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bluejay-writes · 3 months ago

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MysticTober Day 7: Ephemeral

Prompt: Chatroom / Bomb

Wordcount: 2359

Author's Notes: Good Luck.

You can read this on Ao3 if you want!

MC spun around in a circle in the sunlight, relishing in the day. Or well, she would be, if she didn’t have the weirdest feeling. She’d finished college, her internship was over, she hadn’t landed a new job, and was currently staying in a hotel until she found a new apartment. Honestly, if she disappeared right now, she wasn’t sure if anyone would even know she was gone for months. That was normal for her, really. Ever since her parents passed when she was a teen, she’d had the hardest time making and keeping friendships, and the ones she did make were tied to school.

And that was why she was going to make a change. Do something different. Find herself some friends, maybe a boyfriend, and get her life started right. And to do that… She pulled out her phone. She’d downloaded an app that claimed she could use it to talk to cute boys, and she was all about that. She tapped to open the app and was startled by the glitchy-looking background. Hmm. Must be a tutorial.

Unknown: …Hello…? Unknown: Can you see this? MC: Hey there! Of course I can see it! Unknown: Finally connected. Thank god. Unknown: Oh. You’re nice. That’s… good. Unknown: I found this phone in a subway station. It’s just got this app and some address and a code number in it. MC: Sounds spooky. Unknown: Yeah, yeah, I know but… I’m abroad right now, you wouldn’t happen to be in Seoul would you?

MC blinked. What were the odds?

MC: I thought this app was for chatting with pretty boys? Unknown: What? Oh. I mean maybe? I don’t know, it’s the only thing on this phone and.. well. Unknown: Maybe the owner of this phone is a pretty boy? MC: Oh, that would make sense. Maybe I can meet him if I help return his phone. How can I help? Unknown: Uhm, I’d like for you to go to the address saved here. Unknown: I saw the street view through the internet, it’s an apartment in downtown. Very crowded. Not Sketchy. Please? MC: Of course! Throw me that address! Unknown: You trust me… Thank you! Just a sec, I’ll send you the address.

MC waited, and sure enough a map ping came in. She was literally two blocks over from the place. She walked over, and got there to see… well, the apartment existed. That was a start.

Unknown: Are you there? ^^ See. Nothing strange. Unknown: Is there a password lock on the door? MC: Sure is! Unknown: I’ll send you the digits saved in this phone! Try it!

MC saw the password blink in - 14 digit code, 14th floor apartment. This person sure had a thing for the number 14. She tapped in the password, and the door unlocked with a quiet click.

MC: Whoa. The door’s open now. Unknown: Good. Why don’t you go inside? MC: But… Unknown: We have to leave a note, right? MC: Yeah, legit.

She went inside and the door clicked shut behind her. Good, now no one weird could follow her in while she left a note for this cute guy. She looked back at her phone to get the person’s info to leave, and realized her phone had settled into some other chatroom and was moving on without her. Weird. Very weird.

MC sat down at the desk, looking for a pen and paper to leave a note even as the chatroom noticed she was there. No pen. No paper. She should leave, she didn’t even have anything to tell this person anymore, and she didn’t want them to think that she was breaking in to steal things if they suddenly came back. Which they probably wouldn’t because they were likely overseas where they lost their phone. But still. She stood and went to the door and attempted to open it. It was locked. No code panel on this side, not that she’d memorized the long code, but also the deadbolt spun uselessly. She was locked in? Rude! Maybe she could talk to this random chat? Maybe they knew.

She didn’t bother to read back through the long chat she’d missed trying to leave the apartment. She didn’t have time for that. What if someone called the police already?

MC: Hello…

The chatroom freaked out, emojis, calling her it. MC couldn’t help but chuckle. Based on their profile pictures, the app hadn’t lied to her. She really was chatting with cute boys, even if the setting wasn’t really what she expected.

707: Oh… ^^; Wait. 707: Just found something. This is weird. ZEN: What is it? 707: I traced the IP. It’s from Rika’s apartment.

Everyone was confused and upset. Including MC… Rika was a woman’s name. Which meant the phone belonged to a different woman who also wanted to chat with cute boys, as opposed to a cute boy. And here she was trespassing. She was the worst.

MC: Listen, my name is MC. I just wanted to help return a lost phone, and now I’m in this chatroom with you all instead of connected to the person I was helping. MC: I’m sure it’s all a weird app glitch and I’ll be back out of your hair in no time flat. MC: Not that I wouldn’t love to stay, going off your profile pictures you’re all gorgeous.

MC watched as there was silence in the chat before they all started talking at once. Everyone seemed horrified that this 707 made a mistake with the app. Maybe she was in the secret dev chat or something?

Jaehee Kang: Could it be that we have a security breach? ZEN: True… MC, how did you get in that apartment? MC: Unknown gave me the code. 707: Unknown? MC: Yeah, I was connected to a stranger through this app and he sent me the address. Jumin Han: Chatting with a stranger… Jumin Han: How naive. MC: I mean that’s the whole point of the app so I don’t know why you’re all up in my business about it supposedly-Jumin-Han. ZEN: I think we’re more surprised that you just went to an address from a chatting app. Yoosung: Don’t listen to strangers ~ the world is dangerous. Jaehee Kang: I agree. 707: Wait, do you have that person’s username or chat record? MC: The username was ‘Unknown’, and the only thing the app has now is this chat. Jumin Han: Does the username not exist? Why is it ‘Unknown’? MC: Well, I mean I never set mine and it knew me, so… 707: That’s just weird. I made it impossible to log in without a username… MC: So this IS the dev chat 707: It’s the only chat, so. MC: I’m confused. Yoosung: That makes all of us confused. Zen: Mood. 707: I think we’re dealing with another hacker. 707: Hey, MC. So Unknown told you the address and the password for the door lock? MC: Yeah. Jumin Han: I see. That ‘Unknown’ person seems to have dragged you unwittingly into this. Jaehee Kang: MC, where did you get this app? MC: I just wanted to chat with pretty boys… ZEN: Me? You wanted to chat with me? Jumin Han: Completely out of his mind. Yoosung: Yee. 707: I should trace the person who distributed the app. Jumin Han: If what she’s saying is true… Jaehee Kang: …I think it would be a good idea to contact V. 707: Yeah. I think that’s a good idea. 707: I’ll call and explain everything. Jumin Han: I can call. 707: Already on it lol

Seven fidgeted while he waited for V to pick up, staring at the camera feeds for the apartment, and digging through the feeds for the rest of the building to see when she arrived and what her expressions were like. She really did look like she was just following instructions. She even paused at the door and texted someone, and then copied the code from a message on her screen. On his other monitors he’d pulled up a background check on her. She was practically no one, exactly the kind of person the agency liked to get their hands on for infiltration missions, but he knew she wasn’t on their roster and RIka’s apartment wasn’t somewhere the agency would be trying to get into anyway.

“Shit.” He said quietly. He was really glad that he’d disabled the special security system after Rika’s death. If he hadn’t… and she just showed up like that…

The phone against his ear clicked as it connected.

“What is it, Luciel?” V’s voice was sharp, but low-fi, and Seven hated it. He was somewhere with bad signal again. He should have been home resting his damned eyes. “There’s someone in Rika’s apartment.” “What?!” “Yeah. Looks like she was led there by someone. She’s also in the RFA chat. I think we’re dealing with another hacker, and if that’s the case, I can’t help but worry about..” “…Rika’s special security system.” V said coldly. “Luciel, you need to get her out of there.” “She’s locked in. I’m working on getting the lock to release so that she can leave and meet me at the cafe across the street, but in the meantime…” He glanced back at the chat who were clamoring to know what V had to say, and if they could tell MC anything at all about the RFA.

MC: I’d really love to get to know all of you. MC: Do you think… MC has left the chatroom.

The bunker was eerily still even as all of the camera feeds went white and then flashed red connection errors. Seven dropped his phone, hearing V’s concern through the speaker even though it wasn’t against his ear anymore. He stared at the dead cameras - feeds dropped because the cameras themselves had no doubt been destroyed. His fingers blurred through hacking into nearby cameras only to see the devastation firsthand - the special security system, it… the bomb.

707: I have to go. 707 has left the chatroom.

He sat back in his chair and tucked his knees up against his chest. He’d prided himself on his hacking, on his ability to save lives even when his agency jobs were wetwork. And yet, when it truly mattered…

“Why aren’t you working? We have a deadline, you damn brat.”

Vanderwood walked into the office and looked at the way Zero Seven was starting at nothing and swore, letting the broom they were holding clatter to the floor as they stepped into his personal space. They’d seen shock and grief before. They knew this near-catatonic state, but Zero Seven had seemed practically immune to it. Hell, they’d been partners for eight years at this point. Nothing shook this kid, even the things that definitely should.

“Zero Seven. Come back to me. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it.”

Seven didn’t even acknowledge their presence.

One person was killed and eighteen others were injured in Seoul on Monday after a residential explosion caused at least a partial building collapse, rendered three nearby buildings uninhabitable, and sparked a daylong fire, officials said.

Two people are in serious condition. Five Seoul City Police were among those taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

A body was discovered in the apartment at the epicenter of the explosion of a 21-year-old woman suspected of causing the explosion. The body is yet to be identified.

Video from the scene showed debris strewn across the sidewalk, streets, and several cars. Windows were blown out of the building, which had extensive damage to the fourteenth floor.

“The cause of the incident is unknown, but there is no reason at this point to believe the cause is related to gas or any of our equipment.” A spokesperson from the gas company said.

Saeran snarled, slamming his fist into his desk, causing his entire setup to rumble like an earthquake. How had this happened? He’d made damn sure that bomb was disconnected before he’d sent the plant into the old apartment. She was perfect for the project, the absolutely ideal member for their paradise, and now she was dead, and for what? Choosing to help?

He launched himself out of his chair, pacing around his room like a caged tiger. Unable to stay still, unable to even think straight after what had happened. His entire plan was ruined, but MC…. MC was dead. He did that.

He killed her.

Sure, he hadn’t set the bomb off, but he’d led her there. He locked her in there, knowing the redhead would never do something so heinous as to set off the bomb while she was there. It was the perfect plan. He’d thought through everything, so why? What had gone wrong?

From the doorway to the intelligence room, Rika’s voice rang out quietly.

“Why aren’t you working, Ray?”

Saeran whipped his head around and glared at her until the sharp look on her face and her crossed arms cowed him.

“Savior, I… The plan is ruined. The special security system triggered and took out all of the data, and our tool as well.” The only way he was managing to think around the fact that he’d gotten a girl killed was by thinking of her as an object and not a person. The tears leaking down his cheeks would put lie to his claims to be coping with the situation, however. “I didn’t think the traitor would do it. It must have been that Liar. He knew what was there and he couldn’t let us have it so he… he blew her up.”

Rika shook her head “He didn’t trigger it.” She said, a quiet pride suffusing her tone. “I did.”

Saeran felt his blood run cold. “You, Savior? But why? This was your plan.”

“You got too obsessed with MC, and were planning to forsake the paradise for her. I couldn’t let her live, records be damned.”

The bitterness in her tone was like a wake-up call, and Saeran bit back on anything else he thought he might say. This paradise… no, this place… was not safe. Not safe from her, and not safe for him.

#mystictober 2024 #mm_mystictober2024 #angst #hurt no comfort

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chidoroki · 5 months ago

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Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest EP8

aka: eating up all this love chatter

Whether it’s in Edolas or Fairy Nail, I’m sure the voice actors must have a blast playing their characters with such outlandish personalities.

Gray getting embarrassed about Gren being a pole dancer when our boy’s clothes fly off at random is perfect.

I love upon hearing about Gazeel and Lijy, Lucy clings onto the “married” part of their introduction.

Pffttt totally forgot that Elbman looks like THAT.

Poor Lucy walking in on her double doing.. um, things with other Natsu.

“Love, huh?” with the Juvia flashback. Hell yeah Gray!

Erza being totally confident about acting on stage when she’s actually horrible is one of my favorite gags.

I don’t care if it’s weird, Gray’s vanishing clothes are hilarious to me too, especially with how quick they disappear and reappear lately.

“If he doesn’t like me, then I’d rather he told me-“ “It’s not that I don’t! Oh, I mean… I was talking about Juvia.” Eehehe.

“Juvia is important to me, but.. I can’t, not with who I am now.” Precious lad.

“Don’t assume that she’ll wait for you forever, lover boy!” “I know that. That’s why I want to feel confident about myself. I’ll become a mam strong enough to protect her.. And I’ll come get her, no matter what.” He said the thing!!! With much confidence too might I add!

Damn this ep is going faster than I thought! Now we got our Juvia here too.

No.. wait, we missed the team having dinner together, didn’t we?? They denied us Juvia holding the “eat me” sign on the table?! HOW DARE THEY! That panel was hilarious!

I’m more impressed they’ve been wandering around town all day and didn’t notice the giant dragon head hanging above them.

Never trust a sketchy old man.

And with the whole guild now present and accounted for the Wood Dragon arc has began and we’re in for some good fights baby!

#fairy tail #episode reaction

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sidewayspeace444 · 1 year ago

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I have absolutely no problem with people changing their minds and/or their opinions. It’s their right, their choice and their decision. However, what I can’t stand is someone changing their mind but their attitude goes to shit as well. I loathe fake ass people. These individuals dragged both CE and AB to filth in all types of ways. Making sad ass edits, calling them both names, bashing them any chance they got. And now they wanna kiss their asses? Spend their money to fund both him and the half-old, half-wannabe Lolita’s lifestyles? That’s sketchy as fuck. I truly don’t believe for a second it was truly a coincidence that they were given free NYCC tickets for a M&G/panel to an individual we’ve been talking (and in their case dragging and flip flopping over) about for months. Like, give me a fucking break. Even the mod whose favorite word is “cunt” used to have a pinned post ranking the best Chrises in HW, and CE and Chris P(rat) were on the lowest end. But how ironic that their new favorite Chris Pine turned out to be like CE in wanting a younger woman too, because wasn’t mans just spotted cuddled up in the ocean with a woman who seemed to be in her 20s 🤔? I guess the Cliche Kool Aid pitcher wasn’t fully empty hm? The fake performative disdain they had for this man, and also claiming he was being fake and performative himself all these years just to turn around and be annoying little fangirls is wild. And they can claim why do people care, but the way you portrayed like you were over this man to now calling this man good looking and fawning over him in the span of a few months is giving bitches whiplash. It just goes to show that you truly weren’t over him and you knew that. It’s fine if you wanna be fangirls, kiss his ass, kiss the ass of a chick who just back in March you were claiming looked like an 8th grader who had herpes on her lips at PFW, but don’t in the same breath call other people delulu, cunts, dumb or naive for literally using their fucking eyes to see the optics of the bullshit two individuals who are supposed to be “actors�� are selling or questioning why some their shit looks weird, unnatural, fake and off. We’re dumb. But at-least when we say we don’t wanna support or give our money, we stand on that.

You let it out, sweetie.

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popculturebuffet · 7 months ago

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Pride Month: The Pride Season 1 Review: Their Here, There Queer, Get Used To It (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people. It's pride month and once again i'm late to the party as things have been hectic, in this case catching up on stuff and then just having my body and mood crash entirely for a week. But we're back and once again Kev has some rainbow flavored treats he wants me to hand out. Also some stuff to review.

This time we're kicking things off with a look at 2011 comic The Pride, starting with it's first mini series later renamed The Pride Season 1 after coming to comixology.

The Pride comes from gay comic writer and gay rights advocate Joe Glass. Glass has written a ton of queer comics i'm curious to check out, with the pride being one of his first and most notable works and one that he still dives into ocasionally, writing a sequel for Comixology in 2017, a spinoff series the Pride Adventures, with a summer special and new mini series, Agenda Dysphoria, coming this year.

The Pride follows it's universe's first, and possibly comics first all queer superhero team after openly queer superhero Fabman feels the community isn't getting nearly enough representation on the bigger team, with this universe's justice league stand in being outright homophobic at best. So he gathers all the queer superheroes he knows and together they fight for truth, justice and acceptance, while dealing with a mad preacher who plans to turn people with the superhero gene into his servants to take over the world, as you do and be a homophobic jackass, as the church often do.

The Pride seemed to be a modest success, and is something I was curious to check out: I read the first issue years ago when season 2 was announced.. and wasn't impressed, but when Kev pitched it I figured it'd be a neat thing to look at. See if I was wrong about the book and it was better than I expected or if it was just meh. So join me under the cut for pride as their here, their queer, and they've got a bear, their the pride.

The pride is drawn by Gavin Mitchell, who does a decent job, having a cartoony style with sketchy lines I feel fits the book's old school tone with modern values approach well. The weird thing is.. Mitchell only draws HALF the series, drawing thesee first two issuea nd then issue 5, so the series does suffer a bit from the art being consitant, some is good, some is not, so keep that in mind as you see panels.

We open to a news report as some jerky reporters report on various other superheroes, including Crabman and Lobster boy, a mustached crabman.

And his young soon to be dead ward. I... badly want a spinoff with this guy I mean look at him

He's a crab man with a mustache, a human hand for some reason, and a sucession of lobster boys who died horribly but don't seem to be his fault. I also like how Fabman smiles at this. Like he just loves how rediculous the world of superheroics is. But seriously if a crab dealing with severe losses on a regular basis who dresses like Freddy Mercury isn't a spinoff pitch you want to hear, I don't know what I can possibly offer you as you clearly lost lost the abliity to feel joy long ago. Now if your against it because he MIGHT have murdered a teenager.. fair point. I don't think he did on purpose justding by his OH CRAP face, but still fair.

Fabman's in his civies.. kinda dealing with the fact the hosts of the newscast casually throw out homophobic shit about him rescuing "a hunk" and outright use the term trick. You know Kent Brockman may sell out to our ant overlords but he never pulled that shit.

This unease from the broadcast compounds when we cut to some kids playing with their toys.. and one brings out a fabman figure. The two other kids turn into homophobic shit lords... only for Fabman to show up and scare the crap out of them. They super run away and the kid, Billy talks to his faviorit hero, admitting he didn't choose to be diffrent, and wondering why people suck, hoping one day they can see how great fabman is. Fabman wonders that too.. and the gears turn in his head

We get a one page interlude as we meet our villians, the reverend and basher. The reverend has basher kill a guy for complaning about exploding a little, how dare he before rambling ominously about "Ma plans".

Fabman starts to round up the heroes who will be thwartin "ma plans". We first meet Frost, An english heroine, transwoman and lesbian into punishing "Naughty Boys". She's as cold as her power set, but game for whatever her friend has plan. She was beating up some assholes in an ally who made the mistake of trying to accost her. She's the best.

Next is White Trash, A tatooed white man with super tough skin who runs some gang bangers off a basketball court but has one of the kids he saved used the f slur. I do like this bit, with Fabman saying "it ruins the good feeling every time dosen't it".. that even rescuing someone as a queer person.. can have the person still be homophobic. White Trash brushes it off as while it does indeed suck, he's a kid: Kids can change... and is honored to meet fabman and hear him out.

We next meet my faviorites out of the pride as some homophic assholes are mid hate crime when one of them ups and hits another and we meet Angel, pansexual drag queen with the powers of a confusion field that messes up the brain pans for those nearbye and makes them attack their foes and Bear, hard gay man who can turn into a literal bear. While having a Bear turn into a bear is the most on the nose thing imaginable I can't help but love it for it's sheer audacity and the bear gets fleshed out so much over the series he's hard not to love. The two are close friends and a duo and Angel mentions Fabs offer.

The final initial member of our party is Queen Sapphire, an amazon whose black gay wonder woman, Nubia before she got to be that, and whose stopping an asshole throwing a brick at someone working at planned parenthood and who runs straight into fabman's abs. Lucky asshole. Fabman invites his new friend Sapphire to the meeting.

Th group meet at the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar Fabulosa, Fabman's hq. Fabman gets into it briefly with Angel over not including T in calling this a SLBG meetup.. this was long before non binary and asexual were as known or accepted, something I have heard the sequel corrects and is forgiviable given when this came out. I also like this as it shows queer people can mistakes in their own community. And having seen the massive dumptrucks of biphobia int eh owl house fandom (Though most of us are awesome) over Huntlow.. can confirm.

Speaking of which at least for this arc the team has none which does bother me a bit as there's a B in the term.. but no actually bi members of the team. I do respect Glass not adding one just to have one and going with the characters he had, so it dosen't ruin the book for me, but it is something I hope later mini series course corrects as the team DOES expand in season 2.

Fabman gives his full pitch

And it's sad that most of the speech still holds. The first part.. never really felt like a thing in comics: Sure homophobic jackasses exist and always have, but most queer heroes were taken seriously in universe. The problem was, and still is, that a lot of queer heroes are lower profiled, either due to being introduced later or being firmly established as straight. There's exceptions like Iceman and Wonder Woman, but both came out AFTER this series was published, and even now while there are more queer heroes than ever before, it tends to be a dice roll if any actually get pushed. As Fabman later points out, teams might have a queer member or two, but they generally tend to just hav eone. And when you look at the major super teams right now their pretty bone dry in terms of queer members: The Avengers, as good as the current roster is, has exactly zero queer members. The Justice League when last around had two (Black Canary and Hipolita). The Titans, dc's current main team has zero. I"m not knocking the writers, I get ediotrial has a say, but it gets to the heart of the issue: most of the biggest heroes were throughly established as straight. Jonathan Kent, Superman, is one of the few exceptoins and even then DC has no idea what the fuck to do with him after his initial push wasn't the roaring sucess they hoped for. While Queer Rep, IS way better these days, the lack of visablity is still an issue. For all this mini's issues i'm glad the pride exist for that reason alone: why NOT have an almost entirely queer superteam? one that welcomes the straights sure, but is mostly queer people being who they are and fighting for the world like any other team, while also repping the community. If the big two can't make superman gay, make your own superman who is. Who has all the ideals of the character, but just happens to like guys and wear even tighter fitting pants. Seriously I may not be into fabman but I respect his giant crotch bulge in the panel above. Size isn't evertyhing but it's still fucking impressive.

As for media rep while sexless is slowly being weeded out, he wasn't wrong at the time nad even now having the gay character be a joke machine is still a common device.

At any rate the team soon gets an audition: Twink.. who starts by taking his shirt off

I do love everyone's reaction to him stripping down and worry when he says he dosen't want to ruin his close. He dosen't have a super dong like fabman though, his power is instead.. basically colossus. This is Twink, a younger member.

And now as Fabman goes to recurit the team's final member with everyone on board, let's take a moment to adress the elephant in the room. Some of the cast falls into typical LBGTQS+ niches to the point it COULD feel sterotypical. I mean fabman runs a gay bar, gay bar, gay bar, and is camp as hell, and well.. do I really have to outline where guys named the Bear and the Twink fit into the gay community. And that's just what I do know as while being bi, I don't know how say Angel reads to a drag audience or Frost to a trans one.

From my limited perspective though it mostly works: The most overt refrences.. are coming from a gay man himself and feel firmly tounge in cheek, while the characters themselves are well fleshed out, something I missed on first read as I only made it one issue. As the series goes on they get depth to them that really helps them stand out.

With that they have a team.. but they need one last member. Naturally it's down to Fabman to go to a seedy bar to recurit him. Which may be an uphill battle as someone else in the community already tried.

Yeah our final member wolf.. is wolverine combined with batman but gay. Granted Marvel would have a gay wolverine soon after this, but props to Glass he did it first and Logan does have a lot of hairy gay man energy in him, so it makes sense. He has logan's gruff nature, love of bars and denim off duty, and batman's millions, detective skills and lack of powers. I love their back and forth: The two feel like old pals which is something hard to pull off sometimes in fiction, to make it feel that lived in without sounding force but the two trade barbs, Fabs treis to drink whisky and spits it out and eventually a barfight happens as a homophobic asshole makes a deal of it. Twink steps in to help and Fabs reveals WHY he needs Wolf for the team: Training. The team is good.. but haven't trained as a team and twink in paticular, while good for a rookie with his self training, hasn't had proper training yet. Wolf decides what the hell and our team is complete and so's issue 1.

We then get a few origin storys, something sprinkled thorughout the first few issues: First up is white trash, a kid in a poor community whose dad abused him, heavily implied to be because he was gay, and who eventually had enough, kicked the man's homophobic ass and became a force for good in his community. Then we have Wolf, who in a flashback is being considered by the justice division. Wolf is buisnessman thomas everett, who inherted a company when his parents died in a carcrash and had already been training to be a vigilinate. His massive success gets him the spot.. and we'll find out why he lost it later.

Next issue opens with Wolf in their danger room thing, having just cleaned up and showed off for a very impressed rest of the team. Fabman reveals he didn't just get wolf as a trainer: Wolf will be co-leader: while Fabs is the groups overall head, Wolf will be in charge in the field and of training the team.

Twink is super smitten by wolf and a big fan, having seen him in the justice division and wondering why he quit. As I alluded to earlier though.. he didn't. The bastards fired him and he's not ashamed to share why: Brian was closted as a hero as first, getting his big call to the majors, but teamed up with Fabs. While the two were never a thing, it was nice to have someone to confide in.

Unfortuantley the tabolids being the dicks they were caugh ton to the tow's friendship and glommed onto it. The Division.. were less than sympathetic, and asked if he was gay. When he said yes.. they dropped him. Mostly Superdude, the lead, who was concerned about their "family friendly image", which can go straight to hell and is also eerily accurate of how hard it was to get queer characters into children's media. Wolf's over it, though he also figures they weren't All on board with this shit, the Venusian in paticular being uncomfortable as their species has no concept of gender. It's nice nod to nonbinary folks and judging from tv tropes, this gets dug into a bit more next series. I do grant this is with the issue that most nonbinary characters tend to be aliens , but it dosen't feel like the cheat it usually is here, just a nod to a community just starting to pop out and the fact they explore what that means next time. I also wouldn't mind if mainstream jonnn was nonbinary, even if he still used masculine pronouns.

The next day the crew heads for their first training session, with Angel making sure Bear's up to this healthwise. We'll find out why soon enough, for now though he flirts a bit with white trash as the trio and frost head up to find Queen Sapphire and Twink duking it out. Turns out this is his plan: Have them spar so they can find out each other's weaknesses. They were also supposed to be here way sooner and he admits he's going to ride them hard. He dosen't use that exact phrasing because of the book we're in, but they need to be ready. They've worked indvidually but they haven't really worked with teams. It's something i've seen in superhero comics before, it was an issue when the x-men roster was cut in half by the mutant massacre and had to restock with people who either only had worked solo or with one othe rperson (Psylocke and Dazzler) or never done proper superhero work let alone team work (Longshot). The team is good, it's why Fabman recurited them but I like that they don't function as a team out of a box and don't have that team experince most superheroes have. In a mainstream comics universe 9/10 heroes have been on a team at some point and thus even if theirs synergy issues, the team can still work effectively enough.

Fabman interrupts as a fire has happened at another gay bar and they need to go save that shit as they really couldn't ask for a better debut. He's a bit TOO jazzed about that part, but still, even untrained, it's a simple search and rescue. Even if a villian is there, they don't need to be in top shape yet.

At the fire Wolf has Angel work crowd control and twink wisely points out he'll be more of a danger as a metal man inside a raging furance, so he's given back door duty. I swear to god these innuendos are not intentional.. they are fun though.

As frost uses her powers to cool things down a bit, they find the culprit holding some surviviors hostage:" Firebomb, a guy with charred skin, cool googles and a love of hate crimes. Seriously the guy throws the F slur around casually. The villians in this book.. are about as subtle in thier bigotry as a captain planet villian is at looting the enviromrment. And their bigotry.

Thankfully for our heroes Frost easily cancels out his powers while his attempt to flee gets interupted by a metal fist to the face. Our heroes first outing, I swear to fucking god they won't stop, is a rousing success. The pride then make their grand debut to the press, with Fabman even expertly fielding the slightly insenstive question of "Are you only going to rescue gay people" Of course not. This is simply about standing out and letting queer heroes shine. Their the pride and their here to stay.. and unforutantely for them the reverned is watching and one of them is now key to his plans.

Secret origins next. Angels is just a fun monologue of her other half explaning who she is and why she does this: Someone has to keep her "babies" in the community safe. Muscle Mary gets a more proper one, a nice twist on Wondy's origin: Like the amazons of theymiscera, they had man visit for the first time in forever but it was less plesant with one killing her mom. Showing ultimate compassion she choose to take them back instead, going herself to find the good in the world and protect it, debuting at a pride parade, hence the muscle mary moniker.

So next issue opens with the news. They even called april o neil the star reporter, who took a break from turtles business to do a man on the street. That also implies some form of ninja turtles exist in this universe. Crossover when IDW?

There's a mix of genuine support, your usual bigoted idiots, and one oprah knockoff questoning if they need yet another super team. The short answer yes, the long answer go fuck yourself. The worst of it though is that one journalist outs that the bear has HIV. Be sure that you see that he has HIV but it's not aids. He dosen't got the AIDS.

Twink is shocked by this and leaves for some air. Bear follows him and the following scene.. is one of my faviorites. While Twink is nervous and dosen't know much about AIDS, worrying it might be an issue in their line of work, Bear assures him it's fine: it's only transmitable fluid to fluid and he takes goo denough care of himself that it transfering by blood, imprable enough given he has super endurance meaning the only person who could bust him open is someone likely invunerable, is VERY unlikely and already is as it'd take a lot to get there. The two are good and with a ton of calls coming in the team answer them.. badly.

Twink gets the worst of it though as his parents called. They hadn't contacted him since they sent him to a camp to cure his powers.

We cut back to the reverend plotting ominously. Yeah this happens.. a LOT over the series and is most of what he does. You'd THINK this would be a way to flesh him out, figure out who this guy is as a villian and why he's sucha homophobic piece of shit. I'm not asking for a tragic backstory, but i'm asking for more characters than "BLER RELIGION GAYS BAD BLEGH". While, especially on diving in closer for this review, the main cast is good, the antagonists are just.. pahtetically one note. The Reverend is just a hateful old man who wants to take over the world. There's nothing to it.

Compare this to X-Men, because that's my baseline and it always will be: This comparison is a little left field as they had their own evil reverend, reverend stryker. Striker was also an evil old man plotting genocide and who hated a minority, in this case mutants, a stand in for real live evangelicals.. but the diffrence is the reverend.. was smart. Instead of Doing his evil work out in the open or relying on a convoluted scheme like this rev, he simply pedaled his ministries on tv. And given this rev has mind control powers, you wonder why he didn't just think to do that in the first place and work on broadcasting it before he got excomjmunicated. Striker is both more intresting and more dangeorus because like far too many bigots, he THINKS he's right, and tries to use respectablity politics. This guy.. is juts one lunatic with magic knowledge of genetics and a hulk literally named basher.

Back with our heroes they have isssues as Angel and Frost are refusing to train figuring their experinced enough, not getting their good ALONE not as a team. Even Bear sides with Wolf on this one. Unfortunately this argument about training.. comes just as someone else wants to argue with the team: The Justice Divsion ar ehere. Turns out the scanner for HQ hadn't been setup which Wolf is rightfully miffed by.

The JD are led by Superdued, the guy at the forfront of the "Kick wolf out for being gay" charge and head of the team. Think worst timeline shaggy rogers but with super powers. They've come to tell the team to stop.

I do like this bit as it riffs on a common trope in comics that frustrates the hell out of me and i'm glad to see it torn apart here with a much less sympathetic team to boot. See DC has a VERY bad habit of having the Justice League act like judgmental asses and try to put a stop to a super team. The Avengers have done this on occasion too, see the New Warriors series from marvel now, but it's very much a league thing. They've done it to Young Justice, the 2003 Version of the Teen Titans, the rebirth Titans, the rebirth Teen Titans, and just casually flipping through the redhood and the outlaws graphic novel from web toon while at barnes and noble, those versions do it to the outlaws. There's likely more I have no idea about. And that's not getting into Bruce's uber dickish habbit of trying to run any vigilante he dosen't like out of gotham. Sometimes the instinct is right like with Savant, most of the time he just dosent like not having control. The League is the big name in the land sure, I can respect that, but their not god. They shouldn't have a right to judge other teams unless said teams are say edgelord harmful asshats like the elitie or outright super villians. Yes the titans and YJ were their sidekicks, but they were also overseen by one of their own in the case of young justice, and experinced heroes in the case of The Teen Titans.

So it's very satisfying to see the pride. stonewall their wish.com counterparts, especially since Superdued talking over everyone.. actually stops the venusian from making actual progress as they make the valid point they might not be ready and may of got them to agree to simply not go out in the field for a bit instead of Earth 3 Spicoli and his bird friend trying to convience them to "stand down" or "Join other teams', both options they clearly don't want nor asked for. It's a nice exercise in false allyship: how most of the division just wants to shut them down.. when if they REALLY cared about them not dying: offer to train them. No reallly. Wolf is doing it and he got his tactics from them, if your that concerned about them dyign and not about them being openly queer if inexperinced as a team on this level, offer team training. They'd still likely refuse.. but the fact they jump right to disbanding instead of helping them be better unmasks how they simply don't want to deal with a superteam that's both this gay and clearly wont' just bend the knee because the big 7 showed up.

So naturally a fight insues. and our team do hold well.. till Angel makes a mistake and uses her powers. Problem is.. Venusean is a telepath so it broadcasts it to EVERYONE and destroys the place. The Justice Assholes leave.. but proved a point: They may not be ready. And wolf agrees.. not that they shoudln't be a team, fuck those guys, but that they weren't ready and Angel now gets why train as a team: because you don't know how your powers might interact in a fight. In good situations you can create a circut and do a super teamwork combo. In bad... it trips up your allies and you. Still Wolf's calling a break and while Fabman is worried this might've been a bad idea, wolf assures him no, he did what had to be done and this willw ork promise.

The two have a longer talk, and Wolf makes a valid point, and a meta point about why this team exists: The big teams often have maybe ONE person of color or two women and the women rarely lead. A team that's diverse stands out. And he's sadly not wrong. Marvel IS having Captain Marvel lead the avengers right now, but previously leaders were Cap, Sam Wilson Cap, and Cap again bitches. Sam is black, so that helps a little, but in general marvel tends to default to cap, while DC defaults to supes. John Kent wasn't even in the league in his time as head superman. These aren't bad characters, I love Supes and Cap a lot, but it's tied to my point earlier: There aren't a ton of a-list, big powerful queer characters in marvel or dc. Plenty of queer characters but for DC"s biggest it's just harely and wondy (And Ivy when she's on the good guys side), with Alan Scott for the JSA and for Marvel it's Teddy, Wiccan and Hercules for the avengers, no one for the fantastic four, and Iceman, Magik, Captain Britan, and Kitty Pryde out of the major x-men (Though to the x-men's credit there is a lot more queer characters than most comics stables) and Magik and Kitty haven't really gotten to explore their bi sides yet, both being confirmed bisexual in a one off joke and a panel that went nowhere repsectively. The PRide has it's faults.. but it is very nice for the core of a superhero universe to be it's queer characters. Hopefully they get more poc, but it's still more gay than most teams have.

Meanwhile Basher kills a bussload of people and kidnaps one. This turns out to be Bear's son with Bear getting the whole we have your kid speil after coming back from a night out with White Trash, who he also brought home. So a bit of a wash all things considered.

Origins again: This time it's , Da Bear, and his origin is one of my faviorites: he was a closted gay man who didn't realize he was gay till he became a bear man one day. In this verse, some people get their powers from the "X-Cel Virus" basically their verison of the x gene mixed with the viral nature of generator rex's nanites. He found out he was gay, got a divorce , and soon got HIV but soldiers on anyway.

We then get Fabmans one I honestly love. He's Stephen Wainwright: he always knew he was gay and not only did his parents catch on before he came out, but they were fully supportive, being nothing but proud of their son. Stephen, like the hero he's modeld after, is a kind hearted soul who only wants to help, helping consule those in his community and offer support. He later opened his bar simply to give his community a place to relax and be safe. It's this kind, open nature and pride in who he is that attracted some aliens, who had been watching him.. which would be creepy if they weren't clearly looking for a pargon of virtue to bestow powers on. Okay i'ts still a little creepy but hey they gave him powers for being a good person who isn't remotely ashamed of who he is and who always wanted to help people. I'm not going to judge too harshly. So like his parents and Stephen himself they coudln't be prouder.

The next issue opens with the team all meeting early in the morning, most not in costume. Angel had a show already so their the only one ready besides the Bear. We also get details on his relationship with his son and heartwarmingly.. it's really good. While The Bear and his ex wife naturally weren't on the best terms after the breakup, she never hid his son from him nor kept him. So while Jacob didn't grow up near his dad, the two did know each other and Bear couldn't be prouder

While the Bear wants to go after basher NOW, Wolf tells him to ease up a bit: not because he dosen't care.. but because it's an obvious trap. Bear naturally can't wait for common sense and rushes off. Thankfully.. Wolf saw this coming and his assuring shoulder pat included a tracer. He's going to have Angel fill him in, try to figure out who the hell basher is and hopefully fast enough to get there before this guy can really hurt bear.

Bear meets basher and Basher is naturally a dick, using the f slur, calling bear "Riddled with diseas" and generally being punchable. He wants bear though, and easily wrecks our poor ursine pal. Luckily our pal has pals of his own and a fight begins. The fight takes up most of the issue and is nicely tense with Basher essentially being a homophobic juggernaught. And while as a character his characterization begins and ends with "I don't like the gays", he is a decent threat at least. OUr heroes try EVERYTHING.. and come up short. They do dent the guy a bit.. but not enough and while Bear's son , Jake, chimes in, Bear's rage after Basher punts him gives the asshole the opening he needs to knock out or pal and run off with him.

Origins time again. This time frost is first as she has an interview with a reporter.. and freezes his research as she's worked hard to hide her past pre transition. She's not ashamed of being trans, and it seems Fabman knows, but her family disowning her fo rbeing who she always was is clearly a sore spot.

Next is twink who writes to his parents. It tells us mostly what the text has: he's a big superhero fanboy who always was one. Getting powers was the happiest day of his life.. but his parents instead feared this and sent him to madman to try an dcure him. Given the gay conversion therapy parallels you can probably guess WHO they sent him to. I certainly did. He's happy with who he is though and his freedom.

Issue 5 opens with the pride having a wake. Naturally assholes are protesting it. It's a weird thing.. but I respect the comic for using the f slur. It's not for shock value, it's simply being realistic, and it's something queer people face every day. It's something a lot of comics would censor but glass knows is necessary.

The pride haven't given up... but have a good justifcation for doing this: as Fabman points out superheroes have learned to "hope for the best, expect the worst". Given how many heroes end up dead but come back or were never dead, fair point. It's also been a few weeks, giving the team time offscreen to train. Speaking of which.. wolf asks Owen, aka Cub, to join the team. While Cub is straight.. Wolf genuinely dosen't care. It's not about exclusion, i'ts about family and right now Cub coudl use one. He tearfully accepts.

We also get introduced to Angel OUT of costume, Kele Amos and his wife. Everyone's happy to meet her and finds out Angel is pansexual. There's four absences though: Fab Man is taking the loss personally, even more than Angel and Owen who vow revenge, so White Trash went to find him, while Frost... seemingly didn't care to show up. Sapphire was absent.. because she went to go confront her at the gay bar gay bar, but not the gay bar gay bar gay bar in front of their HQ.

Frost is seemingly not effected.. but Sapphire sees through it: she's afraid to cry and be vunerable and while Frost is offended for a second.. she breaks down. The two end up embrasing and while Frost tries to come out at trans, Sapphire assures her she knows all she needs to know.

Their not the only hookup either as WOlf and Twink have a training session, with Twink frustrated they have no leads an daccidently bodying Wolf across the room. He kisses him in the heat of it, Wolf kisses him back. Another couple paired off.

Finally we get to White Trash and Fabman. Fabs naturally blames himself, but White Trash shuts that shit down: Harvey knew the risks, was out there every day in spite of them, and was proud of who he is and this team. He makes a cabaret refrence, for a drag queen he once knew and life is a cabaret: sometims it's good, sometimes it sucks balls. But you'll never get the good if you don't live it.. and making this team.. is living. So White Trash gets him ready to go out.. they don't kiss thoguh. Not his type. Also can Fabman mystically sense when other people ar ebanging or are the others hooking up that much of a forgone conclusion he just assumes it's happening.

After all this hooking up, Wolf gets a spooky spirit message from Bear, whose alive... Basher's using him for his evil mind control plot, revealing it's an evil mind control plot. Seriously is there anything about this guy that isn't a cliche wrapped in hate speech?

At any rate we get a brief scene showing the team's been training hard, leveling up.. and after Cub takes on the highest level of training bot himself, beheading it.

We end the issue on Bassher making a grand announcment to the world as he holds up Bear's bloody body hooked to the machine.

Final issue. As basher makes his announcment Cub, White Trash and Angel and Twink wonder why nothing's happening to them. Their all x-cel positive while the rest of the team has diffrent means. Since it's the only one I forgot to mention, frost got hers via surgery.

Taking an art break the art this issue is decent. Not as good as the other issues but fine. The other issue.s. minus the last one which swapped artists constantly including weirdly ending on Mark ellerby's art. And I fucking love mark ellerby's art but it's more cartoony and din't fit the ominous ending at all.

Our heroes have bigger issues as it turns out most of Justice Division is X-Positive, and thus only Morningstar (the bird asshole form before ) and the Venusian are left as they crash into Pride HQ. Luckily our heroes have been training for this.. both combat and specifically kicking the Justice Divisions assholes which give no homo zonker harris just suantered in trying to shut them down and a fight broke out rather easily, fair point. It pays off as the Pride easily take them down, with Angel in particular getting a nice subtle bit of redemption for botching the last fight, narrowing her focus to just superdude and sending him to the moon. After finishing up with a ncie combo attack, using fabs and morningstar's light powers on Twink's shiny skin to drive the last Divison Member left, a midnighter knockoff who also can move through shadows, down. Wolf also bluntly tells the Venusian and Morningstar to stay put for two reasons despite their insitance that, as the big team they should do it: One, they just koed most of their team, and two, they need someone to protect the city while they hopefully handle this. On this reread for transcribing this review as it's a perfect contrast to the first fight: The first time out most of the team squared up against someone, fighting one on one, a subtle detail I didn't notice but highlights how while they are a team, their not WORKING as one. While tw oget taken out solo, frost targeting bluebird's vocal cords and Sapphire/Muscle Mary easily handeling Mighty Miss (Their wonder woman at home), the first is a strategy they worked out just in case wolf prompts her for, and the rest are all taken out with team work. While it disapointing all the actual training happend off screen, it's an excellent way to show how it's paid off. I would've liked to see them come together as a team, no comment, but I also understand Glass likely could only get the six issues and judging from the fill in artists and especailly issue 5 being a whole GAGLE of various artists and clearly not being intended for that kind of setup, self publishing was a nightmare. It's no wonder the second volume had comixology's help and the third was funded with Kickstarter, to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. So it's that Hazbin Hotel issue of having to cram EVERYTHING they can into 6 issues as they may not get more. It hurts the story a little, but I understand the impulse and thus i'm a bit more forgiving if the story still mostly works.

Thankfully said dream earlier allowed Wolf to track them. As he explains when they get into their dope jet the crusier, there was some sand at the scene that was diffrent, coming from a former nuclear test site. Luckily for our heroes the radiation has gone down enough that the radiation isn't an issue.. but allowed them to track the Reverend down. We also get his backstory: the Reverend is Reverend William Franklin, who was kicked out after he was caught using his powers to brainwash his congregation. I like to think bibleman did it. At any rate his powers didn't work on X-Cels, hence his need for bear.

The team split up: Most of the team stays out front, with Angel taking out most of the brainwashed heroes the rev's summoned, while the team as a whole minus fabman, wolf, twink and frost fight basher. Wolf, Twink and Frost take on the rev's forces.. and it turns out.. they were also a distraction as Fabman cleans house. Outside the res tof the team has an excellent rematch with basher another nice reflection; Before each member fought him one at a time, this time they all work together and angel uses her powers to allow the others to sucker him. It's something I wished i'd noticed on first read as this book is REALLY good at having the team.. work as an actual team once their good and pumped in this last issue. Most team books tend to have them hit em one at a time, but if you have a team.. why not have them do a circuit. I'm not against the group fighting alone, but this and x-men 97 show why a good super circuit is awesome.

White Trash ALMOST kills basher but backs away.. unfortunately though.. cub does not and slits his throat. WEll I mean Basher did deserve it but i'ts not good for the kid himself to murder a guy ya know? As he sobs to his dad as he's freed though Fabman.. is also close, ready to go full red eyes superman on the homophobe.. but being the bigger man dosen't. He destroys the reverends book so he can't channel his powers again, which was just directly pulled out of his perfectly toned ass but whatever. The day is saved.

Their greeted by the entire superhero community they just saved.. who all cheer them. The Pride proved themselves and it while basher's about as complicated as a piece of cardboard, I give the comic credit for having an organic way for them to earn the superhero communites respect.

With that there's just one last bit of buisness, an epilogue finishing up where we began: two months later the Pride are now one of the world's most popular superteam, with both of the anchors no longer being homophobic jackasses.. I doubt they've actually changed, they just recognize they can't make snide queer jokes about the world's saviors. The pride are getting medals of valor while, fair play to them, the justice division not only admitted they had a don't ask don't tell policy but have removed it. The latters the bear minimum and never should've been a thing. The formers.. the part they get more credit for: it's rare for a public figure not forced into it by overwhelming evidence to admit they did something awful, so the divison not only admitting what they likely did to wolf, but likely apologizing for it is big.

Fabman meets with billy and the bullies have also changed their tune finding him awesome. Fabman is here because Billy.. is the one that inspired him to do this. The world wouldn't of been saved and he wouldn't have his new family without them. Billy returns the favor giving fabman his old action figure after fabs gives him a new one, wanting to give fabs a token of where this started.. and his thanks. The why.. brings a tear to our heroes eyes. He fought hard.. and now the world sees Fabman the way billy did, sees all of the pride that way and we end on fabs proudly flying away with the kids telling him to go change the world. Cheesy but it works.

The Pride... is pretty damn good. When I started writing this review, I found it okay. But as often happens my opinon changed the more I engaged with the work. Sometimes that goes the other way: I liked temple of Doom and Lion King II less the more I had to think about them. But here seeing all the little touches, how it has a decently fleshed out cast in such a short time span (With only Sapphire feeling underdeveloped by the end and even she's still decently fleshed out), and how the team slowly grow. It's not perfect: A LOT of the commentary is on the nose with all the villians being one not ebigots. I'm not asking them to be likeable, i'm asking for their to be layers to thier bigotry and hatred, how they operate. The book is not subtle and while it hurts it in the antagonist department, and the rev himself is dispatched cartoonishly easy, it helps everywhere else: As I thought about it the book does raise some really valid points about the big two. it'd be nice if the justice divisoin weren't cardboard cutouts themselves, but it's still a nice commentary on how superhero books tend to have one or two queer people on a team if at all. The Pride isn't subtle, is a tad messy at times.. but i'ts a lot of fun an da concept i'm shocked took this long to happen. An all queer super team is a brilliant concept and I can't wait to see what happens with them next time, next year. I'm all for making the Pride a permenant pride month fixture if this does well enough. For now it was a fun ride and I hope you enjoyed me jawing about it. Thanks for reading.

#the pride #pride month #gay #lesbian #transgender #pansexual #drag #comics #joe glass #queer comics #lbgtqia+#fabman #the bear #angel #wolf #twink #sapphire #frost #cub

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kindaoptimisticsquirrel · 2 years ago

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Trigun Bookclub Vol1 Ch6-12

Aaaand the last part of Volume 1. I already read the second volum again and took notes, there are gonna be a lot more...anyway, getting to it!

Previous Part

I found it interesting to note how Nightow changes the drawing style to this sketchy style for the effect, to show how badly what Dynamites Neon said effects Kaite. In general I have the feeling that Nightow takes lots of liberty with his manga, especially when it comes to anatomy, all to strengthen the effect of the images! I like that, because even thought a comic where every character and view is totally correct in it’s anatomy or perspective etc is certainly remarkable and hard to do in itself, I think when the author sometimes goes over the top with stuff, maybe making drawings completely unrealistic or suddenly breaking with what they did before (like here, introducing a new drawing style), it shows a certain experimental fun and can sometimes to me be more dynamic and lively! We’ll get to that once we get to Wolfwood’s impeccable anatomy, haha.

NO vash you are pure and innocent and cute and maybe goofy but not stupid my dear

Such a cool page this one! I tried to follow how maybe the perspective changes, like if we were as the reader jumping along with Vash? Well uh I tried. But crazy idea to just lift and rotate the ground in these first 3 panels, making Vash look standing upright though he’s actually falling upside down in a way!

I think I missed this before but Dynamites saves Vash when he shoots the rock that would have hit Vash in the face out of its trajectory!

Nothing to say here apart from gorgeous imagery

Man plants look weird. And, I thought the literal “plant” thing was something Tristamp had introduced, but actually it looks a bit plant-like here? I know nothing to little about plant anatomy, but that could be smiliar to some plants/flowers, right?

Milly comes from a huge family! And she’s the youngest! Aww

His smile is so fakey here!

Oh yeah when I saw this character I kinda thought ‘doesn’t he look a bit like Wolfwood?’ so I tried giving him tan and sun glasses. Well...not reaaally. But at least the chest is all out.

#trigunbookclub #trigun #trigun maximum

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talon-dragonbeast · 1 year ago

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I got inspired by your doodle of me, and wanted to ask- how do you do your art? I really wanna get better, but i don't know how. I use FireAlpaca, and i could really use a more "focused" pencil rather than the "smudgy" one in my profile picture art. I mostly wanna draw to make my friends and partner happy, so you don't have to go into the most complex stuff i you don't want to x3

hi! sorry for taking so long to answer!

so i use almost exclusively ibispaint x for my digital drawings, and use a tablet or my phone to draw, so I can't help you with the technical aspects of the program you use but I can tell you a bit about my drawing process! apologies if this doesn't make a lot of sense, english is not my native language so my words may sound a bit weird.

so for drawing first you should make a sketch, which for many is the best part as it's the most fun part of the process. for this I usually do it on paper as pencils are more natural for me, but sometimes I do it digitally too. my suggestion is to go wild with the sketch! draw many lines one on top of the other, use the eraser freely, move things around however you like. once you're happy with your sketch you lower the opacity and create another layer for the lineart.

here is the part where you choose the brush you want to use for the drawing. depending on how finished you want it to look, you can use a more sketchy shape or a more geometric one. in ibispaint, I use a brush called marker that has a round shape. for clean lineart, you should use a brush that has an opacity of 100% and a geometrical shape like a circle. if you want a more sketchy look, you can use a brush that has an irregular shape and different opacity, like for example a pencil brush.

for flat colouring I get lazy so I just use the bucket tool in a different layer, and then I create another layer that I set to Multiply to do shading. but shading is pretty complex so I won't get into more detail.

as for getting better at art, my recommendation is to use lots of references and practice a lot. personally I got better by tracing comic panels with a paper on my mum's computer screen. also I drew lots of dragons because I had a special interest in them, so I drew them over and over and over. eventually I got good enough that I could branch to more complicated things like humans. last week i read a story of someone learning to draw using naruto characters as reference. everyone's learning process is different, so you should draw what you like! if the drawing process is fun, you will do it more, which means getting better.

so this is it! I really hope this makes sense and it's useful to you :}

#whispers of the dragon #talons asks

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mysynthfetish · 2 years ago

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The TRON JD-Xi...

So I felt like I wanted a vocoder again, and after all the ones I've used and didn't feel like revisiting, I thought I'd like to try something new, so I ended up with the JD=Xi. I found a limited edition white model at Implant4, and bought it. Right from the start, I was put off by the red LEDs. What the hell was Roland thinking? Totally ugly. Ewww. Fuck. So I opened it up and of course the majority are surface mount LEDs, but the ones around the knobs were through-hole LEDs. OK. I Replaced the analog synth section LEDs with blue, as it matches the test color on the panel, and all else with white because, well, the fucker is white innit? SMD LEDs. Fuck. I did NOT wanna deal with these with a normal soldering iron and desoldering braid etc etc, so I looked around and found that someone devised these things called hot tweezers, which are basically two soldering iron arms that curve together in a squeezable grip, with a variable temperature control, so you can grab an SMD component and easily pull it off within a second or two. The only problem was the reputable Japanese manufacturers MSRP of hot tweezers run about $400. I saw an el-cheapo version on AliExpress for about $50, and thought well, made in chinkland but what the hell. I generally dislike stuff made in "the mainland" as they call it here. Slave labor with near zero work ethic, well, it just isn't a good combo for reliable products. Behringer I'm looking at you here, when is my Pro-1 gonna blow up? Anyway... The things were sketchy, didn't meet at the tip when squeezed, parts came loose in the box, having fallen out of the wee ziplock baggie they were supposed to be in... not a good first impression but the thing worked for what I needed it for, so I'm cool with it. Saved SO much time. I also took a different approach to soldering the fucking microscopic SMD LEDs. I bought soldering paste that comes in a hypodermic needle looking thing. A wee shot of solder paste on the solder pads, slap the LED down and the paste works like glue to hold the part down, then hit the left and right sides with a normal fine-tipped soldering iron. Bam! Worked like a charm and took hardly any time at all. Thing looks straight outta Tron now. Very cool. Now it's time to fool around programming vocoder patches.

Um, a word about the JD-Xi... It's like a groovebox with keys. Two digital synths in the JD DNA line, plus a gimmicky analog synth part and a drum part. Pretty fun. Weird. Roland engineers musta been drunk/high when they came up with this thing. I'm having fun with it. Weirdo synth though, that's for sure.

Hope you guys are doing well. I caught Omicron on Xmas day. Jeeeeeeez-o-wiz. Fucked me up real good. I'm only now fully back to normal. Not fun. See ya next time.

#jd-xi #synth diy #satan #synth repair #aaaargh #dork #putinhuilo #fucktrump

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writing-for-life · 9 months ago

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Noooooooo! It’s another one of those!

I’m already heartbroken—both of these artists are in my top 5, and I really, really struggle to choose between them. So honestly, whatever the fandom decides is good by me because this is torture.

Jill Thompson, queen of watercolour! And her Morpheus really is amongst my favourites because he always looks… sad and like he’s had enough, and she somehow puts him on the right side of beautiful and weird and proud and broken, however that works.

JH Williams III, what can I say? Overture is a trip, and he is just amazing, from the way he arranges panels to the way he draws faces to that sheer explosion of COLOUR. His Morpheus is aloof, snooty and aristocratic with occasional glimpses into such gut-wrenching heaviness of heart that I just… ouch. And he gave us alien!Dreams galore and fem!Dream. Fem!Dream! And on a lighter note: One of my all time favourite panels is this one:

Zoom zoom zoom:

That face! It must have been so long, I’m so sorry. But also 🤣

Okay, without further ado: I’ll choose Jill Thompson. My heart just can’t handle letting her go (and if she does, I’ll be SAD, but I’ll also be sad if JH goes, so what gives). Her portrayal of Morpheus is dear to me. Both main run, concept art and commissions. Even her Little Endless and her Manga.

I don’t care who has the ugly panels here, I’ll more or less ignore my own brief, but I will throw in a few just for good measure…

I love this panel in general, but the alienesque face is not my favourite:

Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution…

Although JH lets us see Dream’s plumbing, and I totally get Murphy is not doing well here (I mean situationally speaking, not the equipment), I’m just like… not keen?

Or this one (also: Danny looks like his wisdom teeth need to come out. And Murphy’s teeth are just… urgh):

Or the Spock-like eyebrows he so often gives him:

I mean it could be on purpose, he does say:

(also: breath-check? Need a mint?)

I found ugly Dream (just in my mind of course) much harder to source for Jill. Even when he’s extremely sketchy, he’s still spot-on for me most of the time. But there are a few…

Yes, I know, this is Suffragette City, lighting and all, but still. Not for me:

Not keen on the hatching in the next one, but I’m generally not, so that’s more about techniques I don’t particularly like than anything else. But I noticed that Jill often draws him with unbalanced eyes (only one star, or different size, or a weird shadow that’s nothing to do with light just around one eye), and whenever I see one of those, I go 🙅🏻‍♀️

And both of these side-profiles don’t really do it for me either:

Who’s your favourite despite ugly or OOC art? Give us all your detestable panels then tell us why you still choose them.

You still have until 6pm/London to cast your vote for either Williams or Thompson before the next pairing lands.

Round Two/4, Poll

JH Williams III

Jill Thompson

It’s getting harder and harder. These two are giants with such distinct styles. How is one supposed to choose?

To make it easier for you, we’ve added a second panel for both JH and Jill to make the angles more comparable (but we want to see your blooper reel anyway, more about that in a sec).

If you’d like to read up on background information, look at wonderful art appreciation for both and refresh your memory (especially with regard to the issues they created), you can do this here, plus have their Sandman issues again:

JH Williams III: The Sandman Overture #1-6

Jill Thompson: Brief Lives #40-49

And you will need some of that info, because for round two, we would like you to still tell us about your favourite artist and why you chose them, but we want to see panels (or other art like commissions) that contain their depictions of Dream you like least.

We like our artists and often have blinkers on when it comes to consistent portrayal and art style because we are in love with a handful of panels. So we’d like you to challenge your own bias and basically give us reasons not to like your favourite artist. We’re mean like that 😉

And remember, you are still not voting for storylines/arcs, but Dream design.

Who is your favourite, and why are you still sticking with them even after showing us your least favourite Dream depictions? Let us know in the comments/reblogs.

Here’s the poll to vote for your favourite if you want to see them again (you can find the whole bracket and some additional info here, and feel free to check out previous matches via the tag #sandman march mania):

Event organisers: @writing-for-life and @tickldpnk8

#ugly art post #the sandman #sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #sandman x art #sandman art #sandman march mania #jill thompson #jh williams iii #queue crew

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adobewanphotobi · 4 years ago

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oh hey there its my submission for the atla big bang. I partnered up with @prince-liest for their fic The Ancient Art of Jerkbending. Please check it out, they put a ton of work into this (on top!! of juggling med school!!) and they’re like crazy talented!! There’s misunderstandings!! emotional catharsis!! space swords!!

If you’re like “hmm wow this dialogue is both cute and hilarious” it’s because I had an amazing writer to work with!! Go read their stuff!! Image IDs under the read more:

Image 1: A wide shot of the sky. Zuko states, “I- apologize, if my presence has been making you uncomfortable-.” Sokka stares at him, perplexed, as Zuko continues, “I understand, and I simply wished to request that you continue to practice discretion until- until the avatar defeats my father. It’s, um. I promise I’m not going to make anything weird. I- I learned my lesson after Jet. It’s just that it’s illegal in the Fire Nation, and if we’re going to-“ Zuko looks uncomfortable, clutching his arm with one hand. Before he can go on any further, Sokka holds up his hand to interrupt him with a “Wait.”

Image 2: Sokka continues, saying “It’s illegal to like someone’s girlfriend in the Fire Nation?” next to a cartoon depiction of Suki. He then says “Also, you knew Jet? Crazy-Hook-Sword Jet?!” next to a cartoon depiction of Jet. Finally, he finishes with “-Jet had a girlfriend? Someone actually dated that guy?!” next to cartoon depictions of Suki and Jet together. Zuko looks perplexed, saying “…What?” as Sokka lean into his space. Sokka says, “What do you mean, ‘what’? Hey, what’s even the legal punishment for liking someone else’s girlfriend?”

Image 3: Sokka continues talking offscreen, as Zuko looks on incredulously. “-Can you go to prison for that? That’s really weird, Zuko. It’s not like people can control how they feel-“ Zuko interrupts him in a burst of anger, “For the last time, I’m not interested in Suki! I don’t care about your girlfriend! I never cared about your girlfriend!” Sokka is silent for a panel, before replying “Well that’s just rude.” The last panel is a simplified depiction of Zuko’ face, which is a mix of surprise, incredulousness, and frustration.

Image 4: Sokka continues speaking as Zuko screams in frustration in the background. “Seriously though, what’s the problem then? If you don’t like Suki, what are you even apologizing for?” “I thought you- It’s not-“ Zuko says, then stops himself, frustration turning into resignation. He finally says “It’s nothing.”

Image 5: Sokka gives him a deadpan, disbelieving look. He gestures towards the woods they’re in. “It’s obviously not, since you brought me to this sketchy/romantic/I-haven’t-decided-yet patch of forest! You can’t just start talking about Fire Nation law and Jet and all that stuff, and-“ As he continues, Zuko clenches his fist, which is trembling. Sokka notices, and asks “-Are you having some sort of breakdown? Is that what’s happening here?”

Image 6: Zuko looks to the side, expression tense even as he blushes slightly. “I’m not into your girlfriend! I’m not into any- girls.” Sokka looks on, nonplussed as Zuko continues, “I thought you had already figured that out earlier.”

Image 7: The first picture is a close up shot of Sokka’s eyes, then an image of his entire face, expression still blank. Finally, he realizes what Zuko is implying. Behind him is the gay pride flag.

Image 8: “Look-“Zuko says as he runs a hand through his hair, looking down. Sokka interrupts him with a hug, leaving Zuko surprised.

Image 9: Sokka shifts to look at Zuko affectionately, still hugging him. “The only thing that makes me uncomfortable with your dating preferences, is that you and Katara both have the worst taste in guys.” Zuko’ eyes widen, and he returns the hug. The last shot shows them as silhouettes in the forest, still hugging.

#atla big bang #atla big bang 2020 #sokka #zuko #atla #my art

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archersartcorner · 3 years ago

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Have been thinkin bout… Bela, Valerio’s mother, finding a way to Val (NOTHING keeps a dedicated momther from her son!!!!) and immediately verbally MURDERING Kamado. Treats me VERY GOOD NSBDJ

Some bonus stuff, more shippy in nature cus I Had Some Thinks

RIP Valerio, 200X - 18XX 😔

IDs under cut!

[ID: The post contains three images, drawn in a sketchy, non-colored style in Procreate. Before the first caption is just one image, showing three characters. The first is Cyllene, who has short, spiked hair parted to the right; a wide nose; a circular shaped but pointed face; and wearing her Survey Corps uniform. Second is Kamado, who has dark hair, jaw-length, pulled back showing a widow’s peak; a squared face, more heavily wrinkled than Cyllene; a wide nose; and his weird 90 degree angle mustache. He’s taller than Cyllene. Third is Bela, who looks very similar to Valerio, with long dark hair, revealing a similar widow’s peak; a triangular face; a thin, hooked nose; and slight wrinkles around her facial features, highlighting her age. She’s taller than Cyllene, but not as tall as Kamado. There are two panels, the first one shows Cyllene and Kamado arguing with one another. Kamado says, “NO. He is not receiving ANY of our help. He LEFT. He’s merely facing the consequences of his actions at this point.” Cyllene replies, “Do you HEAR yourself?!” Bela says off panel, “Hey.” Which transitions into the second panel, where Bela is angrily staring at Kamado off panel. She continues, “Talk about my son like that again and I’ll make you face the goddamn consequences of opening your shitty mouth, old fuck asshole.” A mini panel shows Cyllene, giving Bela thumbs-up in approval, and Kamado angrily shouting “WHAT.”

The second image after the initial caption contains Bela, Cyllene, and Laventon. Laventon is slightly shorter than Bela; has a squared face with a lot of stubble; dark, curly hair; and is wearing a lab coat with a vest and button up underneath, along with a bow tie. Bela is speaking to someone off camera, a confused smile on her face, while Cyllene and Laventon look up to her, blushing immensely. Text next to them says, “Tall trans woman who’s often self conscious n dysphoric about her body VS Small trans woman with a giant crush on her + Trans man who has a crush on both of them.

The third image just below it has 4 panels, 1-2-1 from top to bottom. It features Cyllene and Valerio, who looks like a younger version of Bela, notable differences being his hair being jaw-length rather than long; lack of wrinkles and rounder face reflective of younger age; and he has two scars, one above his right eye, the other on his lower left jawline. The first panel shows Cyllene in the foreground, looking incredibly nervous, with Valerio barging through the office door in the background. He’s saying, “CYLLENE.” The second panel is a zoom in on Valerio, who has a wide, frustrated smile on his face. He continues, “DID YOU FUCK MY MOM, CYLLENE. BE HONEST.” The third panel is Cyllene, unable to look Valerio in the eye, looking to the side with a nervous smile as she answers, “… Well, not quite? The, uhm. The other way, rather, if we’re being honest?” The fourth panel shows Cyllene and Valerio, Cyllene continuing to smile nervously, while Valerio backs away in abject horror. He’s traumatized by this news. Lord help him. Cyllene says, “ahaha… that’s a fair reaction.” END ID.]

#my art #my scribbles #pokeverse valerio #pokeverse bela #pokemon legends arceus #captain cyllene #commander kamado #professor laventon #n/s/f/w text #it’s rly minor but like. jic #I love bela and Val’s family a lot. wanna post more about em…#OH FORGOT!!!!!!!!#described

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appy-polly-loggies · 3 years ago

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Opening commissions

Prices under the cut

(feel free to skip my little rant)

So apparently our dog has cancer now. And she could get a surgery that would save her but my parents refuse to pay for it because iT’s JuST An AniMAL. So I’m going to do it myself. But as a student I can’t afford it and I’m afraid that even with the summer job I already have I won’t be able to make enough in time. And I don’t want to just ask people to give me money.

So PLEASE, I understand that not everyone can/wants to pay me for something, so please share this, that way maybe someone who will be interested in commissioning me will see this.

Here are some examples of how I draw

More details and prices under the cut

Digital drawing

I’m most comfortable with this sketchy kind of style, but I can do clean or lineless too. Also if you’d like me to draw it in a certain existing style I can do that too, the extra 5 bucks is there because I have to learn the style first. Oh I can also do character design.

Comics

Plus a few extra bucks if you want me to be the one to make the story too. If you only want me to put your already existing story into comic panels, you only pay what’s above.

Traditional drawing

Mostly with linework but I can do lineless here too. Also I’m from central Europe, so if you’d like me to send you the actual piece of paper the shipping might be a little pricey. If you’re okay with not receiving it like that I can send you high quality scans and/or photos (much better quality than these don’t worry).

Animation

Right now I can only do 2D, both hand drawn and tweened. I can also do these moving pictures (also both lineless and lined), those can also have some fancy effects like particles and such. The pricing is a little tricky on this one, depending on how long and complex it would be, but I’d imagine the price would start at about 35$ for a basic loop without coloring (not nearly as long as the example above).

Photo and video editing

I don’t have any examples to put in here :( but i can do the basic video editing, (cutting stuff to make you look like a pro youtuber, putting a picture/another video/a gif over your video/photo, blurring/pixelating something out, adding sounds/music, keying and all that jazz) plus I can also do some more fancy effects in adobe ae. Also I have some basic photoshop skills, I’m no professional but I can do the basics like erasing pimples or such. Or making/editing gifs. Idk how much to charge for this :( I guess it depends on what exactly it’d be? We can talk about it

Also I’d just like you to know that I am in fact kinda desperate right now so I will also draw things I am not comfortable drawing, NSFW and whatever weird fetish you might have included, as long as you pay for it. Also don’t worry, I won’t judge you. I just want to save my dog.

If you’re interested dm me here or if you don’t want me to know your tumblr you can also dm me on instagram (@quitthisshitt)

The money will most likely go through paypal and I’ll start working on the commission as soon as I get them (or if it’s one of those more expensive ones and you want to make sure I won’t ghost you after receiving the money, you can send me half of the price first, I’ll send you the sketch/animatic so you can rest assured, then you send the rest and I finish it.

#art commission sheet #art commissions open #art commission prices #art commisions #digital art #digital drawing #traditional art #traditional drawing #animation #animation commissions #animation commissions open #commissions #commissions info

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arashikitten · 4 years ago

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Why has no one made a Yu Yu Hakusho x Danny Phantom crossover yet?

?I mean, honestly, look at these two shows! Look at them! How is it that no one (that I know of) has made a crossover with them yet? There’s so much potential! I mean honestly! Both are about a 14-year-old who died in or before the first episode, came back to life through some sort of shenanigans, and ended up with supernatural abilities as a result. Both Danny and Yusuke have a very close knit friend group comprised of people who know about said supernatural abilities and help them fight all form of malicious supernatural entities (Danny fights ghosts, Yusuke fights demons). Both Yusuke and Danny have a rival/arch-nemesis who, at the start of the series, is leagues above the protagonists in terms of power, but ends up being surpassed by the main protagonist sometime during the second season of their respective show. Both Vlad and Toguro serve as foils to Danny and Yusuke respectively, and while they may feel some sort of kinship with them for some reason or other, they tend to see the young protagonist as someone who is below them in terms of power, intelligence, and skills (even after that is no longer the case). Both Danny and Yusuke are snarky and seem like delinquents to all but their closest friends, but secretly they have a heart of absolute gold. Both would (and have) died for any one of their friends, and they likely have a metric fuck ton of trauma from the many, many, many times they almost watched their friends and family die right in front of them. And of course, both Danny and Yusuke are likely to become kings of their own supernatural realm (if you disregard DP’s canon in favor of the fanon like I do).

So then the question becomes this: how would a crossover between the two shows go?

Here’s how I see it playing out:

Sometime after the last episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, and right after the events of Reign Storm, Yusuke (who I would say is about 18-19 years old now) gets a call from Koenma for the first time in almost 4 years. Koenma tells Yusuke that he needs him to come back for one final case: investigate a small town in Northeastern America for recent spikes in spiritual and demonic activity.

When Yusuke asks why Koenma wants him to look into what is seemingly a tourist trap town, Koenma tells him that the town was recently encased under a dome of spirit energy, disappeared for almost 24 hours, and then suddenly reappeared again, and Koenma suspects that someone- or something- from spirit world might be responsible.

Three calls and four plane tickets later, Yusuke and the gang land in Illinois and make their way to Amity Park. Kuwabara takes one (1) step into the town and immediately freezes. He’s always been the most spirit-sensitive of the group, and this town is setting off all of his proverbial alarms. Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke also notice something off about the town, like everyone here has way higher spirit energy than normal.

The four make their way through town, noticing more and more as they continue. They notice the massive craters that litter the streets. They notice the constant smell of spirit and demon energy that drenches the town like a fog, covering everything and everyone. They notice the small, silvery-grey and green devices that almost everyone seems to have on their wrist, and Yusuke can’t help but think about how similar they look to the spirit-detecting gadgets he used to have back during the beginning of his detective career. They notice the metal panels that every store seems to have hanging above their windows, waiting to come down and defend from some unknown beast.

They notice how, whenever they appear in an area, everyone in the vicinity goes silent. Tense. Wary of them. Like they know three demons just appeared, even if all of them look human.

Yusuke and his team split up to search through the town and cover more ground, agreeing to meet by the local highschool in two hours. Things just get even weirder from there.

Kurama finds a patch of wild blood blossoms growing near the forest, despite the fact that they were declared extinct more than 200 years ago. Hiei sees a pair of burly men wearing all white suits and dark sunglasses dragging a young man with white hair and sunglasses away for questioning. Kuwabara is surprised when a small, glowing green puppy appears in front of him, only to vanish when he leans down to pet it.

Yusuke finds a massive stone brick building with what almost looks like a UFO perched on top, and huge neon sign with the words FentonWorks on it. Here, the spirit energy is almost suffocating, and it feels like molasses, thick and heavy and dense on Yusuke’s senses. He feels something else though, something that just barely manages to break through the thick ambient spirit energy that swamps this entire block: a ghost. And a powerful one at that.

By the time the group reconvenes at the high school, everyone is tense. They’re sure that there’s something sketchy in this town, but none of them have gotten any concrete leads on what caused the town’s sudden disappearance and reappearance. Almost none of the townsfolk give them any answers, and the few that do are vague and confusing, or outright lies. Kuwabara firmly believes that this town is haunted by ghosts, and that they’re what caused the sudden disappearance, but Yusuke, having been a ghost himself at one point, is less inclined to believe that. Yusuke is convinced that the house with the weird UFO thing and abnormal spirit energy has something to do with it, and the gang agrees that would be the best place to start.

Before they can do that though, they all suddenly sense a MASSIVE spike in spirit energy, coming from the center of town. Yusuke and the gang book it to where the spike is, hoping to get some sort of lead.

Meanwhile, Danny is having a fight with Skulker, made slightly more difficult than normal due to the fact that he’s still recovering from the whole Pariah Dark fiasco. He’s been on edge all day, ever since he sensed that weird ectosignature near his house. He’d felt the typical chill of his ghost sense, but the typical puff of blueish smoke wasn’t present like it usually was. On top of that, he’d felt a small jolt of electricity, too big to be chalked up to static electricity and carrying with it a hint of... something. Something not entirely human.

But when Danny had tried to investigate, he’d come up empty handed. Which as you can guess, made Danny My-friends-and-family-have-all-almost-been-killed-by-a-ghost-disguised-as-a-human-at-least-once Fenton more than a little nervous.

So Danny’s fighting Skulker when he feels that not-quite ghost sense again, except this time it’s even stronger than before and waaaay the hell closer. And now Danny goes from nervous to flat out terrified, because whoever or whatever is triggering his not-quite ghost sense is really fucking strong, and oh fuck are there four of them?! Are they getting closer?!?! Whatever it is is really strong, like almost stronger than Pariah Dark and Danny was barely able to take him down at 100% strength with the enhanced suit, and he no longer has the suit and he still has not fully recovered since then, so how in the fresh hell is he gonna fight four beings who are at least on par with Pariah?

Skulker notices the sudden power spike as well and immediately bounces, leaving Danny to panic over these four insanely powerful entities.

Yusuke and the gang make it just in time to see Skulker leave while Danny hovers in the air, looking like he’s about to blow a gasket. Kurama takes one look at the panicking ghost kid floating above him, notices the weird spirit energy around the kid, and immediately puts two and two together and realizes the kid is a ghost, and a really powerful one. Yusuke, who if you remember spent about a week as a ghost at the age of 14, is confused because I thought ghosts couldn’t be seen by living people? But these bystanders are clearly seeing this kid?

And then Yusuke senses that strange spirit energy he felt when he went by FentonWorks, and he’s like “You were the reason for the weird spirit signature!” at Danny, who panics and flies off because now he thinks these super powerful guys are working for the GiW, and he’d rather not spend the rest of his afterlife on an examination table.

So Danny flies off, hoping to lose Yusuke and his gang, but Yusuke I-used-to-fight-demons-who-could-move-at-the-speed-of-sound-for-fun Urameshi and Hiei have absolutely no problem keeping up with the panicking halfa, and they end up fighting. Yusuke and Hiei want answers, Danny is terrified of being caught by what are possibly government agents, and finally Kurama manages to trap the halfa with ghostly vines.

Unfortunately for Danny, these vines are phase-proof, meaning he can’t escape, and he’s already hurt and exhausted and he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold his ghost form.

Yusuke picks up on the ghost’s nervousness immediately, and again assumes that this ghost is the culprit for Amity’s sudden disappearance, demanding to know why he abducted an entire town.

Danny is confused, because what the hell are these people talking about? He never abducted the town? He’s not nearly that powerful?? Before he realizes that oh, these people are trying to figure out why the town disappeared for 24 hours because literally no one outside of Amity Park has any idea why.

So Danny starts to explain what really happened, when his time finally runs out and he detransforms.

Right in front of what he believes to be four government officials.

There are five different reactions.

Hiei goes still. He’s completely silent. This shouldn’t be possible. He wants to believe that this is all a trick, but he can hear that fifth heartbeat that wasn’t there ten seconds ago and he smells that fear scent that only humans have and glamour can only do so much.

Kurama has the calmest reaction. He leans back a little, eyes wide, and lets out a soft “oh”. Yes, this is a surprise to him, but then again, Kurama himself is a demon hiding as a human, with a human family, so he immediately sympathizes with Danny a bit.

Danny is panicking. He’s just revealed his biggest secret to four complete strangers, all of whom are absolutely powerful enough to take him out on their own, and he is terrified that they’ll turn him in to the government. He’s about five seconds from a full-blown panic attack.

Kuwabara freaks out. He’s trying to wrap his mind around this whole thing, because he is 100% sure this kid was a ghost, that he was dead, but now he’s not sensing much of anything and how the hell is this possible???? How can someone be a ghost and a human at the same time???? WHAT????? He’s pulling at his hair as he tries to put the logistics of it together, pacing back and forth.

Yusuke freezes. Suddenly he’s 14 again, floating as he watches his body get carted off as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he’s dead. Then he’s in the temple of the four saint beasts, fighting with everything he has as he watches the love of his life get attacked by monstrous zombies. Then kneeling next to Genkai’s broken and bleeding body, begging her not to go even as she draws her last breath because he couldn’t bear to lose the woman that he’s come to see as family, as the closest thing he’d ever have to a grandmother. Then he’s watching Toguro plunge his hand into Kuwabara’s heart, watching as his best freind gasps for breath because Yusuke wasn’t good enough, he wasn’t strong enough, and he just lost Genkai he can’t loose Kuwabara too-.

And when he looks down at this small, skinny teenager with deep shadows under his eyes and knuckles covered in scars from god-knows haw many fights, he sees himself as he was in the beginning: Just a kid who was thrust into the world of the supernatural without any warning, desperately trying to stay alive and protect the human world despite the fact that he’s only a teenager, and he shouldn’t have to be fighting for his life against these ancient and powerful demons because he’s a kid, dammit!

Yusuke kneels down to get to eye level with the kid. He can’t help the painful twinge in his chest when the kid looks up at him with wide, icy blue eyes, and quietly begs him not to tell anyone, because this kid can’t be much older than he was when he started out as a spirit detective and he sounds absolutely terrified, and Yusuke can’t help but wonder why he sounds so scared of people learning about the whole ghost thing.

“Listen, kid. We’re not going to hurt you. We were sent here to investigate something, and we were hoping you might know something. Can you tell us your name?”

“Danny. D-Danny Fenton.”

“Ok, cool. Don’t worry, none of here are going to tell anyone about... about whatever this is. We just want to know about something that happened here a week ago, and we were hoping you could give us some answers.”

Danny agrees, and Kurama frees him from the vines. After a couple of moments, Danny calms down as he realizes that no, these guys won’t rat him out to the government, and he agrees to answer some of their questions.

The group make their way to the outskirts of the forest, and Danny tells them about his status as a half-ghost: he tells them about his parents, how they were building a portal to the ghost zone (Everyone is more than a little freaked out at that, because now there’s a permanent portal to spirit world that Koenma doesn’t know about), how he’d gone inside to see if he could figure out why it wasn’t working, how it’d turned on while he was inside (Yusuke clenches his fists hard enough to draw blood. Both of the times he’d died had been excruciatingly painful, but at least they’d been quick. Getting electrocuted to death would be beyond agonizing, and getting caught in a portal like that...). He tells them about how his parents despise ghosts, believing them to be cruel, malicious, and emotionless, incapable of feeling pain. He tells them about how he’s TERRIFIED of telling his parents the truth, of telling them that he’s Danny Phantom because that seems to be the ghost they want to capture the most, and he’s seen what they do to the ghosts they capture (Kurama and Yusuke feel sick at that. No wonder the kid was so adamant about keeping this a secret.).

“Does anyone else know? Anyone at all?”

Yusuke breathes a small sigh of relief when Danny tells them that his sister and his two best friends know. That sigh of relief is rescinded when the kid tells them that oh yeah, all the ghosts that are constantly attacking the town? Yeah, they know my secret identity too.

Yusuke has to force himself to move on from that last tidbit because he’s about five seconds from adopting this kid despite being only five years older.

“Ok, neat. That’s... that’s ok. Moving on to why we’re here. We were hoping that you would have some information regarding the sudden disappearance and reappearance of Amity Park a week ago? Do you know why or how it happened?”

Danny talks about how, one week ago, ghosts started pouring out of the portal in unprecedented numbers. How they were terrified, running from something in the ghost zone. How Fright Knight had appeared, declaring the reign of Pariah Dark (Kurama and Hiei suck in a breath. Had... had this kid seriously fought against the fabled ghost king?), and the massive green dome had appeared over the town. How he’d tried to fight Fright Knight off, how another ghost by the name of Vlad Plasmius had shown up and admitted that he was the reason for Pariah Dark’s temporary freedom, how Plasmius had decided to have a temporary truce with Danny in order to defeat Pariah, how Danny had pulled Fright Knight’s sword from the ground and accidentally teleported Amity Park into the Ghost zone, how the entire town had gone under lock down. How he’d stolen the power suit from his parent’s lab to go and face Pariah on his own, and bring Amity back to Earth. How he’d just barely been able to shove Pariah back in the sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, how the power suit had almost completely drained his life energy, how the town had been back on earth when he’d woken up (Again, Yusuke has a flashback to the Temple of the Four Saint Beasts. What is it with the powers that be and sending kids to do life-threatening missions like that?).

Kurama records the entire thing before sending it to Koenma.

When Danny is finally done, he notices that everyone is staring at him. Yusuke is the first one to speak.

“Damn kid, you really fought the king of the Ghost Zone, huh?” Danny stutters for a moment, because this guy is saying it like Danny fought a god or something. Like yeah, it was difficult, but it can’t be that big a deal right?

Then Kurama speaks up. “Danny, I don’t think you understand. There are two ways to crown a king of the Ghost Zone: either the ghost zone itself must choose someone, or the current ghost king must be defeated in battle. You defeated Pariah Dark in battle. Meaning....”

Everyone goes silent for a moment, processing.

Then several things happen at once. Danny, who at this point still hasn’t fully processed that oh yeah, I defeated one of the most powerful ghosts in existence, freaks the hell out because I barely have time to protect one (1) town, how am I going to rule an entire dimension? Kuwabara is flipping his shit again, Hiei is contemplating, and Yusuke.... Yusuke decides screw it, I’m having an apprentice now, and after calming Danny down, he offers to help train him up a bit (Somewhere in spirit world, Genkai starts quietly laughing).

Danny agrees after a moment of deliberation. Yusuke hangs out in Amity for a bit to help Danny. His first interaction with Sam and Tucker is.... interesting. Yusuke snuck up on Sam and Tucker, and Sam promptly punched him in the face and almost broke his nose. But after a bit they start to warm up to him, and eventually Yusuke starts teaching Sam some hand to hand along with Danny.

Vlad makes one appearance while Yusuke is there. He sensed some sort of foreign presence in Amity and wanted to see if he could exploit it, only for Yusuke I-haven’t-slept-in-a-week-and-I-refuse-to-start-now Urameshi to wipe the floor with him. When he asks Danny who the new ghost is, he is surprised to learn that no, Danny is not the only half-ghost in existence, and also that guy is a famous millionaire and also knows my secret identity so maybe let’s not break into his mansion to fight him please? (Yusuke agrees not to after a very lengthy argument. Still, the whole situation reminds him a little too much of Toguro and the Dark tournament, and he quietly asks Koenma to open an investigation into this Vlad Plasmius guy.)

Yusuke’s introduction to Danny’s parents goes... surprisingly well, actually. Aside from one small incident where one of the Fenton ghost detectors lock on to Yusuke’s signature, everything goes fairly well. Jack and Maddie take a shine to him almost immediately, when they see him curb stomp Skulker with a practiced ease that only a professional should have, and within the week Yusuke is an honorary member of the Fenton family.

There’s a lot more, but this post is waaaay too long as it is. Feel free to add on!

#Danny Phantom #yu yu hakusho #yusuke urameshi #danny fenton #Danny phantom crossover #Seriously tho why has no one done this one yet?#It would be so interesting #ESPECIALLY if Yusuke is older here #The dynamic between Yusuke and Danny would be so damn fun #I imagine it's similar to Genkai and Yusuke's relationship #Speaking of Genkai #The MOMENT she finds out that yusuke is training someone #She busts her way out of spirit world so she can find out who it is #she wants to know who her grandkid is teaching dammit!#she takes one look at Danny and is just like #Looks like I'm adopting yet another snarky half dead fourteen year-old #Also Danny can totally see her #and it throws her for one hell of a loop #Danny floats up to her and is like yo what's up?#and Genkai's chill abt it on the outside #on the inside tho #she's like #*surprised pikachu face*#Hiei #Kurama #yyh kuwabara #koenma #i will pay whoever writes this 50 dollars #jk i don't have any money #but like

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