrs had been charging up the street to attack the people Ren and Jaune were protecting, but Vine uses his aura arms to spread them apart and press them against the buildings on either side so there is a clear path down the middle. As the General starts to inspire people, Jaune uses all his training and experience... from preschool crosswalk duty. It does help here though, since everyone gets into a single file line and keeps track of one another through a hand on the shoulder so they all stay close together while Jaune boosts Ren’s Semblance to mask the entire group from the Grimm pack they’re walking right through the middle of. He even has a few of the preschool kids there to “show’em how it’s done~”. The whole thing has a bit of a biblical Exodus vibe if I may be honest, and it’s kinda satisfying to see Jaune has skills and strengths no one saw coming from taking the work others thought was beneath them. Ironwood also admits why he wasn’t doing much to help Mantle, that being that he was focused on the Amity Tower that he says is now complete and ready to launch. The renovation of the Amity Coliseum is not news to Watts, but he didn’t know it was to become a communications tower and he pulls up the schematics in disbelief that James was working on such a big project without him noticing. Ironwood declares that he is taking all security ships away from Amity, and sending a dozen more down with them, to evacuate everyone in Mantle up to the safety of Atlas. Robyn publicly endorses and fully supports the plan and says now is the time to come together for peace, and the once terrified crowds cheer.

Someone who is NOT cheering is Tyrian, who punches a wall hard enough to leave cracks out of anger and frustration. All their work causing death and chaos, and the people are more united than ever. Peace like that is sickening to him. But Watts quells his rage for the moment, he’s still got a scheme in mind. He just needs Tyrian to cause a bit more trouble and keep the public’s eye on Mantle while he pays a visit to Ironwood’s pet project. Tyrian raises the valid point that this is already about as chaotic as you can get, but Watts plays to his ego and says if anyone can accomplish the task it’s a master like him. Robyn’s still on screen saying that the people still in shelters should stay put and transports will come to them, and that she will personally be coming to help in Sector 17. And that’s enough to inspire the psychopathic scorpion’s next move. 

Meanwhile, we go back to Atlas where the cycloptic pyromaniac... I mean Cinder, is pissed that Watts and Tyrian have already started a grand plan before she arrived and she had no idea. Last she had heard Salem would be targeting Vacuo and she would have Atlas all to her secret self in the meantime. But she realizes that since she was left for dead at Haven Salem has changed the plan. She’s been out of the loop, but she’s not out of the game. Since everyone is focused on the trouble Watts started down in Mantle, no one will be paying attention if she makes her move in Atlas. Neo lets her disguise powers do the talking for her by turning into a perfect doppelganger of Ruby. She wants to go after Ruby now and get her revenge, but Cinder insists that they will be following HER plan dammit. First the Maiden powers (so she can become stronger and hopefully be able to kill Ruby at last), then they can indulge in cathartic revenge. So Neo will go after Oscar to get the lamp, since they want to take that from the heroes too, and Cinder will take advantage of Ironwood’s paranoia to expose Fria’s hiding spot. As we see next episode, she actually has a really good subtle plan for that. What is less subtle is the foreshadowing of how Neo will achieve her part of the plan: she’ll pose as one of the heroes she saw at the dinner party and thus can turn into to get close to Oscar and catch him by surprise, most likely that’s going to be Ruby.

Back down in Mantle, dozens of ships indeed start arriving and landing to evacuate the civilians to safety. We hear a sonic boom and see a streak of green dash across the sky. Another three Megoliaths charge at the ship Blake and Yang are helping herd people onto, but Elm reveals that her hammer is also a rocket launcher and uses it to blow the Grimm away. She even roots her feet down to brace herself against the recoil. Then she gives the cheering people an okay sign and a smile, it’s all in a day’s work! They hear a sonic boom too and the green streak soars by them too. Ruby and Harriet are looking for the closest landing zone to bring their group of civilians to, but instead find a bigger and meaner Megoliath than the last few. Maybe they were actually just Goliaths and this one is a real Megoliath... Regardless, it’s blocking the way to the LZ and charging at them. Luckily, the green streak soars in and is revealed to be Penny!! She shots a beam in front of the Grimm to disorient and stop it before landing with her friends. Harriet and Penny rush in to try and take the monster down, while Ruby tries to focus and tap into her Silver Eyes. Unlike last Volume, she can’t keep her focus for very long and abandons that strategy in favor of flying up to a rooftop to shoot the Grimm. It does next to nothing, as does Penny stabbing all her swords into the elephant’s exposed skull. Instead it pulls the poor android in close by the wires her swords are still attached to and sends her flying a few blocks away. Ruby dashes over to check on her, but she’s fine. She just cheerfully says ouch and comments on how dangerous the mammoth’s tusks are. This gives Ruby a great idea and we get one of those confidently nodding in agreement without even having to ask what the plan is moments from Penny... before she asks Ruby to tell her what it is. Harriet is still zooming around and weaving between the Grimm’s legs, trying whatever she can to stop or even slow the beast, to only detrimental results. Her Aura breaks, but Penny blasts the Megoliath’s head before it can trample the speedster and gets it to turn down a different street toward her. It does so, and she fires a Kamehameha at it. No, really. She moves her hands to one side and behind her to charge it, then keeps them cupped together to fire the blast in front of her! Admittedly the energy is coming from her swords spinning in a circle in front of her, as she has done since her first fight in Volume 1, but the hand movement was different here and more in line with Dragon Ball’s most iconic technique. Still, she one ups the reference by diverting 3 swords further down and to her left to fire a smaller beam at one of the Grimm’s tusks. The single point on tusk starts to heat up, while the larger beam seems to be mostly for slowing the Grimm. At Ruby’s signal, Penny stops the attack altogether and the speedster zooms right up to the Megoliath’s face to cut off the tusk at the point weakened by the heat of Penny’s beam. Clever strategy, weakening the density at that point to make it vulnerable. What comes next makes the plan epic though, as Penny grabs the severed tusk and impales it into the ground with the tip facing up while Ruby trips the mammoth’s back leg and it falls onto its own sharp body part. Much like the Omnidroid from the Incredibles, the only thing strong enough to kill it is itself. With the dangerous beast defeated, the people cheer and Penny’s reputation is restored as the Protector of Mantle. They can safely evacuate their group, and they hear similar good news from Nora and Yang’s squads. Hooray!

As Penny gives Robyn this good news over the comms, we cut to the hometown hero herself as she tells Joanna to bring the people they’re with to safety while she “checks for stragglers” and runs down an alley. Tyrian arrives to ambush her and bemoan how he hates all the hope and happiness she brings as he dodges her crossbow bolts and even catches one between his fingers before bending it with his thumb. But as he charges at her, a fishing hook almost snags him and he realizes he is the one being ambushed. Qrow and Clover are here to back Robyn up and she purposefully revealed her location to, no fishing pun intended, lure the killer in. She wants first crack at the bastard who killed her followers, but Clover wants to settle his grudge first. Unfortunately, neither can compare to the chip on Qrow’s shoulder after this punk poisoned him in Volume 4 so he’s earned the first shot. Tyrian does not like this new development one bit, and it’s possible he might just be outmatched... but we have to wait until next episode to see how that goes.

For the final storyline of the night, Doctor Watts is flying up to Amity to give the new communications tower a check up of sorts. With carpetbag in hand he makes his way to the center of the arena and surveys the renovations. They are... rather lackluster, and that’s the point. Ironwood lied about the tower being finished so he could bait Watts into coming to try and sabotage it, and the doors lock so the evil genius can’t escape. You might be wondering how the General could have lied when he was on video with a human lie detector, but they were sneaky and used a close up of just his face when he said the tower was completed so neither Watts or the audience saw that it was a lie!! Ironwood leaps down from the commentator’s booth to face Watts in the arena, and Watts uses his hacking rings to activate the biome system so their duel can be a bit more interesting~ A couple geyser and volcano biomes, and four gravity platform sections. The gravity biomes were apparently the only type CRWBY didn’t get to show off during the Vytal Tournament, so they made them the focal point of this fight. Ironwood has the good sense to try and shoot Watts while he’s bent over to touch the ground and activate the biomes, but the scientist is nothing if not ingenious and has a hexagonal shield of hard light Dust to project out of his right glove that stops the bullet. While Ironwood is checking what biomes are coming up, Watts runs off the edge and leaps onto one of the rising platforms in a gravity section. When all the mechanical changing is said and done, Watts has the high ground and both men draw their weapons. Ironwood of course has his two thick hand guns, while Watts is revealed to carry a flintlock pistol with gold vine designs up the double barrels and about... 18 or 20 chambers for bullets. That is way too much gun for one gun. From what small glimpse we get of the bullets, they seem to be hard light dust based, so who knows how much of an oomph they will pack? As he starts spinning the chambers, Watts admittedly indulges in cliche to say he won’t be going down without a fight. And that’s where the episode ends, a great cliffhanger leaving us in enthusiastic high spirits. I loved this episode a lot, and lots of other fans seem to have too.

Shame I have existential dread from the next one...

[kiraawrites]

2MSS #22: IVARA

this is a warframe fanfic (which isnt 100% accurate)!! hope u like it

From @creativepromptsforwriting‘s post:  The most dangerous human being is the one who’s in love.

Day 20 of the 2 Month Short Stories Challenge w/ @flyingfalconflower12

Word count: 882

Constructive criticism welcome!

My bow shone under the light of my spaceship. The Artemis Bow had a metal middle piece with rope wound round it for better grip. I imagined myself firing away on the battlefield, a mighty Tenno against the rest of the world. Past the middle piece, pale wood curved into ebony tips connected by a supple bowstring. In the middle of admiring my weapon, a pair of muscular arms hugged me from behind. Tender lips kissed my neck as I spun around to see Luke.

“Dumbass. What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted to talk to you before going to Mars for the whole day. Needed to get some salvage for new ship parts,” he said, playing with the curls behind my ears. “Tell my ship Cephalon if you need me.”

I nodded and gave him a tight squeeze. Waving at me, he entered his ship and started off for Mars. I wanted to go resource gathering on Earth with him today. What a bummer.

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

The next day, paws shook me awake. My dog paced about my room, panting. Something had to be irritating him.

“What’s wrong, old boy?” I reached out to pet his head.

Dodging my touch, he bounded out of the room. I followed him into the bright light of the hallway. That was when my ship Cephalon, Ordis, started playing a transmission from Luke’s Cephalon. What are they up to? He could’ve just come here.

“Luke has not returned from his last mission on Mars. He may have been captured by the Grineer. Please help to find him — he has a Frost warframe equipped.”

He got himself into a real mess this time. I strapped my bow, sword and gun onto my back. I was Ivara, the huntress and thief. About to steal my boyfriend away from Grineer clones. The stars raced past like rips in the galactic fabric as I went full speed to Mars.

“Ordis, make a quiet landing. Nobody should know I’m here.”

As my feet touched the floor, I got into my usual prowl. My body became invisible, save for the faint edges of my figure that sometimes shone in the burning sun. Creatures plated with layers of heavy armour decked the site. They were milling about, mumbling. I crept behind them as they opened the doors that lead to my lover. The dust in the air crept into my throat. It itched, and I gagged while suppressing a cough. 

After passing through a series of passages laden with the Grineer’s resources, I arrived at the holding room. There were lights on the top of each circular door, showing red or green for the presence of prisoners. Three lights flickered green with troops stationed nearby. There’s so many of them. Footsteps echoed behind me. They grew closer. And closer. No, no... Don’t tell me you’ve seen me.

“You will pay for your sins.”

The black mask with red carvings. No — why are you here again? I don’t even know what I’ve done. He swung his scythe at me. I ducked, striking his legs with my sword. He was quick, stabbing my legs which lay under him. Blood gushed out like a fountain. Running with a limp, I hid in the storage crate area. His all-too-familiar murmuring. He had teleported behind me. I stuck out my sword without looking, only for his scythe to swing towards my neck.

Not today. I grasped its handle and twisted it from his hands. He snarled as I thrust my sword into his torso. He followed up with a cut on the forehead — I was literally seeing red. Scarlet tears dripped onto my body. Swinging my sword around, I finally hit him hard. That was good luck. Cries of pain as he fell to the floor. I finished him off with a stab in the chest. He squirmed on the floor as I dragged him behind a few barrels.

The guards were my main obstacle now, pacing about with wary eyes. I took out the ones at the corners with a steady aim. The ones near the doors remained there; no choice but to try all three doors. One minute after the guards spot me, the execution of the prisoners would be carried out. Execution. Death. There was a stirring in my belly; the thought of losing Luke made me sick.

I dashed to the two occupied cells that lay side by side. At the corner of my eye was the third cell. I slunk behind the guards and started breaking into the console. They spun around upon hearing the beeping, seeing my shimmering figure and activating the alarm. One minute. A whine of frustration escaped from my mouth as the first cell revealed a crawler smelling of rot. I impaled it and the guards, who had been shooting me with weak firearms. 45 seconds left.

The second cell was hard. Keys would not fit into their slots. Thirty seconds left. He was not inside: another enemy slain. I cannot witness his execution. 150 metres to run to him. My legs propelled me forward, wobbling as they went. Yelling guards. A blaring alarm. Flashing lights. Fifteen seconds left. Calm down, you got this. I hacked it and leapt into his arms.

“Darling, I missed you.”

Taglist

@galaxy-charm @rhyseoshaughnessy @icedcoffeewriting @jiynix

[anansislibrary]

All of my thoughts on RWBY: taken from one of my videos here

If you haven’t watched RWBY yet... I honestly don’t know what to tell you. The show is genuinely one of my favorite anime of all time. It’s got an amazing cast of interesting characters, great writing, an amazing world to get immersed in. Every character you meet sticks with you, many of the fights are fast paced and memorable, and being a lore buff like me pays off in this world.

But RWBY isn’t... perfect, and having finished the newest season and rewatched the show from the beginning... I have some issues.

Don’t get me wrong, the new season had some excellent parts. The fight between Blake and Adam was literally perfect, and side note, idk why fans are saying Adam got nerfed for this fight or made weaker, when some of his only notable feats happen during this fight. The man lands hits like mortal kombat combos.

Anyway, I don’t want to just crap on the show so before I go into what I didn’t like, I’ll get into what I did. But before then, I’ll have to give you a brief rundown of the show. But before THEN I gotta give my obligatory plug

So make sure you like and subscribe if you enjoy this video and want to see more like it, and consider donating to my Ko-fi if you’re able to to help support my channel and help me make better content.

Without further ado

Here’s RWBY

Quick basic spoiler full rundown of the show.

Rwby takes place in a world callled remnant, with a shattered moon. Why is the moon shattered you ask? Satan threw a temper tantrum

Anyway

There’s monsters

Schools for people to fight monsters

Except no Because the main character’s school gets blown up by this BITCH NAMED CINDER, SCREW YOU CINDER.

Prompting Ruby and her Gucci gang to go on an adventure.

Got it? Good.

So here’s everything I love about the series.

I really like the character designs. Every single character has an excellent design and I could really do a video on how character design helps develop character and tell a story just using this show. Every person in the show has an interesting and cool design that helps you to remember and understand them.

An easy example is Weiss. She dresses like an actual princess, her color scheme and weapons are all very elegant looking and it hints at her high class status without even having to spell it out for you.

Plus I love how characters names are based off of fairy tales or mythology. For example, Sun, Sage, and the ironically named Neptune. The motif of fairy tales is fun too, for example Ruby being Little Red Riding hood, Ozpin and Glenda Goodwich being wizard of oz references, ironwood being the tin man and Leo being the lion, Qrow and scarecrows and all of that. Weiss and Winter both have names very directly based on snow.

Every name in this show was very clearly thought out, and even abilities too.

Sun can make clones of himself just like in the myth, Blake has issues with running from her problems, so she can make clones, yang has anger issues and can go super saiyan, almost everyone’s power has something to do with their personality.

Salem is such a fun villain. I wish she could do more because she’s really sinister and scary. She’s such a fun villain to watch but she doesn’t do shit.

I also love the fight scenes, I love how bombastic and fast paced they are, and it’s really cool how every character has their own unique style of movement and fighting that vary between them. The fights in this show are quick and stick in your mind, and there’s an emphasis put often on how much a character can move in a short amount of time.

Cinder as much as I hate her is also a great villain, and that’s why I hate her.

Roman Torchwick is also a GREAT villain and The way he dies is satisfying as hell, and seeing Neo again made me scream.

The worldbuilding is my favorite aspect of the show. Now I’m weird and I like info dumps and that’s why I enjoy those World Of Remnant videos that expand on the worldbuilding so as not to bog down story with info dumps. The world is really fun to learn about, how humanity has evolved in terms of technology is fun to speculate on, for example since Grimm attacks are common and destructive, towns outside of major cities are less technologically advance because they often don’t have time to explore that and have to move from town to town quickly in an emergency.

The Grimm are excellent monsters with varying abilities that make them scary. I love the Apathy from the most recent season, and how it doesn’t just attack you like a Beowulf, Ursa, or Nevermore, but it drains away your will to fight back at all.

This show also has my favorite trope of all time MIXED TIMELINES

YOU GOT TRADITIONAL CHINESE CLOTHING AND DRESS AND ASIAN ARCHITECTURE ON TOP OF CELL PHONES TOWERS AND ALL OF THAT

this trope is so fun because it really makes a world feel unique.

The world of Naruto has all kinds of modern stuff, but until Boruto it was mixed with older tech and tradition, really selling how this is not our world.

Another thing I love: every weapon is a gun. That is SO fun.

Now as good as the show is, it does have problems. That’s inevitable though, all shows, movies, and books have problems, nothing is perfect.

Except Avatar. Avatar is flawless.

Me pointing out the issues I have with this show is by no means to say it’s bad, just to point them out.

I truly do have love for this series and I still cry about Phyrra and her death.

I love you baby.

But that being said, pointing out the issues a show has can be important for both understanding the pitfalls to avoid in our own writing, and helping creators fix issues later on.

A lot of hard work goes into making this show and I would just be an asshole if I did nothing but shit on the show.

No matter how many issues it has, I can tell the people making it love what they’re doing, and that always shines through a series no matter how many issues it has, just like a show or movie can do everything conventionally right and still be a soulless shit show.

Looking at you call of duty black ops 3.

So here’s the issues

Fight scenes

I love the fight scenes. I’ve said that, they really can be so fun to view and I find myself coming back to them a lot.

But I have issues.

Lemme just say first that I don’t like complaining against animation. Animators go through enough crap already and it feels mean to criticize them at times, but this needs to be said.

One, I hate how people throw punches in this show.

They swing so wide it’s annoying.

Okay listen. If you swing at someone with a punch this wide, and they know how to fight, it will not land. They will block or dodge. I know this because as my subscribers know, I am a martial artist. I know jujitsu and boxing, and I took taeqwondo.

This is a bad punch.

My theory is that they do it to emphasize the impact of a bit, but that’s not necessary. There are other ways to do that.

You could say “they’re animators they don’t know how fighting works.”

But Naruto exists and those animators get martial arts stuff down PAT.

Hell, avatar the last airbender depends on its animators being able to animate fights with consistent accuracy, and those characters use styles most people have never heard of like Baguazhang.

And I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is. It’s hard to really get behind fight scenes at times when the characters can’t throw a simple punch right.

And again it’s not like it’s impossible for animation to animate a fight.

There’s a scene during a fight in Naruto where Obito Uchiha kicks Kakashi, and Kakashi uses his foot to redirect the kick and pull obito off balance.

This is a real move, that people do, and it’s done accurately, but RWBY seems to struggle with accuracy in their fights. Which is fine when a character’s weapon looks like this, but not in hand to hand.

This issue comes up in sword fights too. The way Weiss fights annoys me because her sword is a rapier, and the most important characteristic of a rapier is that often times they don’t have blades, they have points, and when they do have blades, they aren’t meant for slashing. Rapiers were made to exploit the gaps in someone’s armor by stabbing them, and thus it is a thrusting sword, not a slashing one. A sword like a Katana or Khopesh would be good for slashing. Roman gladius can kind of do both, but not as good as either one.

The point is that if they’re gonna give Wiess a rapier, they need to stop animating her slashing with it. Especially when her rapier doesn’t appear to have a sharp edge.

My next complaint is wasted characters.

It’s very frustrating when RWBY takes times to show us a character, but then never uses them.

I didn’t even know sun had a full team sometimes because you never see them.

And furthermore it’s annoying when a fight scene will just stop so that a character can do a cool thing.

Oh no this robot is so hard to beat, how will we beat this dangerous and powerful robot

Oh wait, this character can solo it because the plot needs to pause so she can be cool then promptly never be seen again.

It is so frustrating and it makes it hard to actually know when a character is in danger.

It takes 20 hits to kill a Grimm in one scene, then like two in another.

And the reason for that is because the plot is being pushed aside for the sake of spectacle.

A character’s abilities will be made inconsistent for a chance to make them seem cool.

Like this scene where Tyrion is fighting qrow, he uses his tail to block bullets.

But why?

He has his Aura up, the bullets wouldn’t hurt him anyway! Then when he gets shot later after he looses his aura his tail comes off.

If he was fast enough to use his tail to block bullets he wasn’t even paying attention to, why can’t he do it now!

There is no internal consistency.

Like why are Grimm so strong if they don’t have auras? That’s not explained because they Grimm rarely serve the plot, they spectacle. Adam putting 20 kombo hits into yang to beat her makes sense. He has to wear down her aura to actually hurt her.

But 20 hits to kill a grim that then gets solo’d by a character later on?

No.

Then there’s hazel.

He annoys me.

His villainous motivation is that his sister joined a school for trained soldiers, then died because it was dangerous and now he hates Ozpin.

Dude what?

Like I get why he’s mad, but she knew the risk and someone had to sign off on her getting in for her to be able to go to beacon at all. A child can’t just register for a school especially one where it’s a known risk you could die.

Also another thing I hate is how characters will overreact to stuff in annoying ways.

This is mostly in the most recent season.

Spoiler alert here

But everyone finds out the history of Ozpin and Salem’s relationship from Djinn

And then they just all hate and distrust Ozpin.

Here’s my reaction to finding out about ozpins relationship

It’s just... not that big a deal.

Okay so he was pipping the villain at one point

Nigga so was dumbldore!

It’s just annoying how Ozpin didn’t really do anything but he still was treated like he was just a bad person when he wasn’t.

That whole plot point feels empty, and I found myself more annoyed with the characters for being mad at him and wasting time, than mad at Ozpin for wanting to get laid.

My next complaint on this nitpick fest is

Shit what was I gonna say again?

Oh yea, that annoying ass military lady and her whole reason for not letting the heroes into atlas.

That was so annoying and pointless. She really had no reason not to let them through, and her getting into a giant mecha to fight them pulled me so far away from the story because it was just too ridiculous.

The mecha is for fighting Kaiju grim but it’s taken down by like five kids and their drunk grandpa.

Which like... fine but I hate it.

I hate that whole sequence.

It didn’t have to happen like that, it was another fight purely for spectacle.

It made me mad.

Plus I really really hate mecha anime and mecha fights in general.

God I hate them.

I skipped almost every mecha fight in Voltron because I hate them.

Look the point is that rwby is definitely a good show and I love almost every part of it, but these issues really pull me away from the story at times and you can really sense how much of the story is less about progression and more about increasing drama like the Ozpin thing, or looking cool.

Please watch rwby it really is worth your time, just be aware of the issues it has.

[antman-56]

The Long Night Pt. 13

It was STRQ’s turn.

Team SLVR won against Team STAR. It was an interesting battle. Team SLVR lost 3 members, but team STAR had all four members near the aura drop. 

One by one Team STAR was taken out when they decided to split up to find him. It was the comeback of the year to most of the students watching.

Team STRQ was against Team TZTE ( tanzanite ).

Theodore Spam was the leader. He was apart of a tribe that was forced to leave Vacuo due to Grimm when he was younger. He changed into his tribes battle outfit. It was a black fur kilt and war paint that represented his tribes history. His weapons were two hatchets that could turn into SMGs. His semblance was Insult, if he insults someone and they respond to it will be transform them into a rage induced maniac, solely targeting him.

Zane Rider was the stereotypical skateboarder. Flannel Jacket, half his hair was buzz cut while the other was long enough to cover his right eye, and black denim jeans with a flame on the end of his right leg. His weapon of choice was a hover board that can transform into a long sword and a SMG with a knife attachment. His semblance is “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” ,as he calls it, he can create a clone anywhere and transport to it whenever he is an a tough situation, albeit it requires a lot of Aura.

Taylor Krell always wore a traditional Samurai robe. He was the tallest member of Team TZTE and he looked to be as strong as Theodore. His weapon of choice was a double bladed sword that can turn into a a regular katana if need be. His semblance was Adjust, whenever he fights someone for a extend amount of time he can predict their movements and his Aura gains a resistance against their weapon, however if he is against two or more weapons then it will not work and he will gain more damage.

Ezekiel Sax  was the weakest and smallest member of the team. He mostly avoided combat whenever possible, but that didn’t mean he was bad at it. He worn the school uniform with light white armor added on to it. His weapon is a sniper rifle that could turn into a bo staff. His semblance is Accuracy, every shot he takes always hit where his scope lands.

As STRQ went to their side of the Combat Room they were glared at by Team, TRBO, JACB, and BLAD.

They were still pissed at them. First Summer flipped Turbo over her shoulder, Qrow beats up Blif and Chip, the cafeteria fight, and then leaving them to “The Red Witch” after Summer bailed out her Team.

Now they were waiting for their turn to kick their asses and for it to be legal.

***Blue Corner of the Combat Room***

Tai : Soooo, anyone else see the death glare that Sir Duchebag and his group of bitches gave us?

Summer : Language and yes.

Raven : Which means they want us to win, so they can try to beat us.

Raven was still pissed that they had her trapped in the cafeteria. She doesn't care who it is at of the 12 of them, but someone is going to be in pain. 

Qrow : Keyword “Try”.

Tai : Look at you, trying to be smart.

Qrow : You just couldn’t let me have that one, could you?

Tai : Nope.

Summer : GUYS FOCUS!!

As if on cue the doors for their room opened and the the word “Begin” echoed thought out the room. 

It was show time.

Summer : Alright gang, Bad Dragon.

When the order was given, Tai and Qrow ran up front to be the main attack, Raven would be behind them in case one of them gets over whelmed, and Summer ran into one of the abandoned “buildings” to provide support.

Team TZTE had Taylor and Theodore up front, Zane right behind the, and Ezekiel was no where to be seen. 

Zane went behind TQ and used Raven as a pole to bounce off of. She blocked it and pushed him away from her.

Zane : Hey babe, follow me.

Raven ran towards him in rage at the fact he called her “babe”.

Taylor and Theodore were fighting Qrow and Tai. 

Qrow was having a hard time with Taylor. He had an unorthodox fighting style that literally made him a extension to his blade. After awhile Qrow could barely keep up with him and what was worse is that he seemed to be able to counter some of his attacks effortlessly.

Tai on the other was having an easier time. Tai was able to use Theodore’s momentum against him because the idiot was only thinking of hitting him hard. It was almost a shock to see know he was a second year and a leader. He could probably take on first years, but second years should be able to anticipate his every move.

Theodore : So, blondie are you just as stupid as the jokes.

Tai stayed quiet. This was coming from someone who wouldn’t be able to keep up with Glynda.

Theodore : What, cat got your tongue? or . . . ( lunges at Tai so he can block it, making them face to face) is your girlfriend the one with the balls.

Tai pushed him away and activated his claws.

He was starting to get annoying. 

He ran towards Theodore and started his attack.

Theodore : Maybe she needs a REAL man inside her? (goes for a strike ) Teach her how a woman should act. With a collar and all.

That did it.

Tai (Semblance activated) :FUCK YOU!!!

Tai was engulfed in flames that reached the ceiling of the room and all he saw was red.

Theodore was now sweating heavily from the sudden intense heat and from fear. Now knowing why Beacon called him “The Dragon”.

 Theodore was not the only one affected by the heat.

The rest of Team STRQ and TZTE were sweating from it.

***Peanut Gallery***

The students watching the fight were shocked to see a flame tornado in the room. A majority of the class felt pity for Theodore, seeing him right next to the source and standing still. 

Turbo ( internally ) : This is coming from the blond! He may be a problem for us. I wonder what other surprises these guys have.

He smiled, knowing he was going to have fun in his match against them. 

*** Elsewhere (Raven’s Fight)***

Raven was lead to a section of the room that looked like a ruined city hall. The pillars, stairs, poles, railings, and open street gave Zane a terrain advantage. Not to mention the sudden heat wave by her boyfriend.

That’s when she saw Zane run up to her. She was ready, all she needed to do was get him of his board and then kick his ass. 

Right when he was in front of her, he went around her with a spin out of her reach. He used her as a pole to guide himself onto her left side. She lost her footing a stumbled a bit before getting back to her stance.

This went on for awhile, she was getting exhausted from him evading her and using the terrain for tricks. He was in the middle of doing a 360 kick flip when Raven spoke.

Raven (annoyed) : Are you taking this seriously?

Zane : Nope love.

Raven ran to him until she heard the sound of a gunshot. 

She barley dodged it and ran to cover.

Raven (internally) : Great sniper fire. He was stalling for support and I fucking fell for it.

She hid behind a pillar, all the while listening to Zane insult her.

Zane : Really love. I couldn’t believe you didn’t catch on. I mean you look smarter than you look or are looks making up for the small mind you have.

Raven was livid, but knew if she rushed him she would get hit.

Raven : At least, I don’t need help fighting a girl. (internally) Great i’m pinned.(multiple shots fired at her pillar) Teleport to Tai? Qrow? No, they’ll target them. Summer? NO, shes worse case scenario.

Zane decided she wanted to play the hard way, so he activated his hover board and rushed her. He jumped on the left side of the pillar and dismantled his weapon before he was fully able to see behind the pillar. He emptied his SMG on the spot Raven was on only to find it empty. Raven used one of her blades as a stepping stone to avoid getting hit and used a blue blade to strike Zane. 

 Zane went to defend himself with his long sword but when the blue blade collided with Zane’s weapon it temporarily shutdown his hover board setting. He was grounded and it was looking bad for him. Raven was controlling his footing, making sure to stay behind the pillar. With her sword still using electricity Zane couldn’t leave, so he did the next best thing.

He activated his semblance right when Raven was about to get a direct hit.

Zane’s aura was 78% when he left fighting Raven and now it was at 21%. He was still in, but on thin ice.

Ezekiel still had his eyes behind the pillar. He knew Raven was behind it and he was going to make sure to get a few hits on her.

 That’s when he felt something sharp stab his back. Ezekiel turned around quickly to see Summer transforming her spear into a sword. That attack dropped his Aura from 100% to 43%. He used his sniper to block her next attacks and was now pushing her back to the balcony part of the room they were in.

He was kicking himself for being stupid. The glare and the multiple shots gave him away. How could he be so stupid.

***Elsewhere (Qrow’s Fight)***

Qrow and Taylor where now in a area with Bridge about 10 feet from the ground with no railing. It was a fierce battle that got the most of the peanut gallery spectators on the edge of their seats. 

Both combatants were sweating from the being the closest to the heat and from the exchanges of swords. Qrow’s Aura was at 30% and Taylor’s was at 37%.

Taylor could read Qrow’s movements and could possibly know when he breathes now. Qrow on the other hand was struggling. He could only block Taylor’s attacks and that seemed to be working less and less.

Qrow got some distance from Taylor.

Taylor : Are you running away?

Qrow : You wish.

Taylor grunted and raised his blade to make a formal stance and Qrow got into his stance.

Taylor : I have to give you credit. I haven’t had a fight like this in awhile. But, the end results are always the same.

Qrow : Why’s that?

Taylor : I win.

Taylor ran to Qrow ready to end him, until Qrow did the unthinkable.

Qrow threw Harbinger at Taylor and he did not expect that. He got hit with the blade dropping his Aura to 32%. Taylor was so transfixed on what just happened that he didn’t notice Qrow was now in front of him.

Qrow began to attack Taylor with his fists and Taylor could do nothing, but take the beatings.

It ended with Qrow kicking Taylor of the bridge, dropping Taylor’s Aura to 13%

“TAYLOR KRELL ELIMINATED”

***Elsewhere ( Summer’s Fight)***

Ezekiel and Summer where fighting on the balcony of the room Ezekiel used as a sniper’s nest. 

Ezekiel was holding his own against Summer and was finally able to transform his sniper to a bo staff. They were both trying to avoid being at the edge and not get hit.

Summer took a hit to the head that dropped her Aura to 87%. Ezekiel was parrying everything she hit him with and almost kicked her off the railing at one point. Now both of them were tired and were waiting for someone to make a move. 

That’s when it happened.

A sudden kick to Ezekiel side sent him off the building dropping his Aura down to 7%.

“EZEKIEL SAX ELIMINATED”

Summer : I HAD IT!

Raven : True, but I want to leave now.

Summer sighed as Raven gave her a smirk.

***Elsewhere (Tai’s fight)***

Tai was still burning and Theodore was still standing still afraid to move. 

He could have sworn he saw a dragon’s face looking at him in the flames above Tai.

Tai deactivate his claws back into his brass knuckle setting and dropped his guard.

Theodore saw this and soon recovered enough courage to run up to Tai and attack him.  

He had to go through the flames Tai made around him. every time he made his way to him the flames became hotter.

He was finally face to face to him, but Theodore’s Aura was at 29% and was slowly falling. He raised his hatchets above Tai and attacked.

Tai caught them, threw them to the closest wall and unleashed his rage. 

He started with a gut punch, then a body blow, then another, another, and eventually threw a couple of kicks into the mix. All the while his flames grew brighter and brighter till the peanut gallery couldn’t see his fight.

Tai was building up a rhythm to the beating he was giving. It felt good to let go of all his pent up rage. He didn’t hear the announcement that Theodore was eliminated.

He ended his beating with a punch that sent him straight to the peanut gallery. The amount of force he gave to him was enough to crack the windows that were supposed to withstand a rocket launcher. 

Theodore left with his Aura broken when he made contact with the ground.

Tai fell to his knees and took deep breaths. He was panting and drenched in sweat.

His Aura still being at 100%.

A portal opened up next to him and he saw Summer and Raven walk towards him.

Raven : Sup.

Tai could do nothing, but smile and laugh at the woman he loved. 

***Elsewhere  (Qrow’s location)*** 

Qrow was walking towards where the flame dissipated. He saw the guy Tai was fighting fly and flinched when he saw where it landed. They will be having a talk with the Major that was sure.

It was then that Qrow heard the sound of a hover board making its way for him. He dodged just before it made contact with him.

It was Zane and he had a piece of the room that resembled a pole.

He pointed it at Qrow and smiled. Qrow knew what he wanted and he was going to give it to him.

Qrow jerked the hand that held Harbinger down and it transformed into the Sythe that almost every weapon enthusiast loved .

Both men looked each other in the eyes and waited.

A piece of the bridge broke off.

The ran at each other. Man vs technology who would be faster.

CRASH

Zane fell off his hover board and was now on the floor with his Aura at 4%.

Qrow stood their his aura at 21%. Zane got his hit in, Qrow wasn’t fast enough and he hated that.

He was now in front of the peanut galleries view. 

He raised his Sythe up and pointed at them. He glare at the people who were next and smirked.

No words were need. Turbo met his gaze and glared back. Their eyes said everything they wanted to say to each other.

“TEAM STRQ VICTORIOUS”

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 188: Hard Knocks Path to Redemption

Previously on BnHA: The Todoroki kids sans Shouto (and Dabi lulz) visited their mom at the hospital and awkwardly discussed Endeavor officially becoming the #1 hero. Shouto’s older brother Natsuo wasn’t happy about it, saying that the world doesn’t know about “what he did” and how he treated his family. But interestingly, Rei came to his defense, saying that things were more complex than that. She said she doesn’t know what’s going on in his heart, “but he hasn’t left us behind.” We then cut to Endeavor’s fight with the High Tide Noumu, which basically consisted of Endeavor hovering for a few seconds with his flames, and then getting very violently flung through a building. Like, he was basically used as a human laser saw to cut the top of this high rise clean off. A bunch of people nearly fell to their deaths, but thankfully Hawks saved them all with his ridiculously OP Mighty Wings quirk. Speaking of Hawks, idk but it sure is some shifty bullshit that Your Highness Noumu just happened to attack him and Endeavor in this building right when they were having a chitchat about Noumus. Something is definitely up you guys.

Today on BnHA: Endeavor continues to battle the High Heaven Noumu and pulls off some impressive feats, such as dicing a falling building into tiny pieces with his flames so that the spectators below don’t get crushed. Unfortunately these techniques come at a price, and he finds himself beginning to struggle due to the heat building up in his body. Meanwhile the High Hopes Noumu remains mostly unfazed, even dispatching a bunch of disgusting slimy clone things to wreak some havoc and distract Hawks and the other pros on the scene so that they can’t assist. Realizing he has no choice but to Go For It, Endeavor powers up his flames and hits the Noumu with massive flame attack: Prominence Burn. Unfortunately the Noumu anticipates his actions and is able to avoid being completely disintegrated. He regenerates, and then brutally slashes/stabs Endeavor in the most ironic spots possible -- his torso (nearly the same place where All Might was wounded by AFO), and his left eye (don’t think I have to explain this one lol). It’s all very violent, and probably not the sort of thing you’d want your child to witness on live television -- oh hey there Shouto. Didn’t see you there. Uh... well, shit.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 209 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

interesting title!

I wonder which of his four kids this is referring to? ngl I’ve been missing the U.A. kids for these past couple chapters so it would be nice to get Shouto back in here

holy shittttt

thiiiiiiiis is bad. that is some serious destruction. not something they can just shrug their shoulders about later, especially in BnHA where damage like this actually has lasting consequences

lol some other heroes are watching from a distance and they’re all “did Endeavor just Vidalia Chop Wizard that whole fucking building”

meanwhile Hawks is tumbling to safety on a nearby rooftop

and he’s referring here to Endeavor’s opening line in the chapter, “I’ll dice you up and burn you until there’s nothing left”

(ETA: in addition to being the first reluctant hero in the series, Hawks is also the quippiest we’ve had by far. Hawks is all your dialogue polished up by a Marvel screenwriting team or what)

I appreciate Hawks’s efforts at combat banter, but all I keep thinking is that those pieces actually did look remarkably neat and uniform, and that it wouldn’t kill him to show a little appreciation for what was honest to god one of the most insane quirk feats we’ve seen to date

also, looking at this picture more closely, my disbelief is gonna need a little more suspending, because I honestly don’t feel like either of them should currently be able to fly the way they’re doing lol. Hawks’s wings are in a pretty sorry state at the moment

and here comes High Treason Noumu back at them again, and he’s grumbling “bird...” like he’s all pissy at Hawks

lol what is this

what the hell is this quirk. does he shoot air gun fists or something. and this other guy has all of his fingers fucking disconnected for no apparent reason. like, what the hell is that even gonna do besides gross people out

(ETA: and isn’t this Tokage’s quirk as well. getting lazy are we Horikoshi)

now High Score Noumu is doing something disturbing oh god

ffffffffff WHAT IS THIS. WHY DO WE HAVE TO LOOK AT A CLOSE UP OF IT

Endeavor’s hitting it with another fire blast. thanks man

and now he’s doing a mental tally of the thing’s quirks

and don’t forget “can fucking talk.” not to mention what I still think is the most intriguing one of all, “has Kurogiri’s fucking face”

oh and I guess this is a new one

fucking gross ew fuck sick gross ugh!! why are they so gooey sob

I don’t really understand what’s going on but Endeavor seems to have it all figured out, so here

okay so he wants to fight strong opponents like Endeavor so he made some disgusting clones to deal with the small fries I guess

-- hold up. that muscle amplification quirk... that looks and sounds a whole lot like Muscular’s, though

is it just coincidence? that this Noumu just so happens to be so strikingly similar to not one but two captured villains previously associated with the League?? just what in the hell is going on here dammit

meanwhile, as Endeavor observed, the Noumus that emerged from his body look completely different and appear to be just your everyday run-of-the-mill Noumus

just a little grosser is all

Hawks is swooping down and taking them out without much effort. looks like he’s gotten most of his feathers back too

he’s telling everyone to keep evacuating

and he says that to be frank, power struggles aren’t his “forte”

so he’s acknowledging that he doesn’t have the All Might Factor, so to speak? that even though he’s strong and popular, he’s not at that level of always beating the big bads no matter what?

you know, that actually makes some sense. I can maybe understand a little better just why he was bothering Endeavor so much. that is, if it weren’t for the fact that I STILL DON’T TRUST YOU, HAWKS, YOU SUSPICIOUS LITTLE SERAPH

High Speed Noumu is asking Endeavor if he’s done shooting those red hot little slice-and-dice death rays

oh snap this thing really is smart

it’s not just talking and thinking, it’s fucking analyzing. there’s some real brainpower at work in this thing

now Endeavor is talking about his quirk, and I’m just gonna post the panel because like hell am I gonna try to summarize this

he was thinking this a few panels earlier, too. that he’s got a lot of heat built up now

and now he’s thinking about Rei and his kids with their ice powers

fuck me but every single time I start wanting to root for Endeavor he’s gotta go and remind us of this, though

also!? fourth kid alert!?? and this kid seems to have white hair just like all the others, and seems to be younger than Natsuo in this shot. which would seem to go against the prevailing theory? explain yourself, manga

(ETA: lol and I got an ask about this just today. I gotta give this some thought. but I still think it’s Dabi! maybe Endeavor is just confused about what his non-Shouto children looks like because he spent so much time ignoring them all!)

so now Highlander Noumu is making a crazy face and extending his arms or muscle fibers or whatever the fuck these things are again, and saying he wants to test out his new power on Endeavor

shiiiiiit this does not look good

this doesn’t seem like the kind of move he can maintain for very long given what he was saying earlier

he’s shouting at the Noumu that he’ll incinerate him until there’s nothing left, and his regeneration won’t be enough

well this has worked before, to be fair. back in Hosu

but why do I get the feeling that isn’t going to be the case this time, though

lollllll

is this the literal translation. is there some other meaning of “prominence” other than “famous and well-known” that I’m not thinking of. I guess it can also mean “something that sticks out a lot”, but I don’t see how that would apply to this attack

basically, to me this reads as “Endeavor’s I-Wanna-Be-Famous Big Fire Attack”

and damned if that just doesn’t say it all, though

he’s thinking back to what he said at the JP Hero Billboard thing. “just watch me”

and that he won’t disgrace himself by failing here

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit

HE WAS SO CLOSE

THIS THING IS REALLY FUCKING HARDCORE OMG

OH MY GOD

you’re telling me that Endeavor’s attack actually worked, but that he wasn’t able to disintegrate the whole Noumu because HE FUCKING RIPPED HIS OWN FUCKING HEAD OFF AND FRISBEE-D IT TO SAFETY AHEAD OF TIME!?

OH SHIT

goddamn -- fucking --

DAMMIT. COME ON ENDEAVOR. DON’T FUCKING DIE, DUDE. FUCKING GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND BEAT THIS HIGH FIVE NOUMU ALREADY, THE WORLD NEEDS YOU

ARE YOU SERIOUS

ARE YOU TELLING ME THE TWO OF THEM JUST HAPPENED TO BE WATCHING?? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, SHIT

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

motherfucker oh shit you guysssss

(ETA: how does he even still have that eye though)

you guys. oh shit. this is so bad. you don’t understand

shit. because let me tell you, the very first thing that ran through my head was that he’s going to look so much hotter now and fuck, you guys. I KNOW THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO BE THINKING RIGHT NOW. BUT I CAN’T HELP IT. noooo what the hell is wrong with me I feel like slapping myself lmao

I fucking started laughing in real life at my own absurd reaction. I am ruining the mood of this chapter so damn fast

nooooooo

the parallels, though. oh shit. the same eye

and did Shouto’s quirk activate just now?? are those flames on his left side? oh shit

okay I need to get myself under control. fucking stop this now. stop thinking about how much hotter Endeavor is going to be with a big ol’ slashy scar along the left side of his face. and maybe an eyepatch. oh god. no, stop

(ETA: I really thought there was going to be an eyepatch. how does he still have that eye)

and now we’re cutting back to U.A. and Aizawa is gently telling Eri he’s gonna take her back to his room and I can’t you guys. first Endeavor losing his fucking eye and now Aizawa being a loving, protective parent on two counts, because LOOK WHAT HE SAYS RIGHT AFTER

now All Might is gripping at his stomach wound nooooo

seems like every big hero has That Moment, huh

oh fuckkkkk

fuuuuuck, Endeavor. going for that hard knocks path to redemption, huh

but I fucking can’t, though, because I just keep picturing Horikoshi’s creative process. like, you fucking troll, though. goes and creates the worst character of all time (not literally, I’m just being dramatic here just let me have this) and does his absolute fucking best to make him as terrible as possible, and then challenges himself to redeem him nonetheless. “how can I make readers actually feel sympathy for Todoroki fucking Enji in spite of everything? oh I know I’ll take away everything he ever wanted and make him finally start to realize what was really important and have him finally start trying to be a better husband and father. and then I’ll fucking murder him”

and like, I really need to stop laughing at this chapter, though. I’m ruining it, I know. if it helps, it’s not mirthful laughter though! the best way I can describe it is “haunted house laughter.” like, this is how I react when I’m walking through any sort of haunted attraction, and I’m really tense and excited and on edge. my weird natural response is usually to start laughing, possibly as my brain’s way of psyching myself up to be brave and reminding myself that it’s not real and they’re only actors. I feel like that, for some reason. and I don’t know why, but it’s actually a very positive thing, because this is the first time in quite a while that I’ve gotten this excited about the manga, actually

so I’m sorry, Endeavor. I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing because OH SHIT THIS IS GETTING GOOD and I’m really loving it. and also because Horikoshi has got some serious balls

(ETA: and because this is Kamino all over again. and I was fucking pumped. angst!! stakes!! tension!! there was just a ton of adrenaline all of a sudden and I didn’t really know what to do with it so my brain was like “well then let’s just do something really weird!”)

anyway, so we’re cutting back to Shouto and U.A., where Shouto is watching his dad die on live television

aaaaaand that’s the chapter end

my god. this went from “eh” to “epic” in like .06 seconds. is this the fight that anon was talking about a while back? because this was pretty damn good, I gotta say. fucking damn

[magdalyna]

More Like a Flashbang Than a River Stone

I have been thinking about Jango Fett. Something I often do these days, sure but like.

Jango Fett, during and around the year before the Naboo Invasion --- waiting for Boba to be grown for the normal amount of time.

Telling himself he doesn’t care about the fate of the rest of his clones so long as he has his special son. Fantasizing about the demise of the Jedi.

Sure, Legends/EU and the Prequels tell us what happens next but what if that didn’t happen?

What if a time traveling Maul, not unlike the one featured in Ripples, one who was a Force Ghost who spent his afterlife watching the histories of those he was obsessed with, frankly. Mainly Kenobi of course, but you can not have a Kenobi without eventually stumbling into a Kenobi surrounded by clones.

And hadn’t that been a fascinating web of events to unravel, how the face of a bounty hunter ended up shaping the galaxy.

Maul prides himself on his study of his Nemesis, his Kenobi, the trials and tribulations of his Jedi upbringing, the madcap adventures of his Padawanship, the strain of his unorthodox Knighthood as he trained the so called Chosen One.

Maul no longer has an appetite for being a mere tool of some other person or thing’s greater destiny and Kenobi sparks so vibrantly in the Force that Maul is galled upon his behalf that Kenobi was relegated to such a position by his own Order.

The Kit of Kenobi has always underwhelmed Maul, even with the sheer strength at his disposal.

Kenobi is a blade that has shattered and been reforged several times over, and Maul is ecstatic, humbled, shamed that his own slaying of Master Jinn was one such sunder point.

Sometimes Maul wonders what they could have been if they had been able to meet as allies in the first meeting, and not their last.

Being drawn into the history of Jango Fett is almost refreshing, after a fashion.

Maul can admit he finds an odd sense of kinship between them: both had been shaped by the ravages of the galaxy’s brutality but still managed to come away with a moral code of their own making. Their own sense of honor.

When he is sent back in time by the Force, which clearly has its own sense of humor, he rejoices.

Returned to a body state that he took for granted at the time.... it is invigorating. How wrong was he to lament his self-perceived limitations of physical prowess! His body was never his enemy. A strange but calming sentiment.

He is able to cloak his matured awareness from his false master and fortuitously is within a window of time between missions and recuperation from said missions that he is able to intercept Fett before a particularly gnarly job in Fett’s original timeline went from inconvenient to worse.

After, he considers the best way to approach a notoriously suspicious Fett.

“Let us dispense with the fiction that we are true strangers to each other. You are contracted with my master through another to be the genetic stock for a cloning project. I was available to assist in this other matter. You are waiting for the final form of payment to be ready, yes?” Maul knows that starting thusly on Slave 1 is risky, but life is not without risks. “You desire the destruction of the Jedi for grievous wrongs.” Jango nods, a tight smile on his bare face.

Maul leans closer, barely.

“What if I said that you could revive your people and cause an equally devastating fate to the Jedi. If not more so than mere death.” Maul let the question hang in the air between them, watching his quarry’s microexpressions.

“Go on” Fett allows, but with the clear mien that he would not suffer fools gladly.

“What if you used your clones to retake Mandalore and repopulate it? Cut down every last New Mandalorian fighter where they stood, sent the captives back to Kalevala where those Kryze snakes belong. You as the Mand'alor recall all the True Mandolorians left. And then,” here Maul waved a hand vaguely “offspring. Clan Fett will have numbers and renown the galaxy over.”

Jango Fett had by now raised a single, eloquent eyebrow.

Maul rubbed his chin in the way that Kenobi would often stroke his own facial hair during the Clone War.

“Tell me, Jango Fett, son of Jaster Meerel, do you know the difference between revenge and vengeance?” Maul asks instead of getting on with the point like Jango Fett wants him to.

He had aeons of time in the afterlife to ponder how this phrasing had been his means of salvation in those final moments held so tenderly by his Nemesis, in his Kenobi’s arms. Had that really been the only time they had embraced, for all that destiny had twined them to one another, like strangling vines?

“The truly sublime thing about this, Jango Fett, is that the avatar of the Justice who has taken up arms to right this wrong has also been harmed by the Jedi.” Maul smiles as he shows his teeth. He’s always aware of not overdoing it on the teeth bit, since humans are the singularly unnerving species in the galaxy where showing ones’ dentin is not an immediate sign of aggression. Such strange apex predators they are.

“There is a Padawan ... pushed and pulled by the whims of the elders, and pushed some more. When finally his own Master betrays him so fully, and then when yours truly,” here Maul flicks his tongue along his front canines just because he is alive and can “defeats the master in single combat, then is when the time to strike has arrived. We shall take the Padawan from the battle field with us in the confusion. He will be utterly lost and in need of guidance. His death faked, he will be free to act accordingly.”

Jango Fett has the lines of deep thought drawn on his face. “Intriguing. It is at that, I’ll give you that.” He relaxes in his seat. “But why go against your master in this way?”

Maul sighs. The truth wills out.

“Because unless he is stopped, his foulness will cover the entire galaxy in misery, death and fascism. My preference is that he be launched into the heart of the nearest viable sun but alone I am not powerful enough. I know this to be true. In my own time I have already lived this horror once before.”

Jango Fett raises both of his eyebrows this time. “That is a good reason.” he allows solemnly.

------

ahhhhhk that took literal hours.

idk, eventually Maul fully explains the time travel thing and then he and Jango plotz together til Naboo. Important: Maul doesn’t kill Qui Gon Jinn just stabs him someplace dicey enough to need a long time in physical therapy, enough that Anikin is folded into the creche with the Initiates.

Jinn still rushed ahead so Obi still goes up against Maul all riled up and steaming and snarling like an angry Krayt dragon.

Hence faking Obi’s death to the Jedi and Darth Sleemo and faking Maul’s death to the Jedi so make sure they don’t let such an obviously powerful Force-sensitive child slip outta reach.

cut to Obi Wan waking up in restraints and force suppressors to some rando in authentic Mandolorian armor and Maul who has his Rebels era level of chill which is precisely zero, all over again.

“Greetings my ~~🧡~Nemesis~🧡~~ I sense that you are awake at last!” Maul says and really, Obi has any number of questions regarding this situation but mainly he wants to know how the weird looking Zabrak is doing that with his voice.

Behind Maul, Jango just facepalms, not caring that Obi Wan has him in his line of sight.

@sl-walker @shadowmaat @nawpitynopenope @sunsetofdoom @taule

[nicoletteduclare]

 These fireside meetings were always a bore, and Maxwell tried not to close his eyes for the brief respite that it would provide if only for the fact he did not need an earful right now. Someone giving him grief for not paying attention would require him to actually reply, and to reply, well, he'd have to cough up the whole reason for this meeting quite literally. That would be a whole new conversation and involve more questions and annoyance then Max was particularly interested in dealing with.

Besides, there was a headache blooming behind his temples, most likely thanks to the flowers in his throat. There were very few people he'd humor with listening to right now. They're all complaining about managing their own (admittedly, rather fragile for most of them) sanity more often. The surprising fact is that he is too. Unlike the lot of them, though, Maxwell is acutely aware of the source.

It would be lovely if they could just finish up already, he can make out some idea of moving camp, seeing as they can't seem to find the source, and he closes his eyes to ignore the shadow out of the corner of his eye, desperately wanting to cough.

This batch seems like it'll be painful. The dark petals are amazingly useful, or, well, they would be if he could actually use the codex more often, but having them come up randomly is quite damaging, even to his own mental resilience. Not to mention his physical state, which is far more delicate. There's been quite a lot of blood lately. Feels like his mouth always tastes of copper.

Even as a child who was far too eager to believe in magic and the fae, even then, Maxwell had considered this a myth. Coughing up petals because the heart yearns for someone and never telling them, being scared to tell them? Absolutely ridiculous, a complete fairy tale. Not to mention that he'd completely been too afraid to tell Charlie for at least a good few months, and he'd never coughed up petals then.

And he absolutely loved her, loved her so much... and then he'd managed to screw the whole bloody thing up and fail to protect her and ruin the both of them. If he'd just... if he'd only...

That always left a bitter taste in his mouth, petals or no petals and Maxwell valiantly tried to shake the thoughts of the past from his mind. That, honestly, is probably the biggest reason for these blasted flower petals, though there are quite a few.

Why get close to someone else again, when all he's ever brought to anyone is misery? Why fail someone again? He's ruined every single good thing in his life through a wonderful mix of no forethought and too much pride. Everything good crumbles in his hands, and who's to say, even if his affections where returned, that it wouldn't blow up in his face, that he wouldn't fail and ruin them the same way he'd ruined Charlie. What if they ended up worse off than Charlie?

What was the point of even considering that it was possible?

He'd rather let himself choke to death on flowers before letting that happen to someone that he cares about again.

There's a nudge from his side, and his eyes flutter open. "I'm really starting to wonder if you ever pay any attention to anything we talk about." Wilson was practically glaring at him, a scowled frown on his face.

He either has to reveal the petals by coughing them up or just swallow them down, and as painful at it is, Maxwell chose the later, looking away from Wilson to speak. "I pay plenty of attention, Higgsbury." Even though his throat ached, probably scratched raw, he managed a dry, even tone, though it was a little strained.

Wilson pinched the bridge of his nose, an annoyed sigh escaping and Maxwell noticed the brilliant flower crown perched quite nicely on his head. "Whatever you say. We're going to start moving camp tomorrow, maybe see if there's something new we've missed that's driving everyone insane. It's been getting pretty bad... though I doubt it even bothers you."

He just nodded along, pretending that whatever it was absolutely did not bother him, and watched Wilson sigh again and get up. A few moments in front of the fire before turning to go off to the tents, and Maxwell is glad they're all scattering, he can feel the urge to cough start to rise.

If only Wilson knew the half of it.

Though, if he even knew... Maxwell bit his tongue to keep from coughing just yet and moved to go find a quiet, private area to discreetly cough up the blasted mess from his throat. If he knew, it wouldn't matter anyway.

-

It'd been what, a few weeks since they'd completed moving, a setting up the new camp (not too far from the old camp, they'd judged about a half a day's walk back and forth was far enough if it was something new they'd missed that was draining sanity) and yet... Wilson pitched the bridge of his nose. He'd just staved off a headache and the shadows at the edge of his vision, between flower crowns and green mushroom caps. No one else seemed to be fairing any better either.

What a waste of a good chunk of their fall prep period then. They could have stayed put and put more effort into making the best of the fall growing period before winter made any sort of plant growth stop. It probably wouldn't be a disaster, they did have good stores in place already, but it was frustrating that this move solved nothing.

He flipped through his journal to the last handful of pages, where he'd been writing down various scenarios. He still thought that it was something new he was overlooking. Maybe it was small, like a new flower. He wouldn't be too surprised, the roses were something he overlooked until he needed a flower and got thorns in his hand.

Some of the other things seemed a little less probable. He doubted anything underground could affect them up here, and he wasn't sure there actually was a cavern below them. And something they used might have started to drain their sanity, but he really doubted that.

There was a note about feeling better after leaving camp, and Wilson frowned. He'd forgotten about that. Maybe someone had drug something back, and didn't realize what it was doing?

That would be a bit harder to find, really. They may have brought it back to trade with the pig king later, like other new trinkets that occasionally showed up. Or maybe something like the rose pedestal, something that followed light, and hung around camp if you were unlucky to find them.

He could ask Max for help, honestly. This obviously wasn't affecting him, the man rarely ended up in the mental state the rest of them constantly were trying to avoid; Max's occasional careful use of the shadow amulet excluded.

If anything, Maxwell would at least tell him if something seemed completely impossible. While his memory wasn't infallible, he at least could have some knowledge of what one could do in control of this world. Though, stubborn bastard he was, Wilson didn't doubt he might have to bribe him with doing a few hated chores.

Though... that brought to mind the fact Maxwell had been trading off his shifts for night watch for other chores. Hadn't... Wilson thought back. Maxwell had actually asked to trade a shift for going down below for lightbulbs and mushrooms with Wolfgang.

Wilson wasn't sure as to why Maxwell hated the underground so much, but he'd had his suspicions that the enclosed, dark space was uncomfortably close to the throne room he'd found Maxwell in at the end of his little adventure. 

So that was one of the chores Max used almost always tried to shove off onto him. And Maxwell usually tried to trade that off for a night shift if he couldn't weasel his way out of it, Wickerbottom might have permanent insomnia, but Maxwell was frequently also victim to it and so it was an easy swap.  

He had also been going off on his own a lot, avoiding everyone really, though that wasn't surprising, but he usually had one of his shadow puppets out. Now Wilson tried to remember the last time he'd even seen Max with a shadow clone.

Perhaps Maxwell wasn't as immune as he thought, though the underground thing was still a bit of a mystery. Something was going on there.

He'd have to ask, really. Wilson didn't expect a straight response, Maxwell used to not even let him know when he'd been injured. Fun, discovering that your only companion at the time was incapacitated because of an internal wound. That he'd known of. Weakness always seemed to be something Maxwell hid.

Maybe some of the others would think Maxwell was up to something, and

honestly, a cynical bit of him said he was stupid for not really entertaining the idea. But as much as he argued with Maxwell, he was fairly certain Max wasn't about to stab him in the back. 

He could hear someone stiring, a tent rustling as someone pulled open the fabric, and he looked up. It was time for a new shift, and Wilson's shoulders relaxed. It'd be good to get some sleep.

He'd talk to Maxwell in the morning. It'd be a nightmare, but Wilson would either have an assistant (he could almost hear Maxwell denying being one, and the mere thought produced a smile,) or manage to get him to admit that something was wrong.

-

Death was becoming far too frequent, though it wasn't like any of them really noticed, or at least if they did, none of them pressed it. The most reaction he'd picked up on was Willow muttering something about being irresponsible, and he almost scoffed at her. He couldn't remember exactly what of this lovely floral disaster was the crux of all of his dying, the usual fog of revival masked it.

Since he couldn't remember, and he didn't want to exactly risk being found out, Maxwell fell into the habit of being alone for his own sake, and in some ways, everyone else's as well.

The idea of this... affliction, being found out, was mortifying. Besides the agonizing questions, this did destroy some of the facade he'd worked hard to put up; that none of them meant anything to him. And considering that, the idea that his affections would even be remotely reciprocated was downright laughable in the worst possible way. Much like the rest of his life, a giant cosmic joke.

So, Maxwell had accepted the thorny stems, sharp edged rust red and ink black petals, and the pain that came with it as his penance for even daring to let his heart consider another love after the first one had been utterly demolished by his own hubris. The headaches, the shadows out of the corners of his eyes, the world slowly becoming a gray husk shot through with streaks of red? That was an added bonus. Even as he managed to keep himself from teetering at the edge of his sanity, the world was never quite as vibrant as it should have been.

The time between deaths was getting shorter, and the Maxwell couldn't help but wonder if there was a point where the time between his deaths would be only hours. That, or he'd finally succumb to the terrorbeaks.

Maybe this is what he deserved. It was about time, considering how many years it's been since Charlie pulled Wilson from the throne and threw the two of them together. Besides, the guilt surrounding this mad little game he'd thrown together certainly wasn't enough.

Just as well to have a bloody punishment to fit the crime.

The last death was only a week ago, or was it five days? One of the two, and no matter, even though he couldn't remember the circumstance surrounding the last handful of deaths, something told him this was near the end. He was on his hands and knees at the base of a pine tree.

He'd actually been trying to make himself useful for once, what a joke, honestly. There was a tiny notch in the tree from an axe, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the not-so-tiny pile of blood soaked petals underneath him, more blood dripping from his mouth as he stared at them, eyes trying to focus under the strain.

His arms were shaking to hold up his weight, and yet, as he heard a voice, Maxwell tried to force himself to stand. A mix of pride and self-preservation, he couldn't let this be seen. Especially not by...

"Stars and atoms, Maxwell, what the hell are yo-..." The question was left unfinished as Max's strength left him, collapsing back down as he choked up more petals, an awful gagging noise before silence. Wilson was already next to him as there was a pathetic gasp for air, a warm arm trying to help him up or heimlich, one of the two, winding underneath, but it was far too late this time.

-

The next thing Maxwell could remember was the cold marble flooring that meant camp, and that frankly, was absolutely terrifying. He hadn't had the materials, or really the strength to recreate a meat effigy since the first death by his affliction; touchstones were his main means of revival while he worked to at least manage the coughing fits somewhat.

Instead of the wood and broken stone around a touchstone, dead pig heads staring at him, Wilson was looking at him in the twilight, a small fire going, his own pack tossed nearby.

The place seemed... empty, for camp. Usually there was a lot more fuss if someone was revived, and while there was a little bit of relief towards that, it was... unnerving until he saw the lack of any of their usual structures, things were broken down to be reused. It was their old, recently abandoned camp, seeing as the fire-pit was still in good condition.

He hadn't gotten up yet, eyes just tracing so he could figure out what to do, but before he could get farther into figuring out the situation, Maxwell was joined by Wilson kneeling next to him.

"Why didn't you tell anyone, you absolute idiot!" He hissed between his teeth as he dug for something. While it was obvious he'd died, the reality of the situation didn't quite set in as he gave Wilson a confused look before pushing himself away in shock, sitting up.

Wilson must have seen him die. Logically, then, Wilson had seen the petals. Not that he could remember the man's reaction, which was probably a good thing, but it was the only conclusion to his words. However, this posed a problem.

Wilson knew.

That was quite frankly terrifying; and while he was trying to process this horribly unlucky turn of events, Maxwell couldn't react before there was a godawful needle jabbed into his arm, the sleeve having been pushed up before he was fully awake.

"How long?" Wilson asked, eyes alert and narrowed as he practically glared at Maxwell, before turning back to the bag, fishing something else out with a mutter of "Frankly, if it wasn't for my mother's stories about her younger sister's death due to this, I wouldn't believe it." Maxwell used the mild distraction of rustling for something to stand up, his own pack was near enough to scoop up, ignoring the wobble in his legs.

"It's none of your business, Higgsbury." Lies are so easy, still, and but this one was quiet, Maxwell's shoulders tensed as he backed up, ignoring the gold chain in Wilson's hand.

It's dropped back into the bag as Wilson stood up, glaring at Maxwell, arms crossed. "None of my business? Really, Maxwell?" Looking away was so much easier then confronting this. Heavens, everything truly does go wrong, doesn't it.

"You think that it's 'none of my business' when this is probably what's been affecting the rest of us? I saw the kind of petals you're dealing with, I'm not stupid. Not to mention that you're wasting resources then. I thought you might have just gotten into a few scrapes, but no, you were hiding this from us. You think that it isn't my business? Really?" It's certainly venomous, and while it looks like Wilson might have more to say, he isn't in the mood for this, teeth clenched to keep himself from coughing up more of the blasted petals right then, before he turned on his heel, not a word, and walked away, ignoring the start and stop of Wilson's voice trying to protest.

It was always a lost cause, he knew that from the get-go, but this proved it far past a shadow of a doubt, and Max knew that he was going to be saddled with this for a long, long time, as he closed his eyes and made his plans, heading for the woods.

-

Maxwell sorted through the pack, making sure his things had been undisturbed by any other survivor or monster that might have stumbled upon his bones from the last death. The codex was there, despite how useless it was in his condition.

Every little bit of sanity counted, but on the off-chance he was surprised by a giant or something, a shadow fighter might buy him some time to get away. He already had enough deaths to handle.

Then there was his winter gear, traps and tools, water skin, some medical supplies; bandages and salves, plenty of torches and fire wood, and finally, thankfully untouched, was his stash of food. Nothing extremely wonderful, Maxwell wasn't stupid enough to risk being found to stop and make a crock pot, but rabbits and moleworms were easy enough pickings to supply him with meat, along with berries and carrots and the occasional gobbler.

He'd retrieved a few choice materials in the middle of the night, after Wilson revived him, but frankly, he'd already had most of his own supplies. Thankfully, his tent and chest were at the outskirts of camp by choice, and he was quiet enough to head off without anyone noticing. He hadn't actually taken much more then the winter gear and his copy of their maps, the essentials considering that it'd turned to winter only a week after he'd left.

He had a walking death sentence. Carrying more then the basics seemed stupid.

Still, sometimes it was a bit obnoxious, he wouldn't mind having a fur roll to wrap around himself right about now. Instead, he shivered as he slid the vest off the skeleton and retrieved his stupid looking but warm hat. He managed both of them on before pulling out a frozen thermal stone out of the interior pocket of the vest, another shiver wracking his body.

He slid the thermal stone back into his pack to reheat soon, pulling out the map of the underground caves instead, x's through certain locations. He'd have to mark it off properly once he got a fire started, but he mentally noted where he'd been in the caves when he'd woken up. Another touchstone down.

It was obvious that he was going to run out of them soon, but he didn't want to, well, he couldn't really face any of the other survivors right now. Knowing Wilson's inability to keep his mouth shut (far more charming when it was about science, less so when it dealt with... well, this, and he probably had, as he said, it affected everyone,) he had to hope none of them had believed it. He wouldn't have, certainly. Even with the reality of honest to god magic, Maxwell would have scoffed at the idea of this fairytale being real. It was a story, told to children and young adults to warn them away from being foolish with their hearts. To keep people from pinning for those they couldn't be with.

Well, he'd never been good at listening to warnings, had he? His chest ached all the time, these days, probably due to the floral infestation. He'd suffocate on them once again, and waste yet another touchstone.

Maxwell started to cough as he put away the map and stood up, a few petals falling out of his mouth and laying against the white snow. For all the problems the cold had, being tracked through the snow wasn't one of them, at least. The footprints left would quickly vanish, intended to keep certain horrors hidden.

Normally, one would expect to see the tracks in the snow from monsters such as the MacTusk or the hounds, but that made things too easy. It also had the benefit of keeping surviors from retracing their footsteps, and while it had been a pain, now Maxwell was silently thankful for it. All he had to do was keep the petals from leaving a trail, and he was hidden, bones excluded. No one could tell they were his anyway, and he had no space for bone shards.

He couldn't help but remember the first morning this had happened as he gathered up the petals and walked away from his latest death.  

The night before this started, the pair of them had been forced into watch after stumbling back into camp late, and they took the time to patch themselves up.

Hound mounds were always trouble, but cactus flowers were too useful to not gather in the summer. However, Wilson had forgotten the territory range, and ventured just a few inches too close for the hound's comfort.

A few shadow clones and a spear were perfectly fine for getting rid of the nuisance, but neither of them came out of it unscathed.

At least it hadn't been the dragonfly, but still. Wilson had pulled a hound off of his back, the last one, thankfully, but it'd torn open the flesh under his shoulder blade.

Normally, he'd have insisted he could take care of it himself, but between the exhaustion and pain, he accepted Wilson's offer of help, besides, it was hard to bandage his back. The normal banter, a few light jabs of 'how do you honestly survive out here, you're paper,' from Wilson, as well as a mutter of being glad it was superficial, hands gentle on the bare skin next to the wound as Wilson looked it over.

It'd been surprisingly... nice, but over all too soon. Wilson had shifted over so they could sit next to one another as Maxwell had looked at the damage to his clothing. He had to repair both his shirt and suit jacket, Wilson had poked at him wearing it in the heat earlier that day.

He was already planning that out before he looked over at his companion. Wilson looked... exhausted, slumped on the log. The permanent bags under his eyes looked darker then normal, and he was well aware of how badly Wilson (and most of the others,) handled the night. It would be worse on an already tired mind.  

Before he could really think about it, Maxwell offered to take over fully, a smart comment of "I don't need you falling into insanity on me," dying on his lips when Wilson smiled.

A tired thank you, and between the smile and the slightly wilted flower crown perched on Wilson's head to try and make the night easier had completely derailed any thought besides the soft, fluttery feeling in his chest as Wilson left.

He'd tried very hard not to think about it for the rest of his watch as he repaired his shirt and suit jacket, until Wickerbottom arrived from her nightly reading nook to relieve him. He'd gone to bed halfway through the night with a frankly terrifying realization, and woken up to the start of a nightmare.

 Obviously, hindsight was 20/20, unlike his own eyesight. That wasn't the catalyst of his affectionate feelings towards the scientist, but it was moment it finally, really, dawned on him. He'd tried to keep his distance from the other survivors once he was thrown into the mix, but Wilson was apparently a special case, and that was terrifying. Caring deeply about him scared Maxwell down to the very core of his being, and the realization of his feelings came with that terror.

It may have been that feeling, the fear that had buried in his stomach as he repaired his clothing, that brought these suffocating flowers along. Choking on his own fear.

But that fear was warranted. He ruined things so easily... especially Charlie, the last person he'd felt anything like this towards, he'd ruined her life and that was a something he could never make amends for. Maxwell was fairly certain that even on the slim chance that these feelings were returned, he'd destroy it, without meaning to, as well. And with their last conversation, words that still sometimes came up in his thoughts, and another reason for avoiding the whole lot of them... well, at least he couldn't break something that was never going to happen in the first place.

A cold piece of comfort, and he shivered as the wind managed through the layers.

-

Wilson huffed as he looked at the fractures in the gold flecked rock he'd been working on shattering. It wasn't the first rock of the day, he'd been at this for a while now, trying to get a handle on the anxiety that had come forward in full force this morning. He'd been headed to the rocky field to get some supplies for new thermal stones, some people hadn't been keeping theirs repaired and he had found a new skeleton. There wasn't a satchel or anything of note around it, but it was most certainly new. It was in the normal path to the northern cave entrance that was right near the outcrop of rocks, there was no way it was just a skeleton they'd missed.

It made him sick to see. Stupid, idiotic... he took another breath and looked at the rock again, trying to ignore the knots in his stomach. Maxwell had vanished. He'd been silent and left before Wilson could even finish saying what he'd been trying to get out of his system after seeing the man choke to death on petals.

Hanahaki is what he knew it by, mostly due to his mother. She'd never elaborated, and it was apparently ignored by the medical community as he'd never encountered it in undergrad, but she'd given him a brief description that he decided was just a poetic way of saying that her sister died of a broken heart.

What a horrifying thing to witness, to see the whole thing play out in front of her, in her own sister, and to not even be able to revive her. It had been horrifying enough for Wilson, and he at least could bring someone back to life in this realm. He kept thinking too much about how pale Maxwell had looked, blood trickling out of his open mouth and onto a pile of blood soaked petals on the ground as the man asphyxiated and Wilson tried and failed to get him to breathe again.

He shivered and picked up his pick-axe, hoping he could stop this train of thought again. But, alas. His brain fixated on things too well. Why hadn't Maxwell just said something? To any of them? It didn't have to be the whole camp, but someone should have been told so at least, maybe, they could fix it before it had gotten bad.

Instead, he got to find out with Maxwell suffocating on petals as Wilson desperately tried to get him to breathe. His words after the fact were maybe, well, less maybe and more most certainly, sharp. He'd been angry, it was affecting all of them, but he was also incredibly scared and he didn't know how to phrase it.

Maxwell had used his effigy earlier, and it'd been a tiny bit eyebrow raising, but none of them had questioned it. He'd started to go off on his own before then, he'd probably just bitten off more then he could chew.

Well, he had, but not in the way Wilson was expecting.  And then he had the gall to go and disappear! He'd looked for Max, had been for weeks, and the most he'd found were bones. He swung, listening to the rock shatter. Doing these sort of chores usually helped when he was dealing with overthinking, certainly had the last time he'd turned a thought over and over in his head til he could scream.

The physical activity usually wore him down, and that stopped the pacing around. Usually then, it'd shut up or he'd pass out to sleep.

He could only hope that would be today's remedy. Wilson was sure he'd already talked Wickerbottom's ear off about this, she was the only one he'd really discussed Max's condition with at length. He needed to confide in someone, and she was the most likely to have maybe a lick of experience with the illness. Everyone else got a hand waved 'he's sick and being stubborn' because it was the barest truth he could say.

The two of them were understandably concerned about the fact he was coughing up up dark petals, for both the effects on the rest of them, and discussion on what that meant for Maxwell. He was always more steady, mentally, then the rest of them, so there was a point in his favour, but that only could last so long. Which, as Wickerbottom pointed out, was probably why it took so long for someone to find out.

The signs were far more blatant now, but weren't things always more apparent when looking back? Maxwell had been relying less on his shadow clones, he'd ceased using them practically all together before the curtain had been pulled back on his condition, but he'd been using only one for quite some time. It was a little crass, but Wilson found it ironic that when he had a steady source of the material for nightmare fuel, it would be in a way that rendered his clones unusable.

Well, it was more sad then ironic.

They'd talked carefully about it, no need to stress everyone else about it, mostly at night during watch. The one question neither of them posed was the question of who Maxwell was pining over. He didn't want to focus on it, it was an obvious thing really. Who else could it be but Miss Charlie?

He never talked about her very much, some things Wilson had only picked up on from overhearing Maxwell talking to himself. Whenever she did come up in conversation, the guilt and pain was an undertone that had originally been surprising, but it mixed with the sad adoration that was far more apparent. Just through a few short conversations it had been obvious that to him that Maxwell was in love with her.

So Wilson kept his own feelings close to his chest. It was more then a little bit frustrating, an old flame that had started to burn anew. Maxwell had gone from his loved voice on the radio, to a demon, then to a pain in the ass ally, to... well, a soft, unrequited love again. He accepted it with ease at the time when it struck him, that was just how his life always went. There wasn't anything he could do about it; why bother tying himself up in knots about it? He tried not to at least, shoving his feelings to the side and acting like it was the same as always.

That was why he'd just stood there as Maxwell walked off after the initial outburst of frustration. He didn't know what else to say that wouldn't reveal everything. Wilson figured, hoped really, that he'd be back at camp, or something sensible instead of running off. Max refused to be sensible, it seemed.

He had wanted (he still did) to help. Find something to ease the coughing, or at least keep him from dying.  It was impossible to solve the pinning problem, really. There wasn't any other cure, the few scraps of knowledge Wickerbottom had pointed towards the only thing that was even remotely close to a cure had a tendency to have side effects relating towards memory loss, even to the point of becoming cold. Wilson honestly didn't understand how that was possible, but it was something to look into. But he'd rather not toy with someone else's feelings.

There had to be another way.

-

Sunlight was one way to wake up. Waking up from hacking up his lungs was another, and it was never a pleasant way to come out of sleep, but these days Maxwell was getting used to it.

 There were some embers still left of his fire. Before it could extinguish itself, he threw the petals from the night and morning onto the fire, the fire starting to properly burn again. That awful straw roll he'd used to sleep on (Maxwell yearned for the days of beefalo wool and rabbit fur now) was rolled up into a tight bundle to sit on. He'd burn it before he left, but he needed to cook on a more controlled flame right now.

A gobbler leg, wrapped in scrap paper to keep the meat from the rest of his bag was today's breakfast. Better then some days, and he sighed as he tossed the paper into the fire and skewered the leg into a stick. Roasting these things was never an exact science, but as long as it wasn't raw.

Semi-burned wasn't too bad, and the meat was far more comforting and filling then a few charred carrots. It made him feel a bit warmer, though the more likely source of that was the thermal stone tucked into his vest being warmed by the fire.

Once he'd eaten, he pulled a few green mushrooms from his pack to roast quickly on a slowly dying fire before tossing the straw roll into the flames. It burst back to life, and he stepped back to keep from letting any of his clothing catch on fire and yet allow himself, and his thermal stone, to bask in the warmth.

Sadly, he couldn't stay too long around the fire. Just long enough to let the thermal stone hit peak temperature as he wrapped his mushroom caps and place them at the top of his pack. He left as the fire started to wane, it would soon die, and the ashes would vanish under the snow.

It felt like they were gearing up for another storm soon, he'd have to head to the caves again. As much of a pain as it was, he rather prefered to not be underground, it was safer during these blizzards, since he didn't have a stable camp. He'd been using the caves to avoid the hounds as well. They'd cleared the areas closest to the entrences of danger ages ago, and he didn't have to go too far into them just to avoid hounds.

Besides, it probably wasn't too long until he died again, he'd want to get closer to the caves so he didn't have to travel too far to retrive his things anyway. He'd had a few good days, and now he was fairly certain that he had at most, three days left. Not that it truly mattered. He was just going to die again.

In order to get away from the places he was more likely to be discovered in, he'd been forgoing sleep (he used to do it all the time, the nightmares in his head were harder to fight off) but a terrorbeak almost solid enough to bite his head off was reminder enough that those days were gone. Staying up all night wasn't helpful for his already diminished sanity.

Maybe it'd be easier to just give up the ghost and let one of those terrors kill him. Oh, it'd be bloody painful, but it wasn't like he'd be able to full remember it anyway. If he was lucky he might not ever remember getting letting himself get to that point until he saw the skeleton.

He'd been hoarding blue and green mushrooms whenever he could find them, and the mushroom forests underground he'd usually have to go through after dying also gave him a decent supply, but maybe it'd just be easier to get it over with. Ignore his health and sanity and just let it happen, again and again until he couldn't revive any more.

Not today though. It sounded tempting, but right now, he wasn't even sure if he had a touchstone left. The map could be wrong, or a more likely option, any of the unmarked ones could be one he'd used when the lot of them were in the caves and he'd made a mis-step. Then, his options would basically be the other survivors. Ghosts were drawn towards the living when there wasn't any other source of revival, and while he doubted any of them would want to bring him back, if they did, he'd just be cornered.

Maxwell would sigh if it wasn't for the need to cough, and he leaned against a tree to hack a batch of the blasted things up into his hand. At least he wasn't too far away from his goal, and the petals weren't too bloody. He'd have to pocket and burn them, better to not leave breadcrumb when you didn't want to be found. He'd make fuel, but he had plenty, and making more then he could carry was stupid, another thing to lead people to him. At least the petals could rot, but Max wasn't taking a chance on that.

It wasn't even mid morning yet, and he could tell there were shadows lurking at the edges of his vision. Maybe he was more out of it then he’d thought, or the petals were making things even worse then they had before. He thought that barely being able to last a day, not to mention the nights, was bad enough, but just a few short hours?

He shuddered and started to cough again, petals not caught this time as they instead hit the snow, a bit of blood joining them. Stupid flowers, he thought as he took a deep breath, trying to steady himself against the tree, watching slightly more firm shadows take their place in front of his eyes instead of at the side.

Mushrooms, he tried to remind himself before the thought slipped away. Right, he needed a cap or two or three to handle this.

He pulled around his pack and pulled the freshly cooked ones out, thankful that he always stuck these at the top. They wouldn't help the pain in his throat, but some more bleeding was nothing compared to trying to fight off shadows, and as much as he entertained the idea earlier, he really didn't want to die to one of those.

He'd barely gotten to swallow the first one down when there was a crunch, the icy layer of the snow being broken through by something. He hadn't heard any howls, so it couldn't be the hounds.

Maxwell swallowed again as he slowly turned to stare at Wilson, who was staring back, bearded and looking quite concerned.

He barely thought, just turned and ran, ignoring the cry for him to stop, please. He wasn't that far from the caves, he could lose him.  

-

Once again, Wilson had gotten himself gently kicked out of camp for a few hours for pacing. Even the kids knew something was bothering him, and he had a feeling most of the adults in camp were ready to throttle him. Wickerbottom had her usual calm demeanor, but Wilson wasn't blind, he could see the tension underneath. They were all fed up with his hand wringing, and she'd kindly asked him to go chop some wood, as Woodie had watch tonight and so was dozing off for a few hours. It was something useful to do at least, even with the approaching nightfall.

So, now here he was, in the midst of a quiet woods, his small campfire the main source of noise around. The light it gave was enough to keep him safe from the night as he worked on chopping down a lumpy pine.

These chores were becoming rather frequent, more so then hunting or gathering food, but it was probably a good thing. Being away from everyone sometimes gave him a better perspective, and the repetitive swing of an axe or pick axe was surprisingly soothing. The steady rhythm of hits was background noise as he thought about solutions. None of them were actual solutions, but he figured the more he chopped at it, much like the tree, he'd find something useful.

Not that any actual solution would be much of any use if he didn't find Maxwell first and foremost. But there had to be a way to keep him alive, even if the flowers had to stay, a way to keep him from dying so frequently at the very least. Something to ease it, if not solve it, living with flowers in your body had to be better then dying to them by choking them up. Maybe even keeping them from affecting everyone else.

But, once again, the biggest problem was finding the man. He'd kept an eye out, and the only sign that Maxwell was even alive was that people kept stumbling upon new skeletons, nothing around them. Nothing else. He was surprisingly good about covering his tracks.

Still, the number of skeletons gave him a bad gut feeling. The latest one he'd found himself, heading off to get rabbit fur from the caves, yet another chore he did alone to keep his relentless pacing down. His stomach sank at the thought of dying out here alone, freezing while choking up blood and petals and stems and such. Even though they've all died on a fairly regular basis, going back to dying alone and scared was something unimaginable these days. Not to mention the possibilities of dying to terrorbeaks and crawling horrors.

He had no one, and it'd been so long since Wilson's been well and truely alone that anyone going through that was hard to think about. Maybe back when it was just a shoddy alliance between them, and he was waiting to be back-stabbed, he'd find some dark bit of humor in Max suffering like that. Now, it was just depressing. No one to lean on or force him to accept help for once.

Well, he was going to force him to take help when he found him. And it was a when, not a if. There couldn't be that many places around to hide, even the longest trek from from camp was a handful of days, not to mention wormholes and beefalo. Someone was bound to encounter him at some point.

Another few whacks, and the tree started to fall. Wilson stepped back and felt the audible thump as hit his the ground, taking a second before he start to peel the branches off to feed his fire.

Stars, it didn't help he still felt like he should have done more, said something better after he'd revived the moron. Bit back the anger, expressed the worry underneath the frustration of Maxwell hiding things. Maybe he'd have saved himself all of this anxiety .

He huffed and capped his axe into the stump of the tree before starting to gather up the now peeled off branches. He'd gather up the logs he'd made later, the stump could stay for now.

Even with all of this, even with knowing exactly who was at the heart of Maxwell's pining... his chest had a dull ache in it just at the mere thought of him dying alone. Even now, he couldn't shed the unrequited feelings. Oh, he'd worry if Maxwell was just a friend, sure. But somehow, the man had managed to make him care about him again.

It was never going to happen, and that was something he had to keep reminding himself, he'd accepted it, sure, but the thoughts still crept in. Wilson had managed to put it under lock and key for the most part.

Instead, he enjoyed their stupid, petty arguments that were mostly for the sake of arguing until they went too far. He greatly enjoyed the times Maxwell would actually talk about magic, few and far between, but it always was insightful. It was nice, when he wasn't being a cagey bastard. Then there were the times that Maxwell ended up being the voice of reason when something new had cropped up and Wilson was over-eager to test it, though at times, it was the reverse.

They both had the tendency to get in over their heads, and when Wilson did, Max pulled him back. Once again, it was his turn to pull Maxwell back and help him, because he was most certainly in over his head.

His fire was starting to flicker, and Wilson threw another branch into the flames to feed it. At least the chores were physically exhausting. Maybe after some food he could get some actual rest. It'd be nice instead of staying up all night overthinking everything.

Thankfully, his pack had more then his usual jerky for travel. They'd had plenty of vegetables sitting in the fridge that he'd made a stuffed eggplant, along with a few morsels. Warming it wasn't exactly easy, but he'd done it before, and after skewering some morsels, he had a warm, filling meal.

With luck, he'd sleep.

Before that, though, he gathered up the last of the excess tree limbs and threw them into the fire, making sure that he'd have light through the night. Between that and his fur roll, Wilson felt like it should be quite comfortable, granted that it didn't start snowing.

He watched the flames dance for a few moments after lying down before turning over, the fire warming his back and his eyes adjusting to the darkness. The last thought before he slid into sleep was that he hoped Max was managing to stay alive.

Maxwell was once again on his mind after being woken up by the sunrise and groggily trying to suss out what he was up to the night before. After fishing out a piece of jerky from his bag, he could only assume that the best place to look was probably around the caves. The entrances to the vast underground below their feet had been where quit a few of the new skeletons had been showing up.

He bundled the logs into the bottom of his bag as he settled on a plan. He'd check the entrance near the rock field before heading back to camp, he could check in on the closer one in the evening before he got back. It wasn't a walk to look forward to, but maybe it would put his mind at ease, even if he didn't find Max.  

The last thing he had to do was pull the axe from where he'd left it in the stump, and that was easy to put away, right into the little loop he'd added to his pack. Kept a spear or axe handy without cluttering up the space he used for torches, as well as leaving his hands free.

Useful in the winter, he could shove his hands into the vest to stay warm. At least they hadn't had another late winter snowstorm yet. Walking in the old, refrozen snow was hard enough without an extra layer of white, fluffy snow. And even without the new layer of snow, tracks never seemed to stay. It seemed to be some joke of the Constant to keep you from following your own tracks back home, or discover a monster before they snuck up on you. The snow was nothing more then a hinderance, but at least it wasn't knee deep yet.  

Besides, the wind was cruel enough, snow or no snow. Even a full beard didn't keep his face warm. It always seemed like no matter how much he prepared for this weather, it never was enough.

The walk was uneventful, really, the winds were bad but nothing else . Mostly, Wilson had to turn out of the wind for a few moments when it whipped up into a harsh breeze to keep his eyes and nose from turning into icicles, otherwise, it was a quiet, if long, walk. It'd been a few hours since he'd woken up, and Wilson was fairly certain he was almost out of the woods and into the empty clearing before a rock field that would have one of the entrances to the caves. Then he'd turn around and head back to camp along the tree line, staying out of spider nests and trouble in general until about the area where there had been the grass geckos. He'd take a left and go look at the other-

Wilson's train of thoughts went right out the window as he heard a distinctively harsh hacking in the distance. Oh. Relief and some panic mixed together as he tried to silently walk over. It was an impossible task, but he didn't need to sound like a hound or something gallivanting over to maul him.

Maxwell was leaning against a tree, hunched over and shaking as he coughed, dark colored blobs against the ground which could only be petals. As he stood up, the man looked panicked, still shaking slightly, glancing around like he was surrounded. Wilson could only assume that he was, quietly watching with an ache in his chest as Max pulled his pack off to grab a packet of mushrooms, stuffing one into his mouth as he swung it back on.

He stepped closer, thinking about what he had in his own bag that might help.

That was what alerted Maxwell. His back tensed, and Wilson winced before the other spun around and they both just stared at one another. The moment felt far longer then it was, but he also wasn't expecting Maxwell to turn on his heel and bolt like a scared animal.

He didn't even pause when Wilson shouted "Wait, stop! Maxwell, hold on!"

So instead Wilson followed. Through the last bit of the woods and across the clearing he'd been headed towards and down into the caves themselves, both of them not even hesitating to pull out a torch and light it, too much practice to need a moment to stop. The cave was abnormally dark, not even light-bulb flowers in the distance. That, or all of them were withered at the time. It didn't matter much, Maxwell wasn't slowing down, and Wilson wasn't about to stop and lose him now.

"Maxwell! Seriously, stop, please!" There wasn't any response to his shouting as they turned a corner into a narrow causeway. He wasn't stopping as he turned a corner marked by a crossed out rectangle, one of their crude markings that meant dead end. He must have missed it while in a panic to get away. While the dead end was useful, he really didn't want to trap Maxwell to get him back to camp.

There was a rumble around them, and Wilson almost stopped to regain his balance as the cave floor shifted under him, if this dead end caved in... "It's a dead end, Max!" He shouted, trying to be heard over the rumble as he headed forward. At least if it caved in and they were together he could get them out of it.

At least it looked he'd already hit the end of the corridor. Maxwell was leaning against the back wall, coughing so hard is seemed like he'd cough up his lungs first, torch discarded onto the floor. Wilson winced as he caught a few stones on the arm as he rushed to catch up. Closer, it was obvious  gently pushed down on his shoulder to get him to sit as the man caught his breath.  The moment he did, however, he started into another fit, petals in a growing pile in front of him.

For all the planning, Wilson felt very helpless in the moment, kneeling down to rub the other's back  with his free hand until the fit started to calm again. He hated this. Hated feeling like there was nothing he could do, that nothing was going to work... "Do you have any water?" He asked quietly, shifting to finally get a good close look at him in the torch light. He kept looking everywhere, scanning for things that weren't really there, not yet, anyway, though Wilson could tell it was bad enough that he was starting to notice things out of the corner of his eyes.

Wonderful. He didn't want to fight the damned shadows here, so Wilson gently pulled Max's bag from his shoulders. He'd had a mushroom earlier, hopefully he had more.

There were more, thank the stars, and there was a water-skin as well, half full. he took both things out and handed the mushrooms over to Maxwell first, before moving away to start a fire before his torch burned out. At least he'd been cutting wood, there was plenty of cords to keep a fire going it they had to stay here a while.

The cave had gone silent, but with the last of his torch's flame, he lit the logs and sighed in relief at a fire going. It wasn't as cold without the wind, but the cool rock sapped heat away quickly. At least they'd lucked out with the earthquake, but here they were. Maxwell wasn't even looking at him, pointedly looking towards a wall, his water skin in hand. "You've been gone awhile, you know?" Wilson said, trying to get the man to look at him, trying to be reassuring, that there was something that could be done.

Maxwell just made some sort of noise that sounded like it was agreement at the sentence, and nothing else. He didn't even look towards him. They were going to do this again, Wilson wanting to help and Maxwell just... refusing it.

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

-

Oh, this was absolutely fantastic. Maxwell leaned back, his eyes closed, silently condemning everything.  Why did it have to be Wilson? Any of the survivors would be a problem, but when it just made his chest ache worse... some force of the universe must enjoy him suffering.

Not to mention the man was quietly trying to ease the pain... it was exceedingly comforting, unfairly so, to have someone care. Not to mention that it was Wilson of all people, but Maxwell was fairly certain that this was bound to end up going from comforting to questioning. Wilson had expressed some sort of familiarity, he remembered that much from the last time they'd been a few feet from one another. Family, if he was recalling it correctly. He'd only known about it from fairy tales, the more glamorous accounts. Roses and peonies and other lovely flowers falling from pining maids and princesses' mouths, for some dashing prince or knight or brave peasant boy or something. It glossed over the wretched details.

If Wilson knew more about this then he did, well, it was to be expected that it would go poorly. There was bound to be a inquiry as to whom it was that captured the 'heartless Maxwell's heart.' He could even hear the gentle ribbing in Wilson's voice just thinking of one of the many epithets the other used. The taunting had become comfortable and expected.

His 'whom' was currently staring at him, evaluating him, and Maxwell was continuing to avoid his gaze. Ever since he'd given him something that was barely a reply, Wilson was just watching.

Couldn't this just be over already? The last coughing fit was more violent then the last, his throat was raw... and the cherry on top was the fact he'd been followed down here and the most Wilson had done was make sure that he didn't hit the rock bottom of his sanity, a few quietly, oddly concerned words. Why? He didn't deserve by any long shot, wasn't he the one 'affecting everyone else' and such? Wasn't Wilson just making things worse on himself anyway? Why did he care? Maxwell made sure that it, and by extension, himself, were no longer any of Wilson's business. Wasn't that what he wanted?

There was that familiar urge rising in the back of his throat, and in barely any time he was back to hacking up a lung, he pushed forward to keep the blood off of his clothing. The petals past his lips felt larger this time around, something that felt like a full flower a well. The pain was contrasted with the warm hand on his back again, steady circles. The urge to shove him away was as strong as the urge to lean into the hand.

He took a breath and opened his eyes, looking at the mess of blood and flower petals, tongue tracing the cuts on his cheeks and gums, there must have been brambles and thorns mixed into the batch. Maxwell sighed and tried to quell the shaking in his arms. The world was dull, even the fire seemed dull before he closed his eyes, trying to gather his wits again. Heavens, he was exhausted.

His eyes shot open at the sound of a music box ringing in his ears. "Wils- Higgsbury, the fire." He managed out, voice raw as he saw a shadowy hand start to snake towards the fire, and Wilson left his side immediately, a few curses at the dratted thing before he also grabbed some things from his bag. Maxwell figured it was more logs and closed his eyes again, bone deep exhaustion settling in.

There was a gentle nudge at his shoulder, a small mess of mushrooms handed over, including some blue ones, one roasted, one not. Once those were in hand, Wilson wandered back to the fire, and it was silent. He saved the raw one til last, eating the cooked green and blue caps first, before letting the healing properties from the blue mushroom soothe his sore mouth and throat.

Wilson was quietly weaving a flower crown, the silence was... stifling, to put it mildly. But, Maxwell didn't doubt that it was probably because Wilson needed the flower crown if he had any hope of keeping himself together. The pile of petals he still hasn't gotten up to burn looked like it was the equivalent of a whole ring of evil flowers. He tried not to stare, instead turning his head to watch the light and shadows on the cave wall, but he could see a glimpse of that focused, narrowed in on what he was doing look that Wilson tended to have when he was working on something important to him, something he'd been quietly fond of seeing. It made him close his eyes and ignore the painful want in his heart. Why didn't he just leave already?

Instead, there were footsteps coming closer, not away. Maxwell silently debated trying to shove him away somehow but before he could even figure that out, a flower crown was gently settled on top of the awful winter hat he had to wear to stay warm. "We're going to head back to camp." Wilson said, putting a certain insistence behind the 'we.' "I'll see if we don't already have supplies for an effigy or life amulet, if not, well... I'll have to make you a heart or something as back-up. Don't need you hovering around as a ghost for a while if this gets worse."

Maxwell finally opened his eyes, looked up at Wilson and instantly regretted it. Wilson had a sad smile under all that awful beard, and if he was a hopeful man, it almost could have made him think there was something else closer to love there, instead of pity.

The cynic in him said it wasn't even pity. There was probably something he was needed for, though it wasn't completely sensible, considering that everyone's own sanity was in jeopardy if he was around them. The honest truth was probably Wilson being unable to leave a problem alone combined with his tendency to extend help to people. After their initial fist fight after being thrown into the same world, Wilson had passed him a kebab after everything he'd done.

Granted, this was after a day of both of them mulling over everything (acting like children, really, though he'd never admit it,) but it was still surprising. But it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Wilson didn't want to have someone's death on his conscious, they didn't exactly care much about one another then.

So this didn't exactly mean much of anything either, now did it?

He just nodded, all the fight gone from him, as much as he should push Wilson away. Instead, Maxwell just gathered all the petals from the cave floor and threw the whole lot into the flame. They at least burned well, they were as good at fueling a blaze as they were at making nightmare fuel. Wilson pulled another torch from his pack and lit it with the fire and started down the pathway.

Maxwell took another second of warmth before following to keep in the light's radius. Didn't need to die in the dark after everything, though... no, it would be pointless. Instead he just tried to keep distance between them, arms crossed to conserve heat as he felt the air grow colder as they made their way back to the exit. The urge to cough was coming back, but thankfully, not bad enough that he couldn't hold it back to swallow the petals down. There wasn't the time for that.

Swallowing the petals was also a bad idea for his sanity, but it was better then making a scene and having Wilson react with the same pity from earlier.

The pair of them shivered the moment they hit wind, right at the mouth of the cave. It was snowing again, and it seemed like the wind was picking up. One last horrible storm before the winter was up.

Still, Maxwell reasoned, if Wilson was dead set at getting back to camp today, they'd just have to brave it. He was too tired to argue against it, not like it mattered much anyway.

 If he died again, then he died again.   

[crownoyami]

Razor’s Edge

Pairing: Sam/Gabriel

 Warnings/Tags: Mentions of character death. Season 13 Canon Deviation, Kissing, Shaving, Good!Lucifer, Weak!Gabriel

 Prompts Used: Statment Prompt:

 He blinked at the scene before him, surprised but vaguely aware that this was far from the strangest thing to have happened to him today.

 AO3 URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15737631

 Summary: When Gabriel came back from the dead again after being left behind in the Apocalypse World he finds himself ushered into the bunker, down on grace and cold. While trying to figure out how to shave, Sam comes by to check on him and teach the archangel how to perform the task, living out a fantasy of his own.

 Authors Note: Well here is my second submission for the Gabriel Monthly Challenge. I think this will have to be my last one for this month as I have 3 Reverse J2 Bangs to do and I’m only allowing myself a 1-week break from Stanford Art (finished another round of editing! Just 2 more to go!) Hope you all enjoy!

  @gabriel-monthly-challenge @archangelsanonymous @revwinchester @archangel-with-a-shotgun  @archangelgabriellives @warlockwriter@ttttrickster

Razor’s Edge

   When Gabriel came back from the dead again, nobody knew how to react. He stood there in the doorway of the bunker, his body shivering though he tried to fight it off, a loopy grin on his face and arms outstretched like he expected a hug. If it had been Sam who opened the door, or perhaps Castiel he might have received one. Mary Winchester, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow before shuffling aside so he could come into the bunker and get warm. Things seem to both get better and worse for the archangel after that. He was tested just as he expected he would be, the Winchesters wanting to make sure he was who he said he was, and though he didn’t blame them, the process was annoying.

 Once it was all said and done, Gabriel looked up from his seated position at the table and began to explain. “I knew the second you shmucks started doing your creepy silent conversation thing that you were going to leave my brother’s sorry ass behind. What you may not have realized was that I know my brother, and while he can be a great big bag of dicks, I think he was honestly trying there for a while on fighting the good fight. Call me naive or whatever but I couldn’t just let him stay behind and plot his revenge… again. So, I decided to use the last of my grace to make a clone, and just like with Luci at the hotel; Michael bought it.”

 Taking a drink of the hot chocolate in front of him, provided by Sam who had seen his shivering, Gabriel swallowed the beverage before continuing. “Once Michael offered Luci a deal to get back to this world and his son, I let my big bro know that I wasn’t exactly gone. He pretended to take the deal, letting Michael think they were in it together before I made my move. Michael may have been stronger than Luci and I but with us working together we were able to kill the douche.”

 Jack was looking at Gabriel then, his eyes nearly pleading with him to know what happened to his father. While he didn’t approve of Lucifer having that kind of sway over someone so powerful, Gabriel could understand how having a kid might be the kick in the pants his big brother needed to get his act together. “He’s still there, we managed to snag Michael’s grace before taking him out so there’s plenty for him to open the rift later. The angels in that world still need someone to guide them, and Luci is going to sort out a few that seem to be more sympathetic and not on the short list of ones we already have to come over and help us recharge Heaven.”

 “Wait,” spoke Castiel, his eyes wide while he looked at the archangel in the room. “You mean to tell me Lucifer not only helped kill Michael, but he’s going to help our Heaven as well? Last time he had the chance to help restore Heaven’s power he vanished.”

 Dean was standing with his back to the wall, but at the mention of Lucifer helping he crossed his arms over his chest. Sighing, Gabriel looked at the last mouthful of hot chocolate he had left, tipping the mug up against his mouth until the remaining cocoa was gone. “I get it, believe me, I get it… but since you boys broke out Auntie Amara the mark isn’t controlling him anymore. Did it leave a mark on his grace? You bet it did… but he’s not the evil he was when he was locked away and having brought life into this world has made him, I dunno, softer I guess.”

 Getting a snort of disbelief from Sam who was sitting beside him at the table, the archangel rolled his eyes. “He could have killed me.” That statement made all eyes in the room swivel to look at him. “I literally only have a single speck of grace left, he could have easily have run me threw once Michael was dealt with… but he didn’t. He helped me open the portal long enough for me to squeeze through and that’s it, no tricks, not stabbing, and he had plenty of time to do either.” Sighing, Gabriel stood up from his chair. “Now if you guys don’t mind I would really like to stop this shivering and being cold thing, you have anything warmer I can use until I get some of my grace back?”

 Sam and Dean seemed to share a look for a moment before Dean rolled his eyes and Sam stood up. “Yeah,” answered the taller hunter, “I’ll get you set up, come on.” Following behind the man, Gabriel waited as Sam opened a couple doors, looked inside and shook his head before finally opening one and allowing Gabriel to step inside. The room was basic, a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand but it looked like the sheets were clean and there was clothing hanging on the inside of an open closet.

 “There’s been enough weird going on that Dean and I figured we would set up a couple of the spare rooms, we have mostly everyone from the other world on the other side of the bunker but there’s a couple of rooms left on this side. The clothes are ones that were here when we moved in, but we washed them and hung them up and cleaned the bedding. My room is just down the hall, two doors on your left and the bathroom is three doors down on your right. Toiletries are already in the bathroom if you wanna warm up with a shower if you need to shave just stick to the unopened razors and take it back to your room with you so it doesn’t get confused.”

 Looking up at the tall human, Gabriel nodded. The thanks was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t get the word out even though he knew they didn’t have to do this all for him. Sam seemed to understand though as he gave a soft smile, patted Gabriel on the shoulder and then left the archangel alone. With a dramatic sigh, though nobody was there to hear it, the blond picked out some clothing that looked like it might fit him and made his way to the bathroom. As much as he hated the thought of needing a shower, he hated being cold more.

 Turning on the shower and getting clean was one thing, he had been around humans long enough to enjoy a hot shower on occasion, so he knew his way around. Shaving, however, was a whole new adventure. Opening the package of generic razors and stealing a handful of shaving cream, Gabriel thought it would be easy. By the time twenty minutes came around he still had over half his right side left to do as he kept stopping each time he nicked himself to curse before trying again.

  *~*~

  Around an hour after leaving Gabriel alone in the bedroom, Sam made his way to check on the archangel. While Dean and Cas seem to think the man would be fine on his own, Sam remembered how hard it was for Castiel when he was a human. Checking Gabriel’s room first and finding nothing, the hunter made his way to the washroom. Knocking on the door, he heard a grunt which he took as an invitation and peered inside. He blinked at the scene before him, surprised but vaguely aware that this was far from the strangest thing to have happened to him today. Gabriel was standing by the sink, half his face covered in a thick layer of shaving cream, the other half was partially full of small cuts while his hands were gripping the edge of the porcelain sink tightly a razor in his fist.

 Stepping into the room, Sam closed the door behind him and made his way to the archangel. Gabriel was a mess, and it was easy to tell that he was at the end of his rope with trying to shave. For a second Sam thought about showing him how it’s done, to lather his own face and demonstrate when he caught sight of the little black kit sitting on the sink. It was something he had always wanted to do, there was something about the fantasy that pulled at Sam whenever the thought entered his mind, a fantasy not unlike the ones Gabriel had stared in before.

 “I could do it for you if you like, then you’ll know for next time.” Sam hoped that Gabriel wouldn’t deny him. When he noticed the shorter man give a slight nod, Sam quickly opened the black case and turned to the archangel. Inside his hand was a straight razor, one he liked to use when he wants to get a closer shave. For a second Gabriel eyed the razor in his hand before lifting his chin defiantly, practically daring Sam to try and harm him. Harming the other man was the last thing on his mind, instead, Sam wiped off the excess cream on Gabriel’s face and reapplied it correctly.

They didn’t say a word as Sam worked the razor, carefully slicing the hairs off Gabriel’s face before wiping off the lather and doing it again. It barely took ten minutes before he was done, but each stroke seemed to last a lifetime. While he was working, Gabriel leaned back against the taller man, watching him work through the mirror, and every time he went to rinse the blade off Sam’s eyes would catch those golden ones observing him. There was a heat there, one the hunter knew was reflected in his own.

 Once done, Sam wiped off the access cream his touches light. Gabriel smirked before looking up and turning his head awkwardly to face him. “You know,” began the archangel, his back pressed against the hardening bulge Sam was trying to ignore. “If you want to feel me up you could have just asked, no need to go 007 on me.”

 Instead of laughing at the joke, Sam bent down, turning his body as well as Gabriel so his lips hovered over the archangels. “You saying you don’t want to play out my fantasies?” There was a challenge in his voice, one he knew the archangel wouldn’t be able to ignore. As slightly chapped lips pressed against his own, Sam deepened the kiss. He wasn’t going to let this chance slip away, and by the way, Gabriel was clinging to his shirt and making small noises from the back of his throat, he didn’t think the archangel was going to let him go either.

 Gabriel had said he was done running, and for once Sam was done too.

   P.S. If you want to keep up to date on my writing add me to Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter or Instagram as CrowNoYami ;-) Also, if you want to see what I’m reading (I always review so you know what you’re getting into) I’m on Goodreads as well, the same name as always.

[shiobookmark]

Rereading Tsubasa...

Let’s see if I can hold this all in my head. It’s actually not too convoluted when read all at once, Clamp just loves being confusing and then trying to backtrack and explain.

Fei Wang Reed wants to bring Yuuko back to life and is accumulating power in order to do that and break apart the rules that forbid the return of the dead. In order to do that he needs a body that has seen multiple dimensions.That’s what his plan is, it’s why he does all this stuff. A lot of other stuff he does seems to be to create timeline confusion, such as manipulating Syaoran into saving Sakura from the point of death. Because if one person can do it, so can he.

If you bear that in mind and work forward chronologically, things make more sense. Clow unintentionally froze Yuuko’s time upon her death, because he wished for her to open her eyes just one last time, and his magic made it happen. Fei Wang wants to complete the wish and bring her back for real in order to surpass Clow. It’s very petty. Fei Wang eventually creates Ultimate Sakura by combining reverted time little girl Sakura with Clone Sakura’s body and a feather that’s built up power over eons. This is to shatter dimensions and bring Yuuko back. First, original timeline stuff:

Syaoran’s parents sent him to Clow dimension to try and save Sakura. We’re lead to believe that his parents are CCS Sakura and Syaoran but they’re not. CCS Sakura gave his mother her sealing wand to pay Yuuko for Syaoran’s trip to Clow. It’s a red herring. Everyone knew ahead of time that Syaoran’s choice on Sakura’s seventh birthday would set things in motion. Yuuko made the Mokonas for that purpose.

Sakura hears a call to the ruins much as she did in the first chapter. Syaoran is with her in the ruins in the morning and Fei Wang Reed tries to attack her, she’s protected by the water spirit in the temple.  He reaches for her, she tries to tell him her true name. He hesitates a moment and is unable to rescue her so Fei Wang gives her a death curse. Syaoran runs out of time in Clow and is transported back to Yuuko’s shop. He chooses to never see his parents or world again in order to go back to Clow and try and save Sakura from the curse. But he fails and the curse begins to kill Sakura on her coming of age birthday, so her mother stops time.

Syaoran wishes to turn back time so that he would not hesitate and save Sakura from the mark. But doing that makes a distortion in time which most greatly affects the people who know about the mark, Sakura’s parents, and Syaoran himself. He’s made a child again, leaving a void in relationships and time that’s filled by Watanuki, who is now the child of Syaoran’s parents, taking his place as their son. The distorted time means his parents suffer and Watanuki himself suffers and may disappear at any moment because it’s all unstable. Watanuki is the same person as Syaoran, created to fill the hole in the timeline. The reason he attracts spirits is because he subconsciously senses he shouldn’t exist and is suicidal without being entirely aware of it. Given revelations about who Watanuki/Syaoran’s parents are and that they have no memory of Watanuki... we can assume it’s because his timeline is broken. He shouldn’t exist.  Yuuko says ‘fuck that’ and takes Watanuki under her wing, trying to ensure he becomes a person in his own right so he won’t disappear. This is why in XXXholic she encourages his adventures and relationships with Doumeki and Himawari.

As further payment for turning back time, Syaoran is imprisoned by Fei Wang Reed for years, losing his freedom.  Fei Wang hints that because Watanuki looks like Clow, this was part of Clow’s plan. This doesn’t come up later. I think Clamp dropped another Red Herring. Syaoran has split the timeline, which helps further Fei Wang’s plans. (Because he’s trying to break reality and bring Yuuko back to life, so I think this helps shatter ‘reason’ more.) Syaoran is pretty sure this distortion in time is why Yui and Fai were born as twins and why Kurogane’s parents died. I think this is meant to be ‘general chaos and calamity’ rather than anything specific. Fai and Kurogane rightly point out that trying to take responsibility for literally everything bad ever happening is kind of arrogant so don’t do that shit. They’re really on the same page now and I love to see it. Power couple!

Fei Wang made a clone of Syaoran and the original Syaoran gave him part of his soul so he wouldn’t be a killing machine. Reed couldn’t remove it and it wouldn’t affect his compulsion to seek feathers, so he sent him to a new timeline to grow up with Sakura. (Remember original timeline Sakura is frozen waiting for Syaoran to save her.) Sakura was drawn to the ruins and her memories scattered, at which point Reed made a clone of her body and soul and destroyed her original body, leaving only her original soul. Or so he thinks. His goal was to have a body that’s experienced a bunch of different dimensions, which is why he scattered the feathers. The purpose behind the clone was so that he’d have a backup file, basically. He made a clone of Syaoran because he couldn’t control real Syaoran.

He manipulated Fai/Yui so he’d have a mole acting in his best interests but I honestly can’t recall a time that Fai actually did anything? Kurogane and Mokona were the only free agents. I think he killed Kurogane’s parents as an attempt to manipulate him, but Tomoyo took care of him and so that never happened. Clone Sakura remembered that she was a clone in the Tokyo arc, and regained her ability to see the future. She foresaw that Fai would kill Original Syaoran and gave up her good luck and a bunch of other stuff to both ensure that Fai would stab her instead, and that she’d survive the process by being split from her body and sent into the world of dreams. Which lead to Syaoran vs Clone Syaoran and Clone Sakura’s soul dying when they both stabbed her.

So now we have an original soul and a clone body of Sakura. Two Syaoran’s, the original intact with his soul and the clone. So far so good. By the way this is why the Syaoran we first knew had no memories. He was a clone. He was blind in his right eye because that’s where the soul given to him by the original Syaoran was kept, and how original Syaoran saw through his eyes.

So we’re going down into Clow’s ruins where original timeline Sakura is frozen at the moment before being given the curse mark, she’s been there this whole time just frozen and waiting for Original Syaoran to come save her. Clone Syaoran and Fei Wang show up. Kurogane and Fai are a battle couple against Fei Wang, really do love to see their understanding. They’ve very close and operating as a unit. Great to see Fai happy and content as well.  Syaoran and Clone Syaoran work together to land a blow on Fei Wang, but Clone Syaoran is killed in the process.  The poor boy dies asking Syaoran to return Sakura’s feathers, thanking Kurogane, Fai, Mokona and Syaoran for his life. When you consider this is the Syaoran we knew for so long, it hurts. Honestly a weakness of this plot is that real Syaoran is identical in personality and experience, it’s easy to forget. Clone Syaoran returns Fai’s magic, having tended to it and used it so much that Fai is now essentially back at full strength. They confront Fei Wang, but it turns out he just used Kyle Rondart as a body double and Kyle was simply another created being. Why he was after the feathers...? Who knows. Time starts to move again, the Clone Sakura’s body is floating and Syaoran dives to save little kid Sakura before she can be cursed again. Mokona senses feathers. But there were no feathers in the Kingdom of Clow? Except now there are because Sakura left one in Tokyo, and Tokyo is Clow’s past. The water protected original timeline Sakura because her feather was in it. Timey wimey, don’t worry about it.

The feather has accumulated power over the long time in the ruins and Clone Sakura’s body is etched with memories of different dimensions, then there’s time reverted little girl Sakura who is a ‘pure existence’ and they combine into one Sakura.  Because Syaoran saved Sakura from the moment of death, it calls Yuuko out of her suspended time.  She then reveals that Original Syaoran’s parents trapped themselves in the tube thing, waiting for years without aging, without being able to touch the person they love most. This is so they can confront Fei Wang and restore the dimensions he is shattering. Turns out what happened to Clone Syaoran was that he went to the world of dreams and Clone Sakura’s soul combined with Original Sakura’s supposedly destroyed body. Because they’re created beings they don’t die and can be reborn, circumventing the ‘not coming back from death’ rule. It’s very handwavy, go with it. Clow played the part of Sakura’s father in the new timeline because the distortion displaced Fujitaka and killed Nadeshiko. He gave his power and his life so she could be reborn. Yuuko pays the price for Clone Syaoran to be reborn by restarting her time and dying. The Clones are reborn with their memories intact. Sakura is on a school trip to Hong Kong with Umi, Hikaru and Fuu. There she meets Syaoran and it’s a lovely moment.  Years later they have a baby through a difficult birth. It’s Original Syaoran. Yup. The timeline is really messed up. But when you consider that even in the ‘original timeline’ Syaoran’s father was still Syaoran, it becomes clearly an ouroboros, inevitability thing. It’s a closed loop of time.

Clone Sakura has dreamed that at the end of all this the real Sakura and Syaoran will be separated forever. The Clones don’t want that, so they pay the price of being separated for gods knows how long so they can break out of the time loop.

There’s a lovely scene with Kurogane scolding the clones, Fai relieved they’re alive and Mokona tearing up. The kids were happy and had good lives.  The Clones realise that they’re loved by their surrogate family despite it all. But Yuuko is now dead, because her time restarted the moment she fulfilled the trade with the clones. So Fei Wang can’t surpass Clow. Fei Wang tries to turn back time and search the dimensions for a place where Yuuko exists and separate one pair of Sakura and Syaoran as the price. The other pair (the originals I think) try to save them and they all get sucked into the tube. They affirm that they love each other as parents/kids and other halves of themselves and through the power of determination choose a future where they can all be together. The Sakuras together have the power to traverse dimensions and use it to escape the tube, risking destroying every dimension. Even Fei Wang is freaked out.

But it’s better than a closed loop of time. Because a closed loop is the same as death.

The Sakuras use their feather memories to restore the dimensions but the Syaorans get trapped in limbo with Watanuki. Because Syaoran’s existence has to pay the price for his crime of shattering time, and they are all Syaoran.

But Clone Syaoran vanishes since the ‘original’ has ceased to exist and this creates the fissure they need for Watanuki and Syaoran to return. Clamp loves their circular logic. Watanuki and Syaoran have to pay a price for returning.  Watanuki can never leave the shop, which means he never dies, waiting for Yuko to come back even though she never will. She might reincarnate but she won’t be the same. And Syaoran can’t stay in one dimension. The memories of the Clones remain with the originals in the form of memory feathers, but otherwise they no longer exist. This leaves Syaoran and Watanuki as fragments of a destroyed timeline, so they needed to pay a price for continued existence. That’s the staying in one place and never staying in one dimension. That way they don’t disturb the timeline too much, apparently because they don’t linger long.

Sakura’s original parents have been restored so she’s fine.

Syaoran’s goal is to find bodies for the clones so they can all exist together. Mokona has an item that’s stored memories of other dimensions, so they can return to Clow and places they’ve already visited more often. Sakura and Syaoran affirm their love for each other and reveal that they have the same true name: Tsubasa, meaning ‘wings.’ Whew! Got it all down. I blame most of the stupid convoluted nonsense on the fact Clamp loves to tell things out of order, rely on wordy exposition, and the shorter chapters toward the end.  Not enough Kurogane and Fai. I want a spin off with just those two. Also, is Fai still a vampire?

[shirtlesssammy]

13x04: The Big Empty

Then:

What gets burned, stays dead. NOT! TOTALLY NOT! SPOILERS: CAS IS ALIVE! CAS IS BACK!!!

Now:

Did I mention CAS IS BACK!???!

Oh wait, first the intro:

Dude in Madison, WI comes home to a not quite empty house. It seems his late, great wife is waiting in the dark for him. He’s not acting nearly as weirded out as he should.

And he gets a nice, deep gut stab for his efforts.

At the bunker, Dean is NOT journaling.

Sam comes back from a supply run, and tries to make small talk. Dean briefs his brother on the case. Sam suggests they bring Jack along, but Dean is adamant that he stay behind. Then he takes a dig at Sam’s desire to find their mom. Sam points out, “So you’re saying you want to move on….from Mom.” Angry Brother Stares. Dean just wants to work a case. Whew, there’s so much NOT BEING SAID HERE. It’s like there’s a BIG EMPTY space in their conversation.

Sam goes to check on Jack, who’s holed up in his room watching Clone Wars.

Sam asks Jack if he wants to come along and work the case with them. “No.” (I laughed at the delivery of that line SO much.) Jack throws some nice shade at his “interdimensional can-opener” status --letting Sam know that he heard the brothers’ conversation. Sam makes it clear that, yes, he wants his mom back, but Sam still cares about Jack, even if they can’t get Mary back. Sweet Nougat Jack is still out there breaking our hearts with how innocent and wonderful he is. He worries about Dean wanting to kill him, but Sam reassures him that he will not let that happen.

Madison, WI

Team Free Nougat pulls up to the victim’s -Wes Bailey- house. Dean gives the rundown. Jack questions the moral exactitude of the whole FBI schtick. The brothers give Jack some exposition on ghosts and revenants. Jack wears a cute little tan coat very reminiscent of one TOTALLY NOT DEAD angel.

The brothers interview the neighbor lady, while Jack heads into the victim’s house to discover a dried pool of blood, with an evidence tag next to it. I think he deserves an upgrade to Detective Nougat!

Sam gives Jack a lesson on the EMF reader, which does not register a ghost. So: Revenant! They all head to the graveyard that night, and Dean makes Jack do the heavy lifting (literally), and dig the grave. 

Sam accuses Dean of being just like their dad. Oof, that’s a loaded accusation. Dean lays it out clearly: He’s not going to be a mom to Jack. He’s not going to care for him like he did for Sam. Plus, the kid can dig. So, yay!

Once Jack is done digging the grave, they find a body. No revenant then. Weirdsies. They salt and burn to be on the safe side. Because, “What gets burned, stays dead.”

CAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!

Rich, white lady blows a tire on HIGHWAY(We’re in Wisconsin, you heathens) route 19, and just as she’s talking to roadside assistance, her son from beyond the grave pays her a visit, and uses the very effective blood cannon on her. Bits of her all over the windshield!

Sam and Dean check out the new crime scene, but with no EMF, they’re baffled.

CAAAAAAASSSSSS!!!!

Our darling baby in a trenchcoat is wandering around a big, dark nothing, calling out to no one. Well, almost no one, something manifests itself from the nothingness.

Jack, meanwhile, continues to be the cutest devil baby/son/intern ever, I swear. Sam connects the vics to a grief counselor. Dean mocks traditional forms of grief management.

Dean: She’s one Kool-aid away from Jonestown. Me, an intellectual: Actually it was Flavor-aid. (Is that how that meme works? Gah, in any event, I’m a nerd and hate that common misnomer.)    

Dean surmises that the shrink is a medium. They need to check it out --but not as FBI agents. What’s this fractured family to do? 

Family therapy!

Jack gets the ball rolling by admitting to the therapist that he recently lost his mother. Sam steps in and admits they’re brothers (Sorry Adam!), and they need help processing their grief.

Mia, the therapist, leads them to a room, and asks them about their loss. “Well, Mom was great, now she’s dead. What’s the deal with catharsis?” Yeah, Dean decides to not keep up appearances. Mia is less than pleased, but Sam smoothes things over. Dean gets even punchier (Dean “deflection” Winchester so totally journals) (also, Sam says that Dean’s not processing his grief but Dean says he is, but Sam questions that, and Dean says that he knows that their mom is dead, but I’m thinking that Sam didn’t necessarily mean their mom, because Dean can clearly admit that their mom is dead, and yet there’s a totally BIG EMPTY space of someone that Dean can’t really admit to being dead, someone whose death he isn’t processing, I’m just saying), and admits that Sam is delusional, and thinks their mom is alive. Sam then unleashes some MUCH NEEDED anger and grief. He never had her as a mom. He’s jealous of the time Dean had with her. (I’ve seen gifsets and arguments for and against the feelings Sam is having. Why didn’t he make more of an effort to reach out to Mary? Are his feelings of abandonment justified?)

Sam leaves to drink some vegetable water and find the remnants of a shapeshifter in the bathroom. Shapeshifter! I knew it began with an ‘S’! (Tumblr, you failed me trying to find a gif of Harry Christmas saying “Samsonite!” I’m not old, you’re old.)

Dean tries to cover the awkward silence while they wait with a heavy swig of hunter’s helper. Spoiler: It’s not helping. Sam bursts in, gun drawn, announcing that Mia’s a shifter. She pleads with them --yes, she’s a shifter, but she’s never killed anyone. She’s helping people --she shifts into the person that her patients have lost (That’s just wrong, and also, I’d like to see my cat again please :’() Dean drops the hard truths that her patients are dead. Mia is shocked. She has an alibi, and she swears, she’s telling them the truth.

Back in darkness, Cas wanders through the night-black plain. He seems...perturbed. He turns to find a copy of himself coalescing into being. The copy of Cas smirks at him and introduces himself as a celestial entity who took his form because Cas would “freak out, rip out your own eyes, etcetera.” Cas asks him where they are and the entity tells him that before everything on Earth – before gods and all - there was nothing. Emptiness. That's where Cas is right now, along with every single angel and demon who's died. They're all sleeping snug in their beds for all eternity. Everyone except for Cas and this grouchy entity of the Empty.

This fun entity, so very snarky, reminds me (and several others on Tumblr apparently) of the character Q from Star Trek. Q was hugely powerful and completely a dick...rather like this entity. Thus, shall he be named...Qstiel.

Qstiel demands to know why Castiel is awake. Cas makes a wild guess that the Winchesters made a deal to save him but Qstiel swiftly corrects that assumption. Nobody has power over the Empty except for him. When Cas still fails to come up with a satisfactory explanation, Qstiel mind-whammies him, sending him to his knees.

Back at Mia's office, we learn about Buddy, suspect number one. Buddy is an ex-boyfriend of Mia's and the only other shapeshifter she ever knew (other than her mother). He's also a stone cold crazy killer who liked to completely ruin people's lives before he killed them. Mia does what she does now partially as recompense for the suffering she enabled when she was with him.

Armed with that super strong suspect, they try to figure out who Buddy is posing as in order to gain access to her client files. The suspicion falls on the assistant from earlier and Dean reluctantly agrees to take Jack along to check out the assistant. Guys… Jack knows Dean wants to kill him but he's still seeking out opportunities to spend time with Dean and he doesn't run from a job with just the two of them. Alone. While Dean is heavily armed. What a good bean.

Dean and Jack head out to the assistant's house where Dean orders Jack yet again to stay in the car. Jack wants to help, though – and he wants to help with more than just this case. He tells Dean that Sam told him about the plan to save Mary. Dean coldly replies, “You should know Sam's plans don't always work out.” (Listen. It's fine. I'm not remembering Dean's support of Sam's leadership at the end of season 12 and weeping steadily.)

Sam and Mia, meanwhile, scan security footage until they find eyeshine. It's one of her patients – the guy Jack merrily said “Hello” to when they first arrived.

Back in the Empty, Cas is still having a pretty shitty vacation from life. He pulls himself up after Qstiel ravages his mind. Qstiel ignores his pain, and goes on a mini rant about how utterly annoying it is to have somebody awake. He can't go back to sleep until Castiel does. Cas lifts his head, interested to learn that Qstiel is so perturbed by one awake angel.

Qstiel threatens to chuck Cas clear across the Empty so he can't hear Cas stomping around his bedroom. Cas calls him on his bluff and raises the stakes. If he's so annoying to Qstiel then he should just be sent back to Earth. Everybody wins.

At first Qstiel turns him down. He taunts Cas about his past failures. “I know what you hate. I know who you love. What you fear. There is nothing for you back there.” A look of despair falls upon Cas and Qstiel hammers the message home by showing him all his failures that resulted in death. Noooooooo!

Dean and Jack arrive back at Mia's house to find that Sam already left to try to find Buddy. Dean storms off grumpily, trying to call Sam. Meanwhile, Jack asks to speak with Mia. He tells her some of the truth about himself and asks her to take Kelly's form so he can have some catharsis as well. She shifts into Kelly and then, as Kelly, sits with him to have a heart to heart.

It's Kelly! And man, I miss her. She really got into my good graces in the second half of last season and that video she left for Jack is so great. Mia-as-Kelly and Jack have a talk about good, evil, and choices. He worries that he's feeling a general lack of emotion at all the mad turmoil he’s been exposed to. And. Hon. It's been like a week, right? Give it time. “It doesn't matter what you are,” she tells him. “It matters what you do. Even monsters can do good in this world.” It's SUCH a beautiful moment for Jack and Mia with so many layers of meaning between the two of them and their separate tragedies. This makes me...cry. Okay. I cried when I watched it. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? And then I pretended that my eye itched so I could wipe it away, unseen.

Sam finally calls Dean back. Sam tells him he lost the shifter (and my suspicions are immediately raised about Sam). However, I'm surprised when the camera pans away to show two Deans in the room – one on the floor unconscious and the other smirking at his cell phone. Oh, Dean Bean. Nice job surprising me, show! High five :)

Shifter Dean breaks into the room with Mia and Jack, picks up an iron poker, and rams it into poor Jack's skull. Dean then rips his face off...

...to reveal Buddy. He smirks at poor Mia. (Me: takes a moment to ponder the caloric intake needs of shifters if they have the ability to shed so much tissue and blood so quickly.)

In the Empty, Cas gets called epithets he's heard for years – maybe centuries. Qstiel tells him to sleep and save himself but Cas lifts himself up and says, “I'm already saved.” He won't stop harassing Qstiel...ever. So he'd better let Cas go NOW or he'll be in for one miserable ride. “Release me,” Castiel growls.

Cut to Dean waking up in handcuffs. (Nice, show. Nice.) Dean tries to wake up Jack while Buddy goes crazy bananas over Mia. Once Jack is awake, Dean asks Jack to use his powers to snap the cuffs and set him free. Meanwhile, Buddy gives Mia an ultimatum. She can kill Dean and Jack or she can die. She refuses to do it and Sam's return to the house distracts Buddy from immediately killing her. Buddy trains his gun on the door, ready to shoot Sam as he enters. Dean gets knocked out again trying to warn Sam (seriously it will be good to get Cas back and start healing all those concussions again, right?). So now it's down to Jack. At the last minute he power blasts Buddy, deflects the bullet from Sam, and knocks Buddy back long enough so Sam can get in a clean shot. Buddy dies, Jack slumps, and we cut to the aftermath. Mia slowly cleans up her office. “I just wanted to help people,” she mourns.

Back at the bunker Jack's enjoying a glass of water when Dean walks into the kitchen. He grabs two beers from the fridge then saunters close to Jack. He tells Jack that he “did good today,” and actually calls him by his name. Jack smiles.

Dean brings Sam a beer and apologizes for being a dick. “Maybe you're right about the kid,” Dean admits.

And then Sam bends too. “What if you're right about mom?” he asks.

Dean slowly shakes his head at this (and I'm struck with memories of season 11 and Faith and all those times Sam believed when Dean didn’t). “I need you to keep the faith for both of us,” Dean tells him. “cause right now I don't believe in a damn thing.” Dean looks away again with his dead-eyed stare...

And the scene cuts to a sunny field. Blackberry brambles. Delicate flute music. Castiel wakes in the field, stands and finds himself whole, and looks up towards the sky and the warmth and light of the sun.

Quote!Stiel:

What do you want to do? Leave him in a ring of holy oil, some Netflix, and a frozen pizza?

I do like Ahsoka. Kinda hate Anakin.

Let's go be the good guys.

I thought lying was wrong.

What gets burned stays dead.

Shrinks. Snake oil for the mind.

“You journal?””Ever since I was a little girl”

If you can't sleep, I can't sleep. And I like sleep. I need sleep. 

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