#look I just think there’s a lot of unused potential with people thinking Hood is a middle aged man | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wackology · 4 years ago

Text

Dumb HBCU/WR movie ramblings

Ok so I've been thinking a bit about the HBCU and a potential Wacky Races movie in development a bit and I got a lot of shit to say about this so buckle your seatbelts and hold on to your hats as you witness my incoherent ramblings and fanon headcanons.

So it pretty much agreed upon that any next installment of the HBCU is gonna take a while to come out considering how WB has put the HBCU in standstill for their dr seuss cinematic universe and liveaction-animation hyprid movies. Hell even the director of Scoob said that. The possibility of us getting another cinematic HB film in the next 5 years are close to none but if we were to get a movie it would probably be wacky races themed. Why? Cuz the Scoob film left off with Dick escaping prison with the wacky races on his mind (or in this case, his prison cell) and it would make sense for WB to continue the HBCU (which they probs don't plan to) with a character we are pretty familiar with and the only likable character in Scoob. Which begs the question, where would the plot go narrative wise?

Dick probably won't be the main character of the story but I can practically guarantee it will be Penelope Pitstop. I mean they already got concept art and i think they have models too that were unused and the people on scoob said they didn't add her to the film because they planned for her to be part of something bigger. Basically, I bet my left arm that the protag will be penny because apart from dick and muttley, she was the most memorable character of the show. We must also consider how they would tie up other hanna barbera characters and properties into a WR film thats part of an HBCU installment.

So basically, with this in mind I have created a few theoretical plots/premises that might happen in a WR movie

1. A Hooded Claw driven girl power film

Claw is an og and classic antagonist for penny, and if they really wanted to make a film centered on her the hooded claw is the perfect character to play the bad guy. I feel like the plot would go a bit like this: In order to kill penny and get her inheritance, Claw sponsored/set up the wacky races to kill penelope under the guise that good ol uncle sylvester was supporting Penny's girl power dreams to be a racer. Basically, he acts all supportive and shit for her to chase her dreams and enter this new race but under the mask actually set the whole thing up as an elaborate plan to kill her.

He lets the most deranged, insane and wacky people enter the race, from a gangster mob, to literal monsters to a pilot racer and a military tank duo with guns and canons thinking that Penny's survival chances in this race will be close to none, especially with it being a sausage fest and him not believing in girl power. He even hires a professional mercenary with an evil dog to help kill penny in the WR (yes, dick, and yes he was sucessful at killing the pigeon in the scoobverse so he is actually considered quite the exceptional and competent villian in universe).

The rest of the film would be her racing and doing good despite all the odds and ends at her winning the grand finale, much to the frustration of Claw.Basically a film of empowerment for young girls to enjoy. This plot would probably be the most faithful to the original WR and most likely be a prequel to Scoob since the movie implies that Dick was doing all the skull shit after the wacky races sooo yeah.

There could also be a peter/penny subplot, perhaps not as romantic interests but as platonic friends or just some flirty exchanges between them, as well as a dick subplot with him not liking to race much at first and doing it for just the money but coming to love it as the film progresses. This plot would also probably be the least HBCU type film since it is mostly WR based and by nature would already have a ton of characters but they might try to replace some of the less memorable characters with other HB characters that are a bit more memorable than the boring racers but not as well known to have their own films (could see the country bears replace luke and blubber bear as well as any other character replace the lumberjack guy).

2. The Great Race inspired film

So we kinda get the idea in scoob that dick hasn't been in the Wacky races for a while after muttley disappeared and all the skull business happened but as we all know, dick was the character who made the races actually interesting. So the execs couldnt just have the wacky races without dick so what did they do ? They got a doppleganger of course, that being this boyyyy

Basically, the Wacky Races executives used Dick's way less famous twin brother the Dread Baron and his dog friend Mumbly to fill in for the two once they realized Dick wasn't going to come back after prison. They were wrong of course but dick doesnt know he's been replaced and escapes thinking he was going to join the races again but when he does find out it bruises his ego a lot.

This idea technically serves better as a subplot and could be woven into the hooded claw story above if we just changed a few elements( make it happen after scoob instead of before, perhaps DB and Mumbly were hired by claw to kill penny and dick has to begrudgingly help penny and peter to get his place back in wacky races). After plot stuff happens it ends with dick being in the WR again and DB finding employment elsewhere in the Laffalympics which can easily tie into the established HBCU since it has the yogi gang, mystery gang, captain caveman and the teen angels gang and blue falcon and dynomutt.

Does this theoretical plot draw a lot from my personal desire to see DB just once. Yes. But do i care. No

3. The super HBCU plot(probs the most likely)

So the end credits basically tell us that after the scoob movie that the mystery gang and other HB characters joined the falcon force and are fighting baddies and crap.

Dick has escaped so they will probably start looking for him and in order to do so they get tangled up in the wacky races. Dick isnt the main antagonist tho( he's either trying to sabotage the other wacky racers because he is salty af or begrudgingly has to help out the heros or main antagonist) but the falcon/scooby gang discover a huge conspiracy happening within the wacky races that goes something like this: this race was set up kind of like a scavenger hunt across the world or the US to find mcguffins that are actually really powerful and crap when assembled, which is what the villain was trying to do because evil reasons. Basically wacky raceland done funnier or just Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run.

In this premise not only would the og wacky racers and scoob cast be in it but i bet there would also be a bunch of cameos and references to other HB characters and they might even join in on the action and be racers too. I have no real clue on who the main baddie would be but I think it would be a johnny quest bad guy or something:( in the end credits they are teaming up with Quest industries after all).

I feel like the entire vibe of a premise like this would be very mad max like but without all the apocalypse stuff and just pure unrefined insanity. I kinda based these ideas off some of the unused concept art in scoob and I'm pretty sure the gang and the falcon force would team up with penny cuz they were planning to do so in the og concept art.

I have a few other ideas in my head but those arent fully developed but I might post them one day lol. But yeah, thanks for listening to my dumb shit lol

28 notes · View notes

pressedinthepages · 5 years ago

Photo

Chapter 2: Expectations

Summary: After 30 years of walking the path alone, your heart has hardened over, but it seems there are a couple of cracks.

Series Masterlist

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24382063/chapters/59027686

Words: 1754

Warnings: not really any this time, little bit of sexism and swearing, but nothing extreme.

A/N: I know I’m a bit early with this one, but I’m so excited so I can’t wait XD This one’s a bit shorter, but I like where it ended so it’ll be a good setup for the next chapter :) enjoy! Also, the term 'fauntkin' is a medieval term of endearment, essentially meaning "young child."

The sun is high in the sky, a slight breeze stirring dust from the trail as you walk. You can feel eyes burning holes in the back of your armor as you approach the notice board. You’ve arrived in a sizeable town in Velen, almost as far east as Oxenfurt. The people here, you can tell, are well-fed and prosperous. Being this close to a big city tends to leave people with an extra bit of coin in their pockets, but it also tends to come with bigger problems. Sometimes it’s bigger, meaner contracts, or it’s stingy, uptight employers. Your leather skirt billows around your knees, and you are grateful for the lined trousers you wore underneath as the wind bit your nose. You keep the hood on your cloak up, not yet having a chance to figure out just how welcome you are here.

1225. The year catches your eye from a slip of parchment on the board, glaring at you, taunting you behind a ruse of some poor sap looking for a lost ring. You think back, it’s been about thirty years since you left Kaer Morhen, and you’ve not been able to bring yourself to crawl back up those steps. You’d heard whispers among townsfolk about an attack, just a few years after you left on the Path. You had contemplated returning, feeling a wave of grief come over you as one of the last Wolves on the continent.

But as you started making the trek towards the mountains, a sense of panic and dread building in your chest. That place had held you down, smothered you, taken everything that you had the potential to be and robbed it of you. It turned you into something not much more than the monsters you are paid to slay and almost killed you in the process. You often found yourself wishing that the damned place had actually finished the job and let you die in the Trials, let you slip from its grasp into the cold, dark earth.

Shaking the daydream away, you peer at the fluttering papers nailed to the board. Most were useless, people looking for misplaced trinkets or threatening their neighbors. However, there was one in the corner that drew your attention, mainly because of the big letters scrawled across the top: WITCHER NEEDED.

You scan the notice quickly, shoving it into your pack before briskly turning and striding towards the edge of town. The contract spoke of a “hoard of flying women, tits sagging in a most horrid manner.” The man who had posted the notice had directed the reader to come to his home, where he would tell them what they needed to know.

As you approach, you see a bearded man with two young children playing as he worked in a small garden. You cross into the yard, the children quieting with your arrival. You clear your throat, the man startling at the noise. He stands and turns to you, taking notice of the two swords on your back and the scar on your brow.

“I’m here about the contract.” Your voice is even, decades of training and practice behind you to quell any emotion that may be conveyed in your tone. The man’s eyes quickly flick down and back up your body, seemingly confused by your existence. You’re used to it though, everyone is. His eyes settle back on the scar at your brow and it tingles, your hands fighting the urge to scratch at it.

Losing patience, you arch your brow and hold the parchment out to him. He glances down at it and clears his throat.

“Well, miss, I’m not sure if this is something that you’d really be able to handle…” his voice trailing off as your golden eyes narrowed in disdain.

“I can assure you,” you sneered, venom dripping from your tongue, “I am plenty capable of taking care of myself. Now, tell me more about what you saw.”

The man at least has the decency to flush, looking askance as he avoided your gaze. His name is Kasper, and as he weaves his story, you know exactly what the contract is asking. There is a dense forest at the base of the mountains where many people go to collect herbs and vegetables. But there is a new nest of “winged things, naked and smelling of rot,” and they attack anyone who ventures to the far edge of the forest. The man says there were about a dozen of them, all of them vicious. They scream and scratch, and they will steal any sort of jewelry or other shiny items with their victim.

“Seems you’ve been burdened with a harpy nest,” and you can tell that the children are listening intently to every word. “I’d be willing to take care of this for you, but I would like to discuss payment.”

Kasper shifts, scratching the underside of his chin before sighing. “I’ve never seen a Lady Witcher before, but if you feel confident that you can do this…”

“I do, and I am no Lady. I am but a Witcher, one who is here and able to solve your problem.”

You discuss the payment, agreeing on a price that is a few more crowns than the notice had stated, and that you would receive payment upon providing proof of the job being finished. As you turn to leave, one of the children runs to your side. She can’t be more than five summers, and you are briefly reminded of your fever dream full of confusion and betrayal.

“Excuse me, Lady Witcher?” She tugs on the hem of your skirt just above your knee, pulling your attentions back to her. You feel the edge of your mouth turn up slightly, you’ve always been weak at the innocence of children. You stop and kneel, finding yourself at eye level with the little girl. Her younger brother is behind her, clasping onto the leg of his father and bashfully turning his head into it. The girl’s eyes are wide and full of life and joy, and you feel your heart clench for a moment.

As you peer back at her with your bright eyes that burn with their intensity, you notice that you can’t smell fear. It’s a high, sour smell that permeates the air and follows you almost everywhere you go. But not here, not from this child. She only radiates comfort and trust, and grass. Your nose is especially sensitive to the smell of grass, twitching slightly with the effort to not sneeze onto the girl in front of you.

“You gotta promise something,” the little girl says, swaying slightly as she speaks, already tired of staying still for too long.

You smile kindly, a movement that you’ve allowed yourself to relearn over the years. There’s not a lot behind it, but it’s better than the empty holes where your feelings used to be. “And what would you have me promise, fauntkin?”

“You gotta promise you’ll be careful, cause if you don’t who’s gonna take care of the scary bird ladies?” she exclaims indignantly.

You blink in surprise, unsure of how to respond to that. You end up settling on “well, I’ve come back from every hunt I’ve gone on so far, so I have a pretty good feeling about this one.”

She doesn’t seem convinced, her teeth worrying her lower lip. “And then what? What about when another monster comes here? Will you come back?”

“If you’d like for me to, I will gladly return,” you say, and before you can register what happens she throws her arms around your neck and you stiffen, unused to the blatant display of affection. But as she rests her head on your shoulder, you gently wrap an arm around her waist, returning the gesture as best as you can. Your legs are at an awkward angle and they begin to ache, but you wouldn’t move for all of the coin in the world. It’s been decades since you’ve felt such trust from another person, and you can’t let it go before it’s ready. It’s easy to imagine a life full of love like this, easy and warm.

The girl moves back, her mind wandering to far-off worlds with sunshine and happiness around every corner. You watch her go as you stand, your lungs feeling a bit too tight and your eyes watering just a bit. You turn and head towards the forest, feeling your heart harden back up with every step back into your life.

…

The dwindling light from the sun casts rays through the leaves of the forest. They flash bright reds and yellows, precarious along the branches that dance on the breeze. The bright colors remind you of the approaching frost, and you decide that as soon as you complete this contract, you’ll move further south. The sooner you get there, the better, so that you can hopefully establish a presence in a town that would be willing to house you during the winter.

You’re kneeling at a small stream that runs through a clearing in the heart of the forest. You’ve set up a small camp for the evening atop a hill behind you, and you followed the sound of trickling water in the hope that you may get (at least a little) clean. You’ve left your armor with your horse at the camp, leaving you in a light chemise and your trousers, your two swords still strung across your back. You rest your hands in the stream, the cool water cutting through your skin before embracing it, swirling and gliding through your fingers. You take a deep breath in, surrounding yourself with the tranquility of a quiet forest, smelling only the earth and the water and the animals that call this place their home.

The peace did not last long, however, as the wind carried the sound of light, bounding hoofbeats followed closely by heavy, thundering footfalls. You stand, scenting the air as you move. You’re upwind, and all you can gather from what smells you can catch is that they’re alive. No shit, you think to yourself, unsheathing your steel sword and swinging it around your wrist to grip it. The threats are far too close for you to be able to rush back to your camp, so you face the direction they are coming from head-on. You raise your sword across your chest to strike just as the first ‘living thing’ bursts through the thicket into the clearing.

#hollow things #eskel x reader #fem!reader #female witcher #series #my fic

50 notes · View notes

ddaengyoonmin · 6 years ago

Text

@kpopgirlbtssvt

Paring: hybrid!Taehyung x hybrid!Jimin x human!reader

Genre: Fluff, angst, hybrid!au, mate!au, poly!au

Warnings: mentions of the hybrids being mistreated, very light mature content.

A/N: This was really fun to write and I might want to do a more mature(nsfw) sequel to it! Hope you like it💜💜💜💜

Word count: 5.2k

———————————————————————

Work was boring as always, and a customer decided that it was your fault that your store didn’t have the item in stock that they wanted. So your day wasn’t going too great. You worked at a shop that sold supplies for hybrids, leashes and collars and specialty food for the more picky breeds of hybrid.

Lately all it reminded you of was the cute little parrot hybrid that your family had owned growing up that your parents had recently informed you they had to give away because she was getting to old for them to handle. It broke your heart. You couldn’t believe that your parents would treat her that way. Most people treat hybrids so cruel in your opinion, adopting them and tossing them when they get bored or it becomes too hard.

You know that they are only half human, but they act and (besides some of their features) they look mostly human, you can’t help but think of them as equals that just need some extra care. Your best work friend Hoseok was one of the few good ones, he took care of his hybrid well and let him just hangout with him like they were friends, and they really were. You haven’t yet adopted your own, you were close to doing so once at an adoption shelter that mostly just sold cat and dog hybrids but you just didn’t click with any of them.

“So how’s Yoongi doing?” you asked Hoseok while the two of you were on break together.

“He’s doing well, I��m actually thinking of adopting another hybrid to keep him company during the day while I’m at work. I think he's been getting lonely stuck in the house”

One of the rules about hybrids that you hated. They weren’t ever allowed to go anywhere without their owners, so poor Yoongi had to stay inside all day anytime Hoseok worked, or he could get in a lot of trouble with the law.

“That might be a good idea, but don’t you think two hybrids is a lot to handle? Can you afford that?” you wondered

Hoseok shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich he had brought on break with him “I think I can manage. As long as it’s compatible with Yoongi.” You nodded in understanding. Yoongi was quite the rare breed, a grumpy Grizzly bear who didn’t get along with anyone easily who wasn’t Hoseok. He was even still kinda shy around you after the two years you’d known him.

You and Hoseok clock back in and finish your long shift. Then you gather your backpack and put on your favorite puffy blue coat that you had brought along with you.

“You sure you don’t want a ride home? It looks like it’s gonna rain” Hoseok tried to persuade you.

“I’m good” you chuckled “I really do like walking home.”

“Suit yourself crazy” Hoseok teased, giving you a quick hug, he twirled his keys around his fingers and walked away to his car giving you one last little wave before getting in and heading out of the parking lot.

Your walk home was usually about 45 minutes, but you looked forward to it, it was relaxing to just walk alone and listen to all the big city noises.

Yet, Hoseok was right, only about 5 minutes into your walk it started to sprinkle rain, the dark sky was hinting that it was only the start.

You sighed and put the hood of your coat up over your head, shivering slightly. Maybe you could figure out a shortcut home through some of the alleyways between the buildings.

You see a long, dark and narrow path between the red neon light of a chinese restaurant and a large bank that seemed to be a good bet for the shortcut home.

It somewhat gave you the creeps, but the rain was slowly getting heavier and heavier by the minute and you knew that you would be caught in quite the strong downpour if you didn’t make it home soon.

Fuck it, you thought, and started a quick pace down the alley.

About half way down your speed mixed with the wet pavement and bad shoes decided to betray you and you slipped and fell. Palms out you caught yourself with minimal damage, only a slight stinging on your hands now.

You stood up, brushing the dirt and gravel off of your hands when you saw something strange.

Huddled next to a dumpster there looked like two figures. You almost ran, not wanting to get mugged or attacked here where no one else was around. But then you saw, poking out from the tops of both of their heads were furry ears, kind of like cat ears but not any cat you’d ever encountered.

They both were sleeping curled up together sharing a single brown jacket draped over them, that looked like they must have found it in the trash somewhere. The smaller one had his head burrowed under one of the larger hybrid’s arms as he held him tight shivering, his lips quivering from the cold.

You didn’t know if you should approach them, but your heart broke at the idea of just leaving and doing nothing to help them. If they were found by Hybrid Control they could potentially be taken to one of the city shelters that you knew were more like jails. Or worse someone could take them and sell them to one of those illegal underground hybrid fighting clubs that you’d heard of.

The right thing to do seemed to be to at least make sure they were okay. So you slowly stepped towards them, not wanting to startle them and have them think you were going to hurt them. You carefully moved their way and crouched down next to them, approaching the side of the smaller boy. His silver wet strands of hair were sticking to his forehead as the rain continued to fall on the three of you.

You put a hand on his shoulder gently to wake him. Almost instantly a hand shot up and grabbed your wrist. Both of their eyes were open and on you, a growl escaped the lips of the larger black haired hybrid. Their piercing gaze sent a chill down your spine, their eyes were catlike and intense. The large white ears sitting flat back to their heads. The smaller boy who was gripping your wrist tightly let out a hiss, his sharp cuspids bared at you.

“We won’t let you take us back” the black haired one lowly grumbled, his eyes narrowing.

“No, no, you’re misunderstanding. I’m here to help. I won’t hurt you, I swear!” your eyes widened as you tried to make sure your honestly showed through your tone.

“And why should we trust that you aren’t with them? Just trying to trick us and bring us back” the silver haired hybrid growled.

“My name is y/n. I work at a hybrid supply store. I live alone and I’m not going to hurt you or take you anywhere you don’t want to go. You have to trust me” You hoped telling them a bit about yourself might help convince them that you are just a passing good samaritan.

The two of them looked at you skeptically.

“You can’t want to just sit here out in the rain. If you want I have a guest room at my apartment you can stay in for just the night?” you offered.

The silver haired boy turned and whispered into the other hybrid’s ear. They spoke back and forth too quiet for you to hear for a short while.

“Fine.” The black haired one spoke, “We’ll come with you for just the night. But if it even so much as looks like you’re planning on turning us in, just remember that we aren’t kitten hybrids” he glared at you.

You nodded, wondering if you were making a mistake, what were they? Were they dangerous? Should you have just left them alone?

The grip on your wrist releases and you stand up. The larger hybrid helped the smaller one up, then you realize that both of them tower over you. While one of them was shorter than the other, he still stood about a head taller than you. You inhaled sharply, realizing that bringing these two back to your house could be risky.

I’m doing the right thing. You told yourself.

As you started walking to show them the way, you noticed that the shorter man was limping, he had an arm around the shoulder of the other as they walked to steady himself.

What could have happened to them?

When the three of you arrived you saw that they were still shaking and shivering from being out in the cold.

“If you want to take a warm shower, I can show you how it works?” you offered.

They nodded shyly, eyes wide they both looked around your apartment in awe.

“This place is amazing” the smaller hybrid gasped with his mouth in an O shape.

You’d never thought of your place as amazing, it was actually pretty small for most people’s standards. A small kitchen with appliances that you wouldn’t consider up to date. A tiny living room that barely fit your couch and the coffee table and TV that sat in front of it. The guest bedroom was small and unused. You’d bought a full sized bed for it with some cute blue sheets and a blue flower pattern comforter in hopes that your friends from the small town you grew up in would come visit you when you’d moved here to the city. But they never had.

There was one bathroom with plain gray walls, a small shower/tub, a toilet and one person sink with a cute mirror hanging up over it.

Your room was only slightly bigger than the guest room and was quite plain. White sheets and a fuzzy black blanket laid messily on your unmade bed, clothes messily laid around on the floor by your wooden dresser, and a few too many empty glasses on your bedside table.

You had instantly shut the door to your room when you’d walked in with them, embarrassed of the mess.

You walked them to the bathroom and showed them how to use the shower and brought some towels to use.

Both of them at the same time started undressing before you’d even left the room. Before you had a chance to look away, they were shirtless, they were a bit too skinny, and there were a few similar scars and scratches scattered across the expanse of both of their toned chests.

“Ah!” you shrieked in surprise, whipping your whole body around in a 180 towards the door. “I’ll leave you guys to it then”

You hadn’t expected them to both get into the shower together, but you guessed that they were just too nervous to be alone. Again you wonder what could’ve happened to them... The marks on their chest and stomach looked like they’d been whipped with something, and the silver haired one had been limping the whole way home.

You went and grabbed some extra blankets and pillows to put in the guest room for them. Then went to the kitchen to make some of your favorite soup for the three of you.

You heard the shower shut off and then the door creak open.

They walked out together, drying their hair with their towels almost in sync with each other. They were wearing their pants at least, but they were still shirtless. The sight was lovely.

You let out a small gasp that only you could hear. Their skin looked soft and smooth, besides the cuts (that you set a mental note to yourself to take a look at, and offer some antibiotic cream and then bandage for them) you imagined yourself running your hand down their chests, feeling the pronounced abs that graced their stomachs.

You bit your lip slightly at the thought, then shook your head quickly to snap yourself out of it. You shouldn’t think of them that way. They were scared and lost, and obviously not trusting of humans. The last thing they needed was someone trying to feel them up, no matter how tempting and angelic they looked, that just was wrong.

“I made soup!” you chimed,walking to sit on the couch where you had placed out three bowls with three spoons for all of you. You patted the couch for them to sit next to you.

They joined you and stared suspiciously at the bowls in front of them.

“What, ya never had soup before?” you joked at them with a giggle.

They both shook their heads.

“No…” the black haired man frowned.

“Oh.” you became serious, realizing you shouldn’t have teased them. “It's good! Look,” you grabbed your bowl and spoon and started to eat.

The two hybrid men imitate your actions and started to eat.

“Woah!” the smaller one gasped out “This is so good!” he started to eat hurriedly, ditching the spoon and opting to just hold the bowl up to his face and slurp it down with bright eyes.

“So what are your names?” you asked between spoonfuls.

The silver haired boy sets his empty bowl down on the table, “Ah, names...Not sure. Sometimes they’d called me Mochi” he shrugged “that was mostly only when they’d try and adopt me out, besides that it was ‘hybrid 8321’”

“And they’d call me ‘V’ sometimes, but mostly I was ‘hybrid 8322’” the darker haired one said softly.

“Who are ‘they’?” you wondered.

V and Mochi exchanged looks at each other, as if debating on whether they should tell you.

“If we tell you, you have to promise not to bring us back there” V spoke with his eyes narrowed and stern.

“Of course I won’t. I told you I won’t make you go anywhere you don’t want to” you nodded.

“You gotta say you promise!” Mochi whined with a pout.

“I promise” you returned.

“We escaped from a company called the Exotic Hybrid Breeding Association. It’s a shelter” V put shelter in air quotes as he spoke. “But it was horrific. They kept us in small cages. 8321 and I were next to each other our whole lives.” upon seeing your eyes widened he repeated “Yeah, our whole lives...Well actually...almost. We were born there, and raised there. They trained us how to be good to a potential family that might adopt us. 8321 got adopted one year, and he was sent back almost instantly. We had told them that we didn’t want to go to seperate homes, if someone wanted one of us, we both should go.” he growled at his memory “But they dragged him out of his cage one day and took him away from me”

Mochi cuddled into V’s side as he spoke, V wrapped his arms around him and kissed the top of his head.

“8321 ended up biting one of the members of the family that adopted him and they returned him immediately. The people at the shelter beat him and hurt him for being a bad pet. Beatings weren’t unusually there, but that one could’ve killed him.” V hissed. “After that, I knew we couldn’t stay there. We came up with a plan to escape, so we could always be together” he squeezed Mochi tightly to him.

“The outside world isn’t easy though. We’d only been out there for a few days, and it was so scary.” Mochi pouted.

“Not as scary as the shelter though” V looked down at the silver haired boy, to which Mochi nodded in agreement.

“Thats horrible” you whispered, almost in tears at their story. “I don’t even know what to say” you stared down into your soup, spinning it around with your spoon.

V shrugged, “Not really anything to say I guess. Just glad we aren’t there. And I’d do anything to make sure it stays that way”

“Well you can stay here as long as you want” you told him. Not even thinking twice about it.

“Thank you.” V quietly replied, gazing down affectionately at a now almost asleep Mochi.

“What are you by the way?” you blurted. “Ah, sorry if that came out weird...what breed of hybrid are you? That's probably a better way of asking”

V chuckled softly so as not to move Mochi too much. “We are both the same, Eurasian Lynxes”

“Oh woah.” Your eyebrows raised up “I’d never heard of that breed of hybrid, I thought maybe you were snow leopards or something.” you admitted

“Kinda missing the big fluffy tails if that was the case” V smiled slightly, pointing to the snoring Mochi who was now sprawled out on his stomach with his head in V’s lap, a small stubby tail poked out from a hole in the back of his pants.

“Ah, I see.” you nodded, silence lingered in the apartment for a while before you decided to break it “So you two really are close.” you looked at the way Mochi clung to V

“He’s my mate” V stated simply “My whole life its been him and I. Even though we could only touch hands through the bars of our cages. They wouldn’t even give us exercise time at the same times.” he frowned with sad eyes. “This week was the first time I’ve ever held him”

You smiled, not wishing what they’d gone through on anyone, but thinking how nice it must be to have someone like that. A mate. Someone who loved you the way it was obvious that they loved each other.

“Well” you sighed, standing up from the couch and collecting the dishes from the table, “Like I said, you can stay here as long as you’d like. The guest bedroom is yours, or you can sleep here on the couch. I’d just suggest not going out anywhere without me, it really is dangerous out there for hybrids without owners to just wander around. But, I’m not going to tell you what to do.” you shrugged.

You didn’t want to pressure them. It sounded like their whole life was being controlled and confined with no freedom. You wanted them to know that they had choices here with you, and as much as you hoped that they would stay here for a while, you weren’t going to force them.

“Thank you” you heard V answer quietly as you make your way to your room. A small smile grows on your face at the feeling of your house not being as empty as it usually is. You hadn’t even realized how lonely you’d been until they got here. It was soothing and made you feel happier than you’d felt in a long time just knowing they were there in the other room. Part of you never wanted them to leave

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

The next day was your day off. You woke up early and walked out to the living room quietly, not sure if V and Mochi were still sleeping on the couch.

But the couch was empty. They must’ve moved to the bed, you hoped. Not wanting to intrude but scared that they might’ve just left, you cracked the door to the guest room quietly and peeked in.

The two of them were curled up cutely together under all of the blankets, sleeping peacefully in each others arms.

You shut the door and let out a sigh of relief, not really sure why you were so worried but so glad that they were still here.

You decided to call up Hoseok to see if he had any suggestions on what you should do to help them.

“Woah, I’ve heard of that shelter before, they’ve been sued a lot for abusing their hybrids, but they make so much money that they basically have their lawsuits budgeted in.” Hoseok spat out angrily after you’d told him V and Mochi’s situation.

“I hate people that treat hybrids like that.” he grumbled.

“Yeah it’s awful” you sighed “I’m just glad they are okay now. Do you have any advice on taking care of them? Making sure they have everything they need?”

Hoseok was quiet for a moment on the other line, you could picture him standing there with his hand on his chin thinking.

“Lynxes you said?”

“Yeah Eurasian Lynxes, it seems like quite the rare breed.”

“It is, I’ve never heard of anyone owning one. You might have some issues with adopting them if it comes down to that. If the shelter has reported them as missing and then you go to adopt them it’d probably show up on their radar instantly.” he said seriously

“Oh. But, what if I just tell the shelter I’d adopt them, I mean, thats what they do, adopt out hybrids to owners right?” you suggested

“Have you seen what exotic hybrids go for? Thats easily a whole year of the paychecks we make, and that’s just for one.”

You gasped “Wait really? How’d you afford a grizzly bear hybrid?”

Hoseok chuckled, “Well, he’s not necessarily considered exotic. Just high risk. And I got him from a shelter where they knock the price down for hard to sell hybrids” he paused “grizzlies aren’t exactly popular except for in the illegal fighting rings.” he grew serious as he trailed off on that last part.

You were glad you had a friend who cared for his hybrid the way you felt they deserved to be treated. You wished more people could be like Hoseok.

“Ah. So any other advice?”

“Hmm, just make sure they feel at home. It seems like you’re doing a good job already. Treat them just like you would a person, they are smart and they aren’t just pets, it’s more than that. As long as you stick to that, I think you’ll be fine. Just ask them what they need, I’m sure they can tell you.”

“Thanks Hoseok, I really appreciate it. Maybe you could come over some time and introduce Yoongi to them if he wants.”

“That’d be awesome! Lets not rush it though.” he answered

“Right. Anyways, I should get going, I’m gonna make them breakfast”

“Peace out y/n, keep me updated on how things are going. Be safe”

“Will do, talk to ya soon” you hung up the phone, walking to the kitchen to pull out some ingredients for a large breakfast.

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

Things went smoothly over the next week, V and Mochi showed no signs of being uncomfortable in your home. They appreciated everything you did for them with a big smile. You were getting used to having them around as part of your routine.

They were becoming well adjusted to life with you. Mochi would pout when you’d leave for work and then light up with his ears perked when you’d come home with a loud “Y/N!”

Today when you’d gotten back from work he even gave you a big hug, his arms wrapped around your stomach. You grinned and patted him on the head, “Hey Mochi”

V sat on the couch, a serious expression on his face, pulling at his fingers nervously.

You walked over to sit down next to him, taking your shoes off and tossing them by the door.

“Hey you okay?” you asked him, slightly confused at his solemn demeanor.

He bit his lip nervously as Mochi plopped himself down on the couch on the other side of him.

“I just...feel like we’ve gotten comfortable here. It kinda scares me.” he looked down into his lap avoiding your eyes, “I know you said we can stay as long as we’d like. But I don’t want to overstay my welcome. I don’t want to be a burden on you” he sighed “We’ve decided we are going to leave tomorrow”

You felt your heart clench with sadness at his words. There was no way in the world that you’d ever think of them being here as overstaying their welcome, let alone a burden.

“Oh, if that's what you want” you spoke gloomily. “I’ll never force you into anything. But, I like you both being here. I actually…” you took a deep breath, “I want to adopt you. If you’d let me. Unofficially of course, we can’t do the real paperwork for it” you nervously admitted.

“You what?” Mochi gasped and stared at you with his eyes wide as saucers. “A-Adopt? Both of us?” he squeeked.

V was silent but his expression was loud, his eyes large and his jaw dropped open.

“I’m sorry, that's ridiculous isn’t it. You don’t have a good history with humans, and here I am suggesting that I could own you or something, I’m stupid” you shook your head.

“No” Mochi shook his head “That’s not it…”

“Do you really want us here? Like...forever?” V looked up at you with his catlike eyes.

“I do, I want you to stay. I want to take care of you and give you a home for always” you smiled at them.

The two of them turned to each other and whispered into each other's ears quietly as they often did. Then turned back to you and nodded in sync “Please adopt us y/n.” they spoke together.

“And name us…” V whispered shyly. “Its not that we don’t like V and Mochi, but...those were the names that they gave us. We want you to give us real names.”

“Oh, yeah sure” you thought, pursing your lips together and thinking hard.

“You’ll be Taehyung, or Tae” you pointed to V, “And you’ll be Jimin” you pointed to Mochi

The two of them purred and smiled widely

“I love it! Jimin...its so pretty y/n. Thank you!” he jumped up from his spot on the couch and ran over to you, tackling you and snuggling his face into the crook of your neck. You giggled and ruffled his silver hair as you returned his affections.

“Is Taehyung okay?” you asked

“More than okay. Incredible” his cheerful eyes met yours. “It feels...like me”

Jimin now sat on your lap while cuddling you, nuzzling his face against you.

“Well that settles it then. Taehyung and Jimin, you’ll stay here, this is your home now” you spoke warmly.

“Mmm. I like that” Taehyung leaned in and rested his head on your shoulder.

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

After a few more weeks you things seemed even more routine with Taehyung and Jimin. You’d even started showing them how to cook yummy food for themselves while you were at work. The guest room had become their room, you let them look online with you to pick out bedding that they liked better than the blue flower patterned comforter.

Your home really had become theirs as well. You were comfortable with them, always joking and goofing around. Sometimes they’d pick you up and spin you around joking about how tiny you were compared to them.

They were much larger than you, and actually three years older you’d found out. They were the same age as each other , just a few months apart. It seemed so surreal that they’d known each other their whole lives, and here they were happy and in love.

Slight jealousy flooded over you at the thought. You again wished that you could find such a strong love like they shared.

Taehyung noticed you pouting while the three of you sat on the couch watching TV.

“You okay?” his brow furrowed and he looked worried.

“Ah...yeah its nothing.” you brushed it off hoping that they’d drop it.

You looked over to see them whispering to each other, then looking over at you.

“Hey y/n…” Jimin shyly spoke. “Can we sleep in your room tonight…”

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

You hadn’t been sure whether or not it was a good idea. You actually texted Hoseok about it and asked him if it was weird to sleep in the same bed as your hybrids.

To which he joked ‘You mean sleep with your hybrids?!’

‘Not like that!!!’ you had texted back immediately.

‘No not weird’ he replied ‘on both acounts ;)’ he added after the first text.

You groaned and rolled your eyes at your phone. Though, it's not like you’d never thought of it before, but you always stopped yourself before your thoughts got too carried away.

You were now laying in bed under the covers, scrunched as far to one side as you could to leave enough room for Taehyung and Jimin who were finishing brushing their teeth and getting ready to join you.

When the two of them walked in, you let out an audible gasp. They were shirtless, wearing only sweatpants that hung low, showing off the vlines of their lower abs so magnificently.

Jimin jumped on the bed excitedly next to you and snuggled up close.

“Hey no fair” Taehyung pouted walking over to the bed, “I wanted to cuddle y/n tonight”

“If she sleeps in the middle we can both cuddle her Taehyung” Jimin smiled, they loved using the names that you had given them.

Taehyung smiled and nodded walking to the side of the bed where you were and motioning for you to move over.

“Why do we both need to cuddle y/n???” you joked at them as you moved over for Tae.

You felt Taehyung's arms wrap around your stomach and pull you in close to him, while Jimin flung a leg over top of you comfortably.

“Cuz we like you.” Jimin said cutely, nuzzling his head into your shoulder.

Then you felt Taehyung’s breath close to your ear as he moved his head in close, “We really like you y/n” then he planted a kiss on your cheek.

“Wait woah woah woah” you shot up, shaking the two of them off of you.

“I told you she didn’t like us like that” Jimin pouted, his face fell as he recoiled away from you.

Taehyung looked hurt and embarrassed.

“Oh no, Jimin, Taehyung I-” you took a deep breath in. “I’m just confused. Its a lot to take in. Of course I’ve started to grow some feelings for you. I actually really like you too, both of you. I just…” you look at Jimin and then Taehyung “I thought you two were mates, which meant you just loved each other?”

For so long, You hadn’t let yourself be entertained the idea that they might like you back. In all of the fantasies you tried to stop yourself from feeling anything that could make them think they were being taken advantage of.

You were their owner after all, it just didn’t feel totally right. But, Hoseok said it wasn’t weird, and he is the kindest person to hybrids that you know. So maybe...it really isn’t too far out there that you could honestly have something real with them.

The only thing that really stopped you from trying to initiate anything with them was that you knew they were in love with each other, and there was no way you wanted to get in the way of that strong bond that they shared.

“I love Taehyung so much, yeah, hes my mate. But, y/n I love you too!” Jimin answered.

“Jimin and I think it would be amazing if all three of us were mates...together” Taehyung sheepishly admitted.

“All three of us…” you repeated in a whisper. To which the two hybrids nodded.

A small smile grew on your face and butterflies felt like they were taking over your whole body.

“That would be amazing” you breathed out.

Jimin squealed with joy, and jumped back to cuddling you, planting tiny kisses all over your neck and cheek.

Taehyung purred lowly and grabbed onto you, snuggling against you closely with a big grin on his face. “Our home is with you. Always.”

#bts fanfic #bts x reader #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #taehyung x reader #jimin x reader #taehyung x jimin #bts poly au #jimin x you #taehyung x you #bts au

797 notes · View notes

thessaliah · 5 years ago

Text

Who is the “Person of Chaldea”?

For those who didn't know, there is a mysterious helper who appears in the Lostbelts and aids Chaldea indirectly by helping the people they made contact or would make contact. Here cut under spoilers the information we have and already old destroyed guesses and theories:

We know little about this man (assuming is a man which seems most likely right now) who appears in Lostbelts when Chaldea isn't around to give a helping hand. The direct (not speculation related) info we have is:

He is referred specifically as the "カルデアの者."

Wears white.

His clothes are dirty and tattered, covers his head and face with a hood.

He apparently fights with a curved, thin sword or something alike it (note this is an old Yaga describing this so if he was using some magic trick he wouldn't know).

He knows magecraft of the Ages of Gods that isn’t rune based.

He knows how to treat injuries, plague, and has the skill as a physician. He is called a 'sensei' in LB3.

Knows assorted skills like how to take care of fields.

He is able to manifest in the Lostbelts by mysterious means.

Pronouns: 私 and お前 to address others.

He has a 'tch' tongue clunking quirk but he claims is because of his sore throat and body.

He is shocked to find people who would put themselves in a disadvantage to offer him kindness and hospitality.

He seems detached about humanity at some level and a pragmatic point of view.

He might appear different than he used to look or have a different body.

He says his goals haven't changed and he has done the same things in the past (without such welcome). "His actions are the same."

Holmes speculates he’s a “survivor of Chaldea.”

Those are the official things we know. There is more I could add that could be related to him but that goes in identity theory.

DEBUNKED: MUSASHI+ DIFFERENT SERVANT ON EACH LOSTBELT

When Musashi appeared in LB1, plenty of fans (and even the characters) assumed Musashi who also claimed as an ally of Chaldea (but using a completely different label and not カルデアの者) was this mysterious helper: she had covered her face with a hat, she wielded a katana and all. But they didn't notice the lack of quirk and the lack of healing expertise. In LB2, the Person of Chaldea is an overpowerful mage, so ruled her out unless he was a new one. By LB4, it leaves clear that is the same person that travels in all Lostbelts, he gets dialogue and internal monologue for the first time. Leaving the theories of Musashi, Ryoma, Muramasa, Paracelsus, etc out of the running.

DEBUNKED: IT’S A CRYPTER

Before LB4, there was a popular theory the Person of Chaldea was actually a Crypter, in particular, Kirschtaria Wodime, because he favors white. But after LB4, we know the man travels alone and that for a Crypter to move between Lostbelts, they need the help of an Emissaries. Evil Mercenary Tamamo is good for such task. Crypters are more than antagonists but they are unlikely to be the Person of Chaldea.

POSSIBILITY # 1: IT’S A NEW SURPRISING CHARACTER OR SOMEONE UNEXPECTED LIKE MARISBURY ANIMUSPHERE

Because the person is hard to fit on the old characters we know, perhaps it's a new one. Abe no Seimei is a good possibility when there are characters related to him introduced. Murasaki, his student, his foes Tamamo and Douman. However, my only complaint here is that they yanked our chains for two years of mystery to introduce a new character? The possibility exists, but it seems like poor writing. If we are talking of dark horses, Marisbury Animusphere is certainly another possibility, although the pronouns don't fit, and he has no notable physician experience that we know, he wears white, he's from Chaldea, and the shoes (not the coat) match the man in the OP. I mean to put him here as a possibility he's connected, but my suspicion is that Marisbury is more unfortunately linked to the antagonist, the God of Another Planet. I'll leave that for another post. His possibilities to be the Person of Chaldea raises if Daybit is an antagonist and not the potential aloof ally he seems to be.

POSSIBILITY # 2: IT’S SOLOMON

Romani, Goetia, a combination, etc. Solomon. "But Solomon disappeared!" I can cite a lot of things, from Goetia voicing the PV, to Roman in the Lost Room, to the fact both left remnants (which Ars Nova shouldn't have allowed) and Chaldea is stated to want to build a record for Romani specifically. But I frankly don't care about this, Nasu would explain this if the time comes. The Lostbelts have revised the Modern History anyway, and whatever happens inside their Wall of Storms is not "our World" technically.

So far is the most likely possibility, and why there's a tease and red herring from one or the other. Unrelated but completely important is the scene in the Lost Room, the final shot of someone picking up one of Solomon's rings from the thrones before leaving. The question remains is which Solomon?

THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST GOETIA: "Goetia is in Romani's body" seems to be the most popular theory since the OP image show up (along with the initial "was that Marisbury?"). Goetia does use, among other pronouns, watashi and omae. The personality of the Person of Chaldea seems colder and harsher than Romani usually displayed, so fits more Goetia, as well as the fact of "is this appearance?" which makes him mull over how he's treated, which could refer to wear Romani's body and clothes as he did to Solomon. Maybe he gained medical knowledge too. However, are we sure is him or Nasu wants us to assume is him for taking to face some superficial statements? The main case against is that his current actions don't match his past ones, even if one is to assume his goal and motivation remains the same (he feels sorry for humans), that he has indeed wear Roman's likeness in the past (with Mashu) and he shouldn't be shocked about the benefit of a human appearance when his shtick was passing himself as Solomon or Roman or making his pillars take human vessels. The other case against is the tsking. Tsking and tongue clunking to my memory are not one of his quirks. IMO, Goetia is a strong if not the strongest contender. I'm not sold about Roman's body, because Roman's body disappeared (and I feel it's irritating for his sake and Roman he's still under his shadow rather than stand as his own character), the tongue quirk could be because whoever body he’s using or inhabiting has it.

THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST ROMANI (SOLOMON): "A doctor in white" was the second most popular theory but fell off a little after the monologue of the Person of Chaldea because he lacked Romani's nicer personality and his usual pronouns (Boku/kimi). It's true it cannot be the same Romani Archaman we know, but this doesn't mean it cannot be him. We'll start for the case for: a physician with assorted talents (all that could be feasible for Romani/Solomon - and yes, includes having a legendary long thin blade listed in wikipedia - and this also can be listed on Goetia’s favor too!) that wears white, is from Chaldea, and still has the same actions, goals, and motives. The actions might have been weird, but with episode 0, we saw Romani walk the world on his own and doing odd jobs including acting as doctor in disaster zones, until he turned to Chaldea to complete his mission. How is that different from the Person of Chaldea’s present actions? The main objections are sound: the man doesn't talk or acts (in temperament) like Roman, and the quirk isn't his. However, after becoming Solomon again did use watashi and omae (he switched gradually from boku to watashi in the temple, if you carefully replay his unused voice clips and read his farewell scene) and his personality would be different if he was in possession or manifestation of a new body, as most Pseudo Servants (Ishtar wouldn't act like Rin if she wasn't in Rin's body, for example, we know this from Strange Fake - the vessel influences the spirit). The Servants who cannot manifest alone require vessels and the vessels can influence the way they talk, their temperaments and -obviously- give them a new appearance which our Person of Chaldea might have. Despite his friendliness, Romani seemed to speak and think of humanity from the distance (Accel Zero comes to mind where he reveals he's pretty pragmatic who wouldn't go around to change things as Waver did), he also thinks people should hate him (in his Blurb of relationship with the Master), so if it's Solomon post Roman's self-loathing, him acting surprised that those people in India Lostlet are willing to accommodate him with the little they had and were so kind toward him is unfortunately not as weird as we might think. Da Vinci changed from a sassy libertine to a (dull) angelic younger sister type after her rebirth just after the Prologue if we need a precedent.

As for me, whoever the person of Chaldea is, I would prefer if Roman remains Roman. I absolutely dislike the change in Da Vinci (looks and personality) but I am not blind not to see the possibility with the metaphor of the "peppermint green book" in the latest event the doctor appeared (you know that whole “things -people- you believe lost might be returned to you but with differences”). There is another case I'm considering but is more self-indulging, because doesn't mean desecrating Solomon's second corpse (even if it disappeared!), Goetia's arc, and Romani's whole self. The one of assimilation like Kingu and Enkidu which means the Person of Chaldea could be a new Solomon created of Romani and Goetia mutual elements. They used to share a body. That’s another case, but I’m not sure. My heart leans closer to Goetia in this, but my gut feels he could be red herring for Solomon 2.0.

Of course, this could be all be wrong and it’s truly Abe no Seimei or something outlandish like Future Ritsuka (I forgot to debunk this, it feels laughable when Ritsuka has a very limited character or arc, and cannot do a single healing spell to know magecraft of the Ages of Gods - plus would give Gudako an edge over the male Ritsuka -who uses ore as pronoun- and that won’t be allowed, sadly). You never know. I just wanted to share past and present theories. From a writing perspective, I just don’t think some new character would be right when they are treating this as a slowburn mystery arc and purposefully used Musashi as an in-game red herring. Maybe if Abe no Seimei -or whoever if it’s a new character- gets a better set up, certainly. Marisbury possibility is still strong if he’s not an antagonist.

#fate grand order #meta #speculation #fgo spoilers #cosmos in the lostbelt #person of chaldea

63 notes · View notes

makeste · 6 years ago

Text

BnHA Chapter 134: A Magnificent Debut

Previously on BnHA: Some yakuza dickwad shot Amajiki with a bullet that deactivated his quirk. Kirishima ran off after him and laid him out with a manly punch. The guy acted like a good defeated villain for about 30 seconds, and then shot himself up with some sort of quirk-enhancing drug. Then he sprouted a bunch of swords from his body and tried to stab Kirishima. Kirishima flashed back to his quirk-strengthening training, and a pep talk that Bakugou gave him about never backing down. Present-day Kirishima then proceeded to hulk out into a badass unbreakable rock man.

Today on BnHA: Kirishima wraps up his fight and, spoiler alert, wins. Everyone congratulates him and it even ends up making the news. Meanwhile, Fat Gum relays the news about the quirk-suppressing and enhancing drugs to Nighteye. Several days later, Kirishima is called back in to his internship along with Deku, Tsuyu, and Ochako. All of them meet up at Nighteye’s office, along with the Big Three, Fat Gum, Ryuukyuu, and even Aizawa and Gran Torino. Nighteye informs them all that he’s gathered them to discuss the Eight Precepts.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 164 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

Kirishima Eijirou has turned into a weird sort of dinosaur looking dude made out of rock

and he’s running toward knifey stabby man, whose swords are now all broken, as you’ll recall

oh damn, knifey stabby man is making one last all-in play here

that’s enough swords to build the goddamn iron throne

Kirishima is taking the entire blow head-on because there are still people behind him and people in the shops around them

he’s so fucking heroic you guys

he’s thinking to himself that he’ll use brute force to overwhelm him. heeeeey. exactly like All Might said, huh

I was just starting to think to myself that I was getting a bit tired of Kirishima just turning into a rock dude and doing muscly rock dude things, and then this fucking happens and I’m like, “but damned if it isn’t satisfying to see Kirishima punch this guy so hard he goes flying off his feet, though”

and then I also remember that my all-time favorite moment in this series is not when Bakugou fought Deku the second time, or when All Might hugged Deku on the beach, or even when All Might hugged Bakugou, but rather when Kouta punched Deku in the nuts that one time

so idk. maybe at the end of the day I’m pretty simple-minded after all

that said, this guy had better be down for real this time

that was pretty manly, dude

one of the bystanders is like, “he’s so young... but such fury...” lmao. yes. look how furious

furious like a damn puppy

knifey stabby has started crying again

he’s fucking asking Kirishima to let him go. um, no lol

what the fuck Kirishima

“sorry I can’t do that because you shot my friend and tried to kill me after you just pulled this exact same stunt two minutes ago. but I will still be empathetic towards you because I’M LITERALLY THE NICEST PERSON”

seriously Kiri, Red Riot isn’t gonna cut it any more. time to change that hero name to Mister Nice Guy

and then when you get really pissed off, you can be all, “THAT DOES IT!!! NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY.” get it. I think it’s a good idea that could really catch on

now what is this son of a bitch up to

are you gonna launch yourself into the air or something. don’t do that, actually. Kirishima’s not that mobile. although it has been a while since we last saw FG so maybe he could show up and catch you

oh look. he is launching yourself into the air

Kirishima’s cursing himself for just standing there and letting him escape again. yeah, you dumb, boy

knifey stabby is gleefully whooping about how Kirishima is way too naive and trusting, and that he’s gonna get away! for sure! no way he’s getting caught!! famous last words, what do you mean, what are those

lol

as many times as this series has pulled the rug out from under me, it’s nice to still be able to call it every once in a while

FG’s capturing the guy with his quirk and reminding Kirishima that while villains may have any number of goals, the heroes’ goals are always the same: capture the villains without any victims

hey, that sounds familiar. basically just another way of saying “win and rescue”, isn’t it? All Might really was right

anyway here’s FG’s quirk

at first I read this as “5000 goopy” and I was like, “what an odd unit of measurement”

Kiri’s standing there excitedly and thinking “wow! FG beat him instantly!” but really all he did was stand there and absorb him into his goop

now a nice Kansai accented man is thanking Kiri and says he did amazing, and that he didn’t fail to notice how Kiri was purposely keeping knifey stabby focused on him so that he wouldn’t attack the others

what a nice thing to say in front of Kiri’s mentor!

LOOK AT THIS WHOLESOME CONTENT

[HAIR RUFFLES!!!!]

now we’re back by the takoyaki place and Kiri is apparently telling FG and Amajiki about the quirk-enhancing drug

FG seems to know a lot about this. he says the short duration indicates the drug is an Asian knockoff. apparently there are African ones that last up to 1-2 hours

how much do you want to bet that Overhaul kept all the long-lasting ones for his best guys

(ETA: sweet jesus imagine if he had. we would still be in that basement to this day)

one of the cops is running over to FG

looks like they found the “bullet” that ricocheted off of Kirishima’s hardened forehead earlier and are going to check it out

Kiri’s asking Amajiki if he’s okay, and Amajiki is hiding himself under his costume hood

he’s embarrassed not just because his quirk stopped working, but because his kouhai had to cover for him. d’aww

he says Kirishima is the same type as Mirio. “another of those that shines bright like the sun”

Kiri says Amajiki shines just as much!

I’m starting to feel like Kirishima may literally be compelled to say something whenever someone around him starts badmouthing themselves. like, he physically can’t stand there and let them

while they bond, Fat Gum is thinking to himself that although he’s familiar with the quirk-boosting drugs, he’s never heard of a drug that makes quirks unusable. and he’s thinking to himself that this doesn’t look good

so they’re gonna take Amajiki to the hospital to get him checked out. good call. why haven’t they already done that, in fact. why were they just standing around talking for so long

“for starters, let’s head back to the office.” dude. I’m glad you’re being chill about this, I guess, but there’s like no urgency at all

BACK TO U.A. HOORAY

Kaminari is excitedly waving his phone in Kirishima’s face and announcing that Kiri made the news

meanwhile Bakugou is grinding his teeth but not actually saying anything. does that count as being supportive

(ETA: ooh I forgot he was in this one panel here. probably because he does absolutely nothing at all. but he really sells that background gag though)

Ochako and Tsuyu made the news too! niiiiiice

Iida is telling them that they’ve “rendered a splendid service”

BUT

sometimes he reminds me of Percy from HP

now they’re talking about supplementary lessons and stuff. actually, yeah, I’m impressed Kiri is managing to juggle both the internship and his schoolwork. unlike the other interning students, he’s in the bottom 25% of the class. Ochako isn’t much better, but I’d bet her grades are more middling

apparently Sero was considering interning too (and he’d be great honestly), but he didn’t think he’d be able to handle it. I think he was ranked like 17th out of 20. I just posted that recap pretty recently

while everyone else sits there being excited about their internships, Deku is sitting there being moody af about his. and I can’t honestly blame him. All Might potentially dying, Nighteye believing Deku isn’t good enough and being determined to prove that Mirio is a better choice; and last but not least my poor sweet little jelly bean Eri whom I have not forgotten about and who is still in peril!! :|!

and Deku hasn’t forgotten about her either and says the thought of her is constantly present in his mind day in and day out

now it’s “several days later” and Kirishima and Deku are meeting up outside the dorms early in the morning and seem pleasantly surprised

and the girls too! that’s nice

obviously this is the day of the big operation Nighteye was talking about that he had called in additional agencies to help with. and as we know, their agencies were coincidentally the ones he called

though it doesn’t seem like they’ve actually realized that yet lol

they’re remarking on how they’re all taking the same train even though Kiri’s agency is in Kansai. he says he was told the meeting place is somewhere different than usual

weird that Deku was told he didn’t need his costume though. were the others told the same?

(ETA: I keep forgetting there is a really easy way to verify this, which is just to look and see if they’re actually carrying the costume briefcases lol. and they are not)

also, are their senpais already at the agency? Mirio and the rest?

lmao

how fucking slow are these kids

at this point if I were Deku I’d be half-suspecting some sort of weird surprise party lol

finally they’re turning the corner and there are Mirio, Hadou, and Amajiki

I wonder if Amajiki’s quirk is back yet??

OH MY GOD

EVEN FUCKING AIZAWA IS THERE. and Gran too! AND IS THAT SOME SORT OF FUCKING COCKROACH MAN HOLY SHIT I JUST SUPPRESSED A SHUDDER

so Deku’s freaking out that two of his teachers are there, and he’s trying to figure out what’s going on

dude, you know what’s going on. even I remember, and it’s been more than a week since I read the chapter where Nighteye mentioned this whole thing

so now Nighteye has arrived and is calling the meeting to order

and the chapter is just ending there. lol. okay

BONUS:

I’m gonna be honest with you guys. I didn’t read this bonus page until literally the night before I posted this recap. it’s like that for all the bonus pages in this volume

and also, I’m not quite sure if this is the correct page for this chapter? but he is in the chapter, albeit just as a background character on that one page with Everybody

anyway. Centipeder. what can I say about him. he scares the living shit out of me. I’m so scared of centipedes. they’re so gross and they’re fucking sneaky and the few times I’ve seen them they were just chilling on the couch or even the bed without any warning omg. one time when I was in college there was a centipede hiding under the strap of my messenger bag and I didn’t notice until I’d already grabbed it and it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I would seriously take spiders over centipedes any fucking day

anyway. so here’s a centipede who’s six and a half feet tall. and they say he’s a hero and a gentlemen. sure. okay then. but I don’t trust him. pretty sure he is the U.A. traitor. even though he doesn’t actually work at U.A. he’s evil okay. just... I don’t want to look at him anymore lmao

#bnha #boku no hero academia #kirishima eijirou #midoriya izuku #uraraka ochako #asui tsuyu #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #horikoshi: 'okay I just finished giving kirishima a two-chapters-long fight scene which was very cool'#'now to plan the other fights for this arc'#'both uraraka and tsuyu are involved in the raid'#'maybe I should give one of them a big fight'#'...'#'nah you know what'#'I'll just have kirishima fight *again*'

37 notes · View notes

floraone · 7 years ago

Note

Do you have any favorite episodes of Sailor Moon? Original or Crystal!!!

So, I’m sorry this took me so long to answer, love xDThe short answer is: I am very bad at picking favorites xD.

But, so … instead, I decided to do something out of your ask that I’ve been wanting to have but not found a reason to make so far: Make a list of the episodes I value the most. So, I’m not sure which of these are my favorites, but I love them for Reasons, which I’ll be telling you.

(And let me warn you, first. Because I’m a very visual person, and animation style does play a major role in this list, lol.)

Aaalso, this is gonna be a LONG post, so more under the cut.

So, first up: Crystal. This is gonna be short, because it’s THE ENTIRE INFINITY ARC.I mean, it gave us shots like THIS.

I know some people weren’t big fans of the style. But hands down, it’s my favorite. It’s what I try to recreate in most of my fanart, because it’s FRIGGIN GORGEOUS. And also, it gave us Mamoru as part of the team AND family and instead of just Usagi’s boyfriend who nobody really knew outside of that. So there is that xD.

Before that, I would have to say episodes 6 (Tuxedo Mask) and 7 (Mamoru Chiba) - because those are such perfect renditions of the Manga chapters in my books, and the chemistry between Mamoru and Usagi in those represent pretty much the reason those are my OTP.

I love Crystal, totally, but I do also love the 90s anime. It had some crazy giant plot holes, and some really stupid changes that I love to pick apart in fanfic, but I grew up with that shit. I taped that shit every episode as a kid, and re-watched those episodes until the VHS broke and I taped them again when TV circled back to them. As I said, it’s hard to pick favs, and the 90s anime belongs to Sailor Moon in my heart as much as the Manga and Crystal do.

So, here’s a list of the Classic episodes that I appreciate the most:

Episode 28. That’s the one with adorable painter Yumemi Yumeno, who gets visions of the SilMil cause she’s a Rainbow Crystal carrier, and forces Usagi and Mamoru to sit for her. Mamoru is being an obnoxious ass, but you kinda see a little chemistry for the first time in my books, and it’s crazy adorable. Plus, his locket is being casually handed over in this, and this is hella cute. Plus, its animation director here is Kazuko Tadano, who was easily among my favorites in Classic.

Episode 40. This, actually, is a kinda surprising pick for me. Because it’s a Masahiro Ando episode - the animation director I liked the least. An episode by him had to be REALLY good if I liked it despite of that, and this one kinda was. It’s the episode where Usagi is on a family retreat in the mountains, onsen-ing and ryokan-ing and yukata-ing away, and the youma this episode is not a youma, but a legendary star-crossed ghost-y couple, that Evil!Endy decides to wake and then not be very evil about it. In fact, this episode would fall under the category of “MOST UNUSED POTENTIAL” for me, because there is so much in it, and so much feeling, and so much… ugh. It could have been so perfect, this episode. I’ve been meaning to write a fic surrounding it, but I’m still lacking the inspiration for it to get as perfect as it should be in my head.

Episode 44. Short reason: Our first complete glimpse we get of the SilMil, when the girls Sailor Teleport to the moon and Queen Serenity tells us how the SilMil ended. Also, Hisashi Kagawa is an amazing animator.

Episode 46. The last episode of Classic and I bawled when Usagi was left behind, and I bawled when Usagi held that locket out, and I bawled when Mamoru died, and I bawled when Usagi stood there as Serenity and the ghost hands of the girls helped her out. BAWLED.(Also Kazuko Tadano again.)

Episode 49. This has one reason, and one reason alone: It’s the song that played in the german dub in this episode (“Dort im Regen”), instead of “Anata no Sei Janai” (Makoto’s image song) in the original. It’s the same melody, and it’s friggin BEAUTIFUL, and I held my cassette recorder to our TV set when I was 9 to record that song, and listened to it so long and so often that even now, 20 plus years later, my MOTHER still knows the german lyrics by heart.

Episode 51. This was hanami school trip, Umino The Burrito, Usagi’s adorable scene with Luna, and her power up and badass-ness. Also lots and lots of cherry blossoms, and Hisashi Kagawa’s animation was bloody GORGEOUS.

Episode 56. It’s the snow white episode and it was so, so, so very silly, and where do you suppose you suddenly got those “friends” from that you talk about here, Mamoru, but I love it.

Episode 61. The break up episode. And god how I curse that break up arc all the time (or more correctly, its execution, not its existence, because that’s some sweet torture). But, let’s face it. This episodes hurts. And it’s GOOD.

Episode 69. The one other break up arc episode that I really, really like. The Sleeping Beauty. And surprise, surprise, it’s the one other episode where Mamoru shows some emotion about it, and we get to see how much this breaks him apart. (Also it has motorcycle and Unazuki, so yeah.)

Episode 91. The rod of looooove. Also adorable little kitties and a Mamo-chan that thinks the funnest, best date ever is a broken down house and several dozen stray cats.

Episodes 110 and 111. Those are the ones where the Talismans come together, where Uranus and Neptune sacrifice themselves and Pluto comes to save the day, and Usagi transforms into Super Sailor Moon for the first time and it’s animated by Ikuko Ito who’s just a friggin amazing artist. (Also 110 is the episode with that hand HaruMichi hand-dance. so there.)

Episode 125. Ikuko Ito strikes again. I talked about this episode a couple days ago, in the ask that lovely @queenrisa14 asked. It’s when Usagi is literally being purer than the purest heart crystals, and transforms into Super Sailor Moon to save Saturn. And it works. And she comes back with a baby. And it’s wow. And it’s one of the two most emotive scenes that I could name when I was asked about them.

Episode 136. NINJA USAGI. AERIAL BUTT. NINJA USAGI IN NINJA OUTFIT THAT FITS OVER HER ODANGOES.

Episode 141. Because Minako two times two ASSHOLES and then kicks their butt.

Episode 152. This is the most random filler episode. The one with Rei’s little fan, who tries to look like her. BUT IT’S THE MOST GORGEOUS EPISODE OF THEM ALL. Ikuko Ito was always amazing, but to me, never better than here. Randomly.

Episode 159. Because Chibs looks friggin gorgeous in her Serenity dress and her Pegasus wings in that dream sequence. Because Mamoru interogating Chibs on who’s that boyfriend is friggin awesome. Because Mamoru hangs out with the girls and we never get to see that otherwise. And because of Ikuko Ito.

Episode 166. BECAUSE OF IKUKO ITO.

Episode 167. It’s the first episode of the first Stars arc, and it’s GORGEOUS because Katsumi Tamegai has turned into a friggin animation god by the time Stars came around, and it starts with that scene where baby Hotaru sits in between Sakura blossoms and dreams of Eternal Sailor Moon, and end with baby Hotaru being bad-ass, powering the Outers up and skipping toddler-hood altogether.

Episode 172: Last episode of Nehelenia, and Usagi is the Usagi I remember here. Warm and wise and forgiving and redeeming, and she turns into Eternal Sailor Moon for the first time and that transformation is so much prettier than what came after for her.

Episode 173. Let me say something first, here, maybe. Because I FRIGGIN LOVE STARS. Stars is my fav season. I hate that it had no Mamoru, but I loved that shit. And this was bye bye Harvard episode, that at least gave us a promise ring, and a dorky meet cute for Usagi and Seiya.

Episode 174. Three Lights join the girls’ class. It was adorable.

Episode 180. Albert von Garajan. Michiru’s concert with the Three Lights. Usagi being cute. You guys know I love this episode, I referenced it in Yugen so much.

Episode 181. Doki-doki date! C'mon guys, that shit was CUTE. Also Usagi x Takoyaki 4Ever.

Episode 184. Usagi is home alone, Seiya comes to house-sit, and everyone, EVERYONE joins. C'mon guys, even if you may hate Seiya, that episode was comedic gold and I wish the 90s anime would have had more episodes like that, AND WITH MAMORU IN IT. It’s the kinda Sailor Moon comedy that I’m TRYING to aspire to whenever I try to be funny in my fics. (Also Minako Ito is ALSO a friggin perfect animator)

Episode 194. Sailor Tin Nyanko knows Usagi is Sailor Moon, and that fierce protection the girls give her breaks my heart. As does Usagi, missing Mamoru, in the rain, with Seiya breaking down and so many people hating him for it. (I’m not gonna rant about that again, lol. I already defended him for it here.)

Episode 200. There. That’s my Usagi. Saving the world with her love and her hope. Also Serenity with wings. Also Mamoru is finally back. Also Katsumi Tamegai.

AND THEN THERE’S THE R MOVIE AND IT MIGHT BE MY BIGGEST LOVE OF ALL.

So there you go, love. I was thorough ;)

#my mustard #ask answered #FAV MOMENTS #my favorite episodes #sorry really really long post

24 notes · View notes

newcaswell · 8 years ago

Text

Secrets

A glimpse into the lives of Simon and Wade shortly after they became friends.

Simon had been the one to find a way to climb on the roof of the school. He’d led Wade to the seventh floor of the school, which was unused, by picking a lock to the staircase, and proudly shoved open a window he’d clearly already jimmied. The rest of the trip was excessively dangerous, requiring a climb of at least ten more feet between two close walls over a six storey drop. Somehow Simon, despite his just-a-hair-short-of-5-foot stature, made it look easy.

Wade’s lanky frame had a bit more trouble with the climb, but Simon was stronger than he looked- or Wade was in serious need of a date with a nutritionist. “Fuck, that’s high,” said Wade as he glanced back over the guard wall of the roof. “I really hope we don’t have to go back down that way.”

“Nah.” Simon picked up a piece of chipped roof tile and chucked it at the door to the roof. “This side o’ the door’s actually got a lock I can mess with. We’ll go down the easy way.” He turned and smirked at his taller friend. “Wimp.”

“You call me a wimp as if I’ll try to prove you wrong.”

“I know I would.”

“That’s because your height does nothing to warn anyone about the size of your ego.”

Simon swatted at Wade, and Wade laughed.

The roof was still and silent. There were no birds near, there was a gentle breeze, and the sun was setting just off in the distance, painting the sky a soft pink.

Wade’s eyes turned to the sun, but they locked onto something else. Seated on the guard wall of the roof was a figure. It trembled in the breeze and was leaned too far over the edge for anyone’s comfort. The breath hitched in Wade’s throat.

“Holy shit,” mumbled Simon.

Wade bit his lip and glanced at the older boy as he hurried forward. The figure lifted its head to the sky and pushed off. Simon reached the wall and gripped the ledge. He then turned and beamed at Wade. “You gotta check out this sunset, man!”

Wade flinched. In a sound only he could hear, a body cracked against the pavement below. He looked solemn. This was probably why there was no lock on the door leading to the roof.

Simon’s grin split wider, and he hefted himself upwards.

Wade balked and rushed the ledge. “Oh my god, Simon, what are you doing!?”

“Easy, Lurch, I ain’t about to jump. I can’t fuckin’ see.” Simon swung his leg up onto the ledge. It was wide, so it wasn’t as if he was on a balancing beam, but the wrong move or a stiff wind could have sent someone Simon’s size over easily.

“So I’ll find you a box, please come down!” Wade found the ledge just behind his friend, ready to leap the moment Simon stumbled.

Simon stood up on the wall and gazed out over the sun. “Shit this feels good. You gotta come up here and try this.”

“No way! And you shouldn’t even be up there! If somebody sees you, you’re gonna be in deep shit! If you fall-”

Simon turned and arched a brow at him. “I’m not gonna fall, Wade. I do this shit all the time.”

Wade huffed in frustration, but he didn’t have time to dwell. The shadow of Simon bubbled and crawled away to reform the figure again, but the head was no longer facing the ground. It stared at Simon. Wade’s chest gripped his heart like a vice. “Don’t.”

Simon faced Wade fully and scrunched his brows together. “Woah, okay. Easy. Geez, I’ll come down. I’m just havin’ a little fun.” He sat down and swung his legs back over to the safe side. Wade held his hands up to help him down.

The figure slid behind Simon before Wade could blink. Something within it like appendages lurched forward, and Wade shrieked.

It pushed him. Simon tumbled forward into Wade’s arms, faceplanting his chest. “Ah, fuck!” He pulled back and nursed his nose. “Do you seriously have like zero percent body fat or some shit? Ow! S’like hittin’ a brick wall!”

Wade chest exploded with relief, and he clung to Simon as if letting him go would end him back over the ledge.

Simon struggled against the hold. “Come on, Wade, I’m not suicidal, damnit. Don’t freak out on me, it’s just wind.”

Wade sighed. “Wind that could have pushed you off.” He let go and turned away from the wall, and the figure. He couldn’t talk to it right now; Simon was watching. Instead, he sat down and leaned back against the wall.

Simon blinked down at him. “You okay?”

“Not really.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Also not really.”

“‘Kay.” Simon spun around and parked himself right next to Wade. “Man, I could seriously nap up here.”

Wade fought his unease and snorted. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Simon crossed his arms. “Well you’re a little spoil sport today.” He settled back and looked up at the purpling sky. “So I didn’t just bring you up here to freak you out, by the by.”

“I should hope not.”

Simon pouted. “I guess I just... wanted to talk to somebody.”

“And we had to do it on a roof?” Wade asked.

Simon sighed. “Heights calm me down! I don’t...” He shrank against the wall. “I don’t feel so small up here.”

Wade slowly smiled. “You’re not that small, Simon.”

“I’m four eleven, Wade. I barely make some theme park ride heights,” Simon said, deadpan.

Wade snickered at him. “That’s not what I mean.” He leaned his head back against the wall. “So what did you wanna talk about?”

Simon went pink. “I dunno. Anything I guess.” He looked up at Wade. “I don’t know a lot about you, and you don’t know a lot about me, we just... hit it off, or whatever. I guess I just feel like sharin’. We’re-” He took a breath, like he wasn’t sure of his next words. “We’re friends, right?”

Wade’s smile grew, and it was making him less anxious about the figure looming above them. It hadn’t moved. “Of course we’re friends. You’re kind of my only one if you hadn’t noticed.” He turned his attention to his lap. “So what do you wanna know?”

Simon bit his lip and turned to his own lap as well. “We could play twenty questions or whatever. And jus’ not stop at twenty,” He offered.

“You know that’s twenty questions each, right? We’ll be here all night.”

Simon’s pink cheeks darkened. “You know what I mean! We don’t gotta hold to twenty!”

Wade laughed and pulled his legs to his chest. “Do you want me to go first?”

“No, I wanna.” Simon shifted his position to cross his legs and face Wade. “Favourite colour.”

Wade arched a brow. “Cop out.”

“I panicked.”

“Light grey. It reminds me of winter. And my grandmother. You?”

“Red. Reminds me of, uh... fireworks.”

Wade snickered. “You don’t have to have a reason for a favourite colour.”

“Well you said it, and it was all deep and shit.” Simon turned his head away to think. “You got any pets?”

Wade shook his head. “No. Animals, uh... don’t like me much. Cats sometimes do, but mom’s allergic.” Wade could have told him how animals could sense that there was something off about him and preferred to stay away, but he kept that to himself.

“Aw, that sucks. Cat’s are the shit.”

“They are.”

Simon gestured at him. “Your go.”

“Right. Um. Do you have a favourite band?”

“MSI, maybe. Potentially Bon Jovi.” Simon leaned on his hand. “You got a girlfriend?”

Wade snorted. “We just went over how you are literally my only friend. A girlfriend is a stretch.”

“Hey, well, ya never know. People dig creepy sometimes.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Simon shook his head. “Nah. I look like I’m twelve, so nobody bothers. Also I’m super gay, dude.”

Wade blinked. “O-...Oh.”

Simon fidgeted. “You’re cool with that, right?”

“I mean, I’m bi, so. I’d be a hypocrit if I wasn’t. I just didn’t realise.”

Simon relaxed. “Awesome. Do you like anybody?”

Wade went pink. “U-...Uh.”

Simon grinned. “That’s a yes! Oh come on, who?”

“I-It-” Wade’s colour deepened. “I don’t wanna talk about it...”

“Oh come on, Wade, that’s not how this game is played!”

Wade threw his hood over his head. “It’s stupid! And it’s not gonna happen, so I don’t-”

Simon whined and leaned into Wade’s shoulder. “Come on, dude, you act like I’m gonna tell everybody! Is it a teacher?”

Wade only made a noise and drew the strings of his hoodie to close the hood around his face.

“Holy shit, it is! It’s not Mrs. Leon is it, because she’s super married. Shop teacher? Or are you a fox hunter and goin’ for Mr. Chakrabarti in fifth period?”

“It’s Mr. Dossey!” Wade pressed himself into the wall. “God, he actually treats me like a human being, okay? Not some scary kid, and he-he understands the shit I go through.” Wade peered out from his hood.

Simon was stifling a laugh.

Wade’s face reddened even more. “What!? I told you it was stupid!”

Simon snickered. “No, dude, just-” He laughed, “He’s totally my uncle.” Wade gave him an incredulous stare. “Simon Dossey, man. Not just a coincidence.”

“Oh god, that’s worse!” Wade drew the strings closed again and laid on his side away from Simon.

Simon continued to laugh and threw himself over his friend. “Okay, okay, come on. Not that big of a deal.” He leaned on his arm. “Though Tory’s also super gay, so you got that goin’ for ya.”

Wade groaned through the fabric of his hoodie.

Tory Dossey was their English teacher. He was also the man who started to see the same ghosts and demons that Wade did after their first major interaction. They’d been spending more and more time together so that Wade could teach Tory how to deal with the things he was seeing. Wade had somehow spread his curse to Tory, so it was the least he could do. The feelings that Wade had growing for the man were not from his ability as a teacher, but from what he became with the pretense was gone- what he became when he was afraid. Wade had never met a stronger man.

And Simon was apparently related to him. Wade only hoped that his ‘gift’ wouldn’t keep spreading.

Simon cleared his throat. “Your go, man.” He patted Wade’s shoulder and sat up.

Wade followed suit and pulled his hood down. “Right, right. Do you have any siblings?”

Simon shook his head. “Only child, far as I know. Mom had a bunch of siblings, but I never saw ‘em. They’re all in New York and didn’t really talk to us.”

Wade’s brows knit in concern. “‘Had’...? Are they gone?”

“Nuh uh, you only get one question at a time, nosey.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Do you have any siblings?” Simon asked.

Wade bit the inside of his cheek and inhaled through his nose. “Uh... yeah. One. I’ve got a brother.”

Simon winced. “That didn’t sound like a good thing.”

Wade shrugged. “He doesn’t really talk to us,” He parroted.

Simon bit his lip. “Well. Sorry for bringing it up, then.”

“It’s okay. I brought up siblings.” Wade shifted his feet, rubbing the toes of his shoes together. “I... wanna ask about that past tense, but you-you can’t say no.” Wade had a feeling that he knew where this was going. He wasn’t able to talk to the two figures he’d seen around Simon since they met, but he could tell by their demeanour that they were family. “I can ask something else.”

Simon went still. Wade held his breath. Simon’s eyes found the roof. “No it-... It’s gonna come up eventually.” He took a deep breath and sighed, leaning away from Wade and putting his head against the wall. “My-... mom is dead. Dad is too. E-Earlier this-” He froze and wrenched his eyes shut. “T-This year.”

Wade’s chest bottomed out. “S-Simon-”

“D-Don’t apologise, I just-... I need a minute.”

“Of course...” Wade watched Simon.

The smaller boy tried to keep himself from crying, and the two foggy forms that Wade had seen around him since they met swarmed. They coddled the blond, hovering appendages over his shoulders and trying their best to wipe away tears that rolled right through their forming fingers. Wade could feel their positive vibes flowing off of them, and Simon calmed down as a result. Simon hissed at himself. “Sorry.”

“Simon, your parents dying is a very good reason to cry. You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for.” Wade ducked his head. “My uh... My dad died before I was born... I can’t really say I know how you feel, because I don’t.” He ducked his head and leaned on his knees. “My stepdad was a jerk, but he left us so I don’t have to worry about him.”

Wade never got to live while his father was alive. But that didn’t mean he’d never met him. His father stayed behind to watch him and his brother grow, refusing to move on. His purpose in life was his boys. To Wade’s knowledge, he was probably still around. He’d left with Lorne when he moved away, even though Lorne couldn’t see or hear him.

Wade flinched. He hadn’t spoken to Lorne in years.

Simon bit his lip. “That still sucks. Sorry, man.”

“It’s okay...” Wade cleared his throat. “Was, uh... Tory related to your dad then?”

Simon sniffled and rubbed an eye. “What? No, uh. Shit. I mean like, he’s basically my uncle. Damascus, the guy who’s taking care o’ me, s’his brother, and I took his last name and faked some shit so I could go to school. Nobody checks that stuff.”

Wade arched a brow at him. “You-... Is that even legal?”

Simon snorted. “Absolutely not,” He said. “But like I said, nobody checks.”

Wade shuffled his feet closer and hugged his legs. “So... What’s your real last name?”

Simon nursed that lip and smiled at him. “Promise not to tell?”

“Of course.”

“Nicotera... Simon Nicotera.”

Wade let himself smile back. “Nice to meet you, Simon Nicotera.”

They turned away from each other again, and Simon looked up at the sky. It looked like a weight had gone from him, and Wade knew it was likely because of the two spirits pushing out as much pain from him as they could. All spirits that he knew of had the ability to force emotions onto people or areas. It was why many places said to be haunted made people feel uneasy. Most of the spirits were uneasy. But a few, like Simon’s parents, and Wade’s father, pushed only the good. He wished he could tell Simon how much his parents still cared.

Wade squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to talk to Simon about everything in his life, but he was terrified; What if Simon shunned him the same way everybody else did?

“Do-...” Wade clenched his fists. “Do you want to hear something secret about me...?”

Simon glanced over at him. “Yeah. I mean, you don’t have to, if you don’t wanna.”

Wade inhaled and lifted his head. “I really do.”

Simon shifted and faced Wade once more. “Go for it, man. Secret’s safe with me.”

Wade watched Simon’s curious and concerned face for a few seconds. “Do you know why I don’t have any friends? Why nobody likes me?”

Simon tilted his head. “Because you’re super tall and kinda goth, and people are dicks?”

Wade snorted. “I wish that were it,” He said. He closed his eyes and took a breath. “Nobody likes me because I talk to the dead.”

Simon’s face went blank.

Wade felt something cold grip his heart. “It’s why you f-find me in corners a lot, or like, with my head in my locker.” He watched Simon’s gaze turn stone and drop to the rooftop. Wade panicked. He was losing him. “I-It’s why I got so nervous when you got on the wall here, because-” He moved to gesture above them, to the spirit that hadn’t stopped looming, but Simon stood up. “Simon? W-Where are you going?”

“Home.”

Something in Wade shrivelled and died. “Simon, wait-”

Simon made it to the door and began fiddling with bobby pins in the lock. “That’s not funny, Wade.”

“I’m not- I’m not saying it to be funny, Simon, it’s the truth.” Wade scrambled to his feet and followed. “I told one guy that his sister wanted him to keep playing guitar and stop being a jerk, and he decked me and told everybody I was a freak.”

A bobby pin snapped and Simon hissed. “Damn.” He ignored Wade.

“S-Simon-”

Simon glared daggers at the door and tried another bobby pin. “I tell you somethin’ not even Damascus knows about me, and you pull out some bullshit story? Fuck off.” The second pin snapped. “Fuck!”

Wade’s eyes reddened. “Please don’t go, I’m not lying to you!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Simon threw his broken bobby pin on the ground. “I know where you’re fuckin’ goin’ with this, and you’re full of shit!”

Wade went rigid, and the dam broke.

“This is the part where you tell me my folks are still around, right!? So you can tell me that they still love me, and they’re proud, and I’m gonna just believe you like some fuck in an episode of the goddamn Ghost Whisperer!” Simon turned from Wade and the door and made his way back to the ledge where they’d climbed. “You don’t need to pull that shit to make friends, Wade! I was your fuckin’ friend!”

“Simon please-!”

“Tell him he needs a haircut.”

Wade flinched and jerked his head to the voice. The wispy forms of Simon’s parents had grown clear. It took two seconds of catching the ice blue gaze under the blonde fringe to realise that Simon inherited most of his looks from his mother. “Your mother wants you to cut your hair!”

Simon froze at the wall. He turned back to Wade and looked insulted. “Fuck you, Wade.” He turned back to the wall and hefted himself up.

The shadow of the roof spirit darted along the border of the roof and skidded to a stop in front of Simon, planting its hands on Simon’s shoulders. With shriek that Simon couldn’t hear, it shoved.

Simon toppled back on the roof. The spirit was protecting him from falling. It didn’t want anyone else to die that way that it had.

Wade took a step closer. “Simon, please listen...”

“No!” There was a horror in Simon’s eyes as he sat up and tried again, but the spirit kept him from staying on the wall. “M-Make it stop! I want to leave! It’s not real!”

Then, whispering started. He heard Simon’s mother again, and his father, and the spirit from the roof- a girl- echoing in his head at once like his own thoughts. They were trying to help. “Your mother’s name was Rita!”

“Shut up!”

“Your father’s name was Chris, Simon! They named you after your grandfather-”

“S-Stop talking!” Simon shrieked as he tried to fight the force of the being on the ledge.

Wade’s head filled with information Simon hadn’t told him, and he dropped to his knees from the load. “You’re a genius. You’ve always understood engineering and chemistry since you were little, and you built a rocket when you were nine without any help!” He took in a shuddery breath. “Y-You left home when you were thirteen because your parents were being blackmailed! Y-You thought you cost them money they didn’t have, s-so you... you ran away, and you made fireworks and bombs, and you sold them to make money to send to them! You gave up being a kid so your family could keep going!”

Simon gave up fighting the ghost and spun around, fear and heartbreak on his face. “What do you know!? What do you fuckin’ know about me!?”

“I know that you’re the bravest person I have ever met! You defied the mob to help your parents, you lived by yourself for three years, and you still want to keep going despite all of that! I know that you’re the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and I don’t know what I’ll do if you think I’m some freak like everyone else does!”

Simon face was a mess. It was red, tears were streaming down his face, and his nose was running. “It c-can’t be real...! If it’s real, that m-means they’ve been watchin’ me! They know shit I’ve done, they know the things I made probably killed people! They died because of me, okay!? I wasn’t home! I couldn’t protect them!”

Wade swallowed a lump in his throat. “S-Simon...”

“Simon Nicotera, you would have died with us. Do you really think that’s what we wanted? You being away from home is the only thing that kept you safe.” Wade turned and looked at Simon’s father.

“You don’t have to get so angry all the time, baby...” His mother hovered over Simon’s quaking form.

Wade huffed and gripped his hair. “H-He can’t hear you...”

Simon lifted from the roof and glared. “Stop talking to them!”

Simon’s mother rose and her form shuttered. In and instant, she was before Wade again. “Can you let him hear me?”

Wade bit his lip. He squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. This was something he hadn’t done in years. He lifted his hand to her face.

For Wade, everything went black, like falling asleep.

Simon’s glare didn’t lessen as Wade’s arm dropped, and his distraught, empty look was replaced with a serene, familiar one. “Simon, calm down.”

Simon’s rib cage tried to cave in. It was Wade’s voice, but the accent, the tone- the kindness- was a brand he hadn’t heard in three years and thought he would never know again. He tumbled back into his butt and shifted away. “S-Stop it!”

Wade’s body stood to his feet and carefully and walked toward Simon. Simon continued to crab walk away until he hit the wall. Wade’s form stopped a few feet from the sobbing mess against the wall. “You’re panicking, baby. You need to breathe.” He knelt down on his knees, and a soft smile graced his face.

Another sobbed ripped from Simon’s throat. “S-Stop- us-sing h-her voice...!” He covered his face.

Wade’s head tilted to the side. He sighed and closed his eyes. “You and I in a little toy shop,” he sang.

Simon’s eyes widened behind his hands.

“Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got,” Wades’s hand reached out and placed itself over Simon’s hands. “Set them free at the break of dawn ‘til one by one, they were gone.”

Simon trembled and lowered his hands and stared at Wade in fear, but somewhere in his red, swollen eyes, there was exhausted relief. When Simon was little, and he got angry or scared, his mother would sing him her favourite song to calm him down. Sometimes she would sing it to herself around the house, and Simon would hide around corners and listen. He’d never told anyone about the song.

He couldn’t deny it now. This wasn’t Wade anymore. This was his mother.

Her smile creased Wade’s face, aging him. She pushed Wade’s fingers through Simon’s hair. “Back at base, bugs in the software, flash the message:”

“S-Something’s out there...!” Simon sang at his mother. It was broken, and he’d never really been able to sing, but he always made the effort for her.

His mother beamed and continued. “Floating in the summer sky,”

“Ninety-nine red balloons go by,” They sang together.

Simon sobbed and scrambled forward, yanking at Wade’s hoodie and throwing himself into his mother’s hold. She closed Wade’s arms around Simon and rested her head utop his. “You’re so, so strong, Simon...”

“I’m s-sorry...! I’m so sorry!” Simon buried his face in her borrowed chest, not caring how solid and boney it was. “I want you b-back! I want you back so bad, what do I have to do!?”

Rita pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “It doesn’t work that way, baby... Your daddy and I are gone.”

Simon’s face twisted into one of agony. Then, his distraught gaze turned furious. “I’m g-gonna get the fuck that did this... I’m gonna find him and blow him to fuckin’ pieces.”

Rita pursed her lips. “Language.” She lifted her borrowed hands and cupped Simon’s face. “And you will do no such thing. You don’t need to get tangled in this mess like we did. You’re free from our fate, and you have a wonderful man taking care of you now. Don’t throw it away for revenge, or so help me I will ground you in the afterlife, do you hear me?”

Simon gave a little sob and squeezed his eyes shut, nodding.

She smiled again. “There’s my good boy.” She leaned forward and kissed Simon’s forehead.

Simon let out a broken laugh. “T-That’s super weird right now, mom...”

Rita laughed. “Well it’s the best you’re gonna get right now.” She leaned their foreheads together and looked him in the eyes. “This boy is so scared for you, baby. He’s afraid he’s lost you, and he needs you more than you know.” She took a deep breath. “And you need him. He’s trying to help you; you just have to let him. Let people help you. It’s not you alone against the world anymore. Okay? Don’t be afraid to ask for things.”

Simon sniffed and nodded. ”...Okay.”

“Don’t be afraid of what you feel for Damascus either. We know that you’re not replacing us, and we know that he’s what you need right now. Don’t be afraid to let him know that.”

Simon swallowed the lump in his throat. “I-I’m so scared, ma... I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to... function like a normal person anymore.”

Rita laughed. “Baby, you were never normal.”

Simon arched a brow at her. “Gee, ma, rub it in.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Rita brushed Simon’s hair out of his eyes and tucked it behind his ear. “You have always been my little genius. You’re so smart, and you love so strongly- You have so much in that small body of yours that you are overflowing. You’ll get past this. I know you will, because you are my son. You’re my little rebel... I just wish you’d cut your hair.”

Simon’s lip trembled, but he smiled wide.

Rita pulled her son into another embrace. “I have to give your friend his body back now, Simon.”

Simon’s eyes widened, and he looked at her in shock. “D-Don’t go-...”

Rita beamed again, cupping his face and kissing his forehead one last time. “Who the hell said we were goin’ anywhere?” She rested her hand over his heart. “We’re always here when you need us. We’ve always been here.”

Simon sucked in air. “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. More than you could ever know.”

The maternal look left Wade’s eyes in a flash, and Wade toppled backwards. His chest heaved as if he’d been holding his breath underwater. Simon swallowed again and shuffled forward, shaking hands hovering over Wade’s form. “...You okay...?”

“Guh-...G-Gonna be sick...”

“Oh shit.” Simon hurried forward and raked his hands through Wade’s hair to pull it out of the way. It took seconds after that for Wade to vomit. Simon flinched and rubbed Wade’s back.

Wade coughed his stomach empty and his throat broken, a cold sweat building over his body. Eventually, the heaving ceased, and Wade shivered in Simon’s hold. “F-Fuck... Haven’t d-... done that in years...”

Simon pulled his knee up and stood, giving his hand to Wade to help him up. “Think you can stand?”

Wade took the offered hand and wobbled into a shaky stance. “I think so... It’s wearing off, possession aftershocks don’t last long for people like me.” He reached up and wiped his damp brow. “I seriously need to get back into practice though. I don’t usually... throw up.” He looked embarrassed. “Sorry.”

Simon stared up at him in disbelief.

Wade bit his lip. “W-...What?”

Simon dove at Wade and threw his arms around his chest, burying his face in the solid, boney chest again. “‘Swear to god, stop apologising!” He pulled back enough to glare from beneath Wade’s chin. “I sat there and called you a liar when you trusted me with something important. If anyone’s gonna apologise, it’s gonna be fuckin’ me.”

Wade tensed in the hug, but he returned it as desperation set in. Simon hadn’t left. He wasn’t afraid of him. Everything was going to be okay.

They stood there for a few moments before Simon grumbled against Wade’s chest.

Wade blinked down at him. “What?”

“I broke all my bobby pins... We’re gonna have to go back down through the window.”

Wade snickered at him. “Now what did those pins ever do to you?”

“Shut up.”

Wade smiled and sighed, glancing up and finding that the dark figure on the wall was still there. She was less shadow now and more tangible, her long, dark hair spilling far past her shoulders. Her eyes looked saddened, but she didn’t seem as scared as Wade had felt from her before. “You don’t have to fall anymore,” He called to her.

Simon turned to where Wade was speaking. “Uh... w-who’s there?” He stepped away from Wade but kept his hand on his arm.

Wade bit his lip. “I don’t know her name. She hasn’t really said anything yet. She’s the one who wouldn’t let you up on the ledge. She didn’t want you to fall-” He gave her a soft look. ”-Like she did.”

Simon looked breathless. He stared at the empty space beside them where Wade could see someone, but he saw nothing. “I’m... sorry I scared you,” He said, unsure where to look. He sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Still gotta get up there to get out though. I can’t get the door unlocked with broken bobby pins.”

Wade grinned at him. “We can if we ask nicely.” He turned back to the girl.

Simon watched nothing happen for a few moments. Then, he heard an audible click, and the door to the roof swung open. He gapped at it.

Wade shoved his hands on his hoodie pocket. “Thank you.”

Simon gestured a rigid hand at the door. “That woulda been nice to fuckin’ know before I made us climb through a window.”

Wade laughed.

They walked back down the stairs in silence. Simon lead the way, and he barely lifted his eyes from the ground. When they got outside, Simon sighed deeply and looked at the sky.

Wade rubbed his own arm. “Are... Are you okay...?”

Simon snorted. “Well, I just had a worldview get fuckin’ wrecked. I talked to my mom for the first time in years. Think I’m handlin’ that pretty well, considering.”

Wade swallowed a nervous lump. “Are-... Are we still on to study tomorrow?”

“Oh definitely. I’ll see ya.” Simon smiled and turned to walk to the bus stop.

Wade’s home was in the opposite direction. He bit his lip as he turned away, scuffing his feet against the sidewalk. Were things really all right?

The next day, Simon wobbled out of bed with his hair in every possible direction. He grumbled in the bright, warm light of Damascus’ home. A gentle breeze spilled into the room from the small, opened window on the other side of the room. “Deeeee,” Simon whined. “S’coffee on?”

“Coffee and toast, little man. How you holdin’ up?”

Simon sat on the couch at the coffee table. “Like a damn dandelion in a stiff breeze.”

Damascus grinned. “Do I get a wish?”

“Blow me.”

The guffaw that followed filled the room with more warmth. Simon grinned despite himself, but he covered his ears.

“Jesus Christ, D, gimme my fuckin’ coffee before you go bein’ loud!” Simon said.

Damascus snickered and set a cup down in front of Simon, as well as a plate of toast. “Buzzkill.”

“Loser.”

“You can’t match socks.”

“You have a rocketship themed duvet.”

Damascus gasped in mock horror. “Hey, rocketships are cool!” There was a knock at the door. Damascus stood up and moved for the door, glancing back at Simon. “This isn’t over.”

Simon stuck out his tongue. “You’ll never defeat me, Batman!”

Damascus laughed and tugged open the door.

Wade stood there and blinked at Damascus, looking confused. “Uh.”

Damascus blinked back at him but he smiled brightly. “S’up? Who are you?”

“I’m here for-... Is-Is Simon here?”

Damascus’ smile widened. “Oh yeah, he’s just wakin’ up! Come on in.” Damascus moved out of the way to let Wade in, and he saw a string trailing from Wade’s hand. “Whatcha got there?”

“O-Oh, its a- um-”

Simon stood up and smiled as Wade walked in. “Wade! Hey, man you’re early-” He stopped.

Trailing from Wade’s hand was one red balloon. Simon stared at it, rounding the table to get closer. Wade looked tense and nervous, and Damascus stepped away to shut the door.

Wade cleared his throat. “It’s... a gift, I guess. I’m sorry, this was probably dumb.”

Simon’s smile returned. “No way, man. It’s perfect.” He reached out and accepted the balloon, freeing up Wade’s hand and hugging him tightly around the waist. “Thanks, Wade.”

Wade relaxed in the hold and hugged him back. “Any time.”

Damascus smiled wistfully at them for a moment before pouting. “Aw, I want a balloon.”

Wade glanced at him and smiled sheepishly. “I mean, I have more. I bought a bag,” He said, reaching into the bag he always had on him and pulling out a bag of deflated red balloons. “I just figured inflating them all would be... really inconvenient to transport.”

Damascus’ eyes lit up. “Fuck yes! Simon, you have the coolest friends!” He snatched the bag and sat down on the floor, pouring the balloons onto the table before taking one and inflating it.

“Damn straight, I do.” Simon watched Damascus with a measure of affection before turning that same affection to Wade. “Seriously. Thank you.”

Wade smiled back and nodded. “I was hoping you’d like it.” He glanced back at Damascus and giggled. “I’m guessing this means we’re not studying any time soon.”

Simon cackled. “Not if Damascus has anything to say about.”

“Simon! Thank fast!” Damascus pegged the balloon at Simon’s head, and it bounced painlessly away.

Simon flinched, but he grinned. “Oh shit, it’s on now.” He darted for the table and grabbed a balloon, working to blow it up and get his revenge. The helium balloon escaped to the safety of the ceiling. Damascus was inflating another one by the time Simon finished his and chucked it at Damascus, who dodged.

Wade laughed and took in the waves of deep warmth coming from Damascus and his home. Something about Damascus was so pure and good that all of his previous nerves about Simon were gone. There was nowhere better that Simon could possibly be right now.

A balloon was rocketed into his chest, pulling him out of his head. Simon looked guilty and pointed at Damascus, who looked appalled. Damascus grinned at Wade. “Run while you can, Wade!”

Wade’s face split in an ecstatic grin. He ran for the table and snagged a balloon. “Hell no, that was a challenge.”

All of the balloons eventually found themselves full and being thrown around the small apartment. The warm home filled with laughter as the battle raged on, and the one helium balloon found its way to the window. It ducked under the wall, twisting and flipping in the wind.

In the light of dawn, that one red balloon drifted into the sky.

#wade #simon #fic #ghosts #death

5 notes · View notes

doctordragon · 8 years ago

Note

I gotta ask about your reblog in the Fyeahcontroversialcharacter reblog. You said "reblogged" with "I agree with 90% of this, except that Lucio is less fighting against order itself and for total freedom, and less in a... "... But your post there was empty. What were you trying to say? As the guy who upped this, I'm very curious.

I’m really tired tonight from exams and a fencing meet but I’ll do my best to explain what I was trying to say (and I’m sorry if I come across as angry,,,,)

First things first, I love Lucio and Symmetra both so much. I feel like they have one of the best possible unused story arcs in all of the Overwatch lore, and I would love development for both of them. Lucio is probably the character with the least amount of canon content about him, and Symmetra only has a comic, which I find unfortunate because their story is so intricate and well made.

The post from the controversial character blog I reblogged was a defense for Symmetra against people who hate her character and think she’s a bad person for being manipulated so easily by Vishkar. I agree with most of your post, except the post bashed Lucio as “romanticizing the steal from the rich and give to the poor Robin Hood trope,” but as someone who’s pretty much in love with Lucio and has 62+ hours on him, this really upset me because his reasoning behind stealing Vishkar’s technology is so much more complex than that. Also, the original post pretty much argued that Symmetra had little to no character flaws, which is wrong as well. However, I agree that this is no reason to hate her, especially because all characters should have flaws like regular people.

Essentially, what bothered me about their argument is that they implied to put Lucio at fault, when his actions were clearly justified. Yes, stealing Vishkar tech may be illegal and against what Symmetra may want, but his actions had clear reason behind them.

In order to justify Lucio’s actions, we first need to understand where he was coming from. Lucio was born in Rio’s slums, which were poor but bursting with culture. He began to create music, expressing his freedom and creativity. He put on small shows with his music, but eventually worked his way up to larger audiences until he was eventually the world famous musician that we know today. However, soon, Vishkar which is a clearly corrupt and evil organization (I’ll get to how terrible they are later) wants to move into Rio. Lucio has seen what Vishkar has done in Utopea, where they have repressed creativity in the name of order and perfection. Lucio has made his career in freedom of self expression and love. Of course, when Vishkar comes with its order and anti freedom philosophies to his home city where he made his own music and self expression, naturally, he’s gonna be fucking pissed.

So, what does he do? Anything he can to keep Vishkar out of Rio to preserve his home city and culture. Lucio first begins a resistance in Rio against Vishkar and their moving into Rio, using his songs and music to motivate people to stand with him. However, even as a famous musician (we don’t know how famous he was at the time), he probably doesn’t have access to a shit ton of cool technology or any way to actually take a real stand against Vishkar other than his music. So, he decides to steal their technology. Vishkar is an incredibly rich corporation (they made an entire CITY) and will likely be able to easily replace whatever Lucio stole. I feel like it’s implied he stole it more for the symbolism of using Vishkar’s technology, which used to represent order and to Lucio, lack of creativity and culture, as his way of expressing his creativity (again, through his music). Not to mention, he reprogramed Vishkar’s tech against them, which is also symbolic in its own way. Lucio is an artist, and I doubt he did any of this by accident.

In your post, you said that he was simply stealing from the rich to give to the poor, which in essence is true, because he was stealing to protect the people of Rio from being oppressed by Vishkar, but truly I believe his motivation is more complex than that. If we’re going by dungeons and dragons alignments which I love a lot, I’d say Lucio is neutral good.

Now, onto Symmetra and understanding where she’s coming from as well (I think you covered this in your post but my memory is bad and I’m lazy). Symmetra was also born very poor with a natural creative talent, except hers was in visual spacing and design, likely due to her autism. Vishkar, seeing her talent from a young age essentially kidnapped her away from her home and began teaching her to become an architect. She became the most skilled architect in Vishkar by using her culture’s dancing alongside Vishkar’s light technology. However, she was manipulated by Vishkar into thinking that they’re not a morally corrupt and evil company (which again, I’ll get to later). Vishkar uses her natural love of order and how it is the correct vision of human society to make her believe that what she’s doing is right. Symmetra doesn’t think she’s going against people’s wants and wishes by taking away their freedom, she only thinks she’s doing what’s right.

Naturally, (as you pointed out) when she sees that Lucio stole technology from Vishkar, she’s going to be angry about it. Symmetra has every right to be angry at Lucio for stealing technology from Vishkar, because yes, he STOLE. He’s a thief, and in her book, that makes him below her and her order and all.

However, just because of Symmetra’s situation, it doesn’t mean that she’s not a flawed character. The interaction that really gets to me is this one:

Anyone who’s read any dystopian society that claims to be a utopian society knows that repressing people’s freedoms, self expressions, and imaginations is a bad idea. Symmetra’s view of a perfect world is against what all of the people affected actually want, and if continued, could easily lead to revolt. Despite being confronted with it, Symmetra outright denies that people need to be free. She refuses to change her ideas about order.

Not to mention, she only ever question’s Vishkar’s methods of achieving a perfect world, not the idea of a perfect world itself. She questions their willingness to kill people and blow up a building, which Symmetra didn’t want to do because she doesn’t like killing. After all, she wants what’s best for humanity, and killing people is clearly not a good thing for humanity. However, she continues to completely believe that the best future for humanity is the utopia Vishkar wants where culture and creativity is suppressed in the name of order. That’s why this interaction really gets to me. Symmetra thinks freedom and creativity is an illusion, anarchy, and only does harm. Even though she is beginning to understand Vishkar to be corrupt in her comic, Symmetra still doesn’t ever wonder about what they’re trying to achieve. Yes, this is likely because of them manipulating her from a young age, but I still find her rigid ideology and unquestioning of Vishkar’s final plan to be a flaw of Symmetra’s.

This flaw, and the fact that she is still with Vishkar even after being exposed to their cruel and terrible punishments, are Symmetra’s flaws. Don’t get me wrong, she is a character that truly believes in good and wants what’s best for humanity and the world, but her perception of what is good is very skewed and she refuses to right it, despite being blatantly confronted with what’s wrong with her ideals. Maybe it was just because Lucio was the one who confronted her, and she looks down on him as a street ruffian and a thief, but Symmetra should at least begin to understand that her envision of a perfect humanity is not what people want out of it.

Finally, onto Vishkar itself. Vishkar is a terrible, evil, corporation who’s only goal is to gain money and power. By creating cities using their architects, they’re obviously getting massive amounts of both. Their methods of supposedly creating a better future for humanity include blackmail, killing, manipulation, and false publicity. Not to mention, they literally kidnapped Symmetra from her home as a young child in order to use her as a pawn to create their architecture, and manipulated her into thinking what she was doing was the best path for humanity. Again, Vishkar’s vision for the world is not really what “Utopia” looks like, as repressing people’s freedoms and ideas is not how to create a perfect society. Lucio mentions that the way Vishkar got their technology that he stole was acquired by very questionable means, and he claims he wasn’t in the wrong for stealing something acquired by such methods.

So yeah, since I don’t remember much about the original post and I don’t feel like looking it up, here’s a lot (but not all) of my analysis on the Lucio, Symmetra, and Vishkar potential arc that’s been set up. I hope more gets developed sometime soon because I feel like there’s so much unused story and character development involved.

rumor has it there’s an upcoming lucio short so maybe that’s when we’ll actually learn more about all of this conflict

#overwatch #symmetra #lucio #ow #satya vaswani #lucio santos dos correos #chrisx-212

15 notes · View notes

foilfreak · 4 years ago

Text

(LOL JK, I WROTE BOTH CHAPTERS IN LIKE 4 HOURS. NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM!) Beauty and Her Beast: Chapter 6

WARNING PLZ READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

(AO3 link posted in comments below)

“SALLY!!!” Angie greets in a cheerfully aggressive way, flying out from nowhere and knocking Salvatore to the ground as he heaves his way up the path toward the Beneviento estate.

“G-good evening… A-Angie… is D-Donna… home? I-I’d like to… t-to speak w-with her” Salvatore asks, somehow not even surprised by the fact that he was currently looking up at the darkening sky as the spastic porcelain doll his sister communicated through frantically flew in circles around him, like a small child who’d been given too much candy all at once.

“Hahaha, ya, she’s here. We saw you coming up the hill, so she should be waiting for you inside” Angie answers, giggling to herself as she slowly levitates up into the air, staring at Salvatore all the while. “This better be worth our time, Sally-boy, or you’ll owe us a huge favor, you got it?” The matrimonially dressed doll croons before frantically taking off toward the house without waiting to see if Salvatore was following, laughing maniacally all the while.

“I-I’ll k-keep that in m-mind…” Salvatore mumbles under his breath, flipping himself upright from the prone position in which he’d landed on his back. Picking himself off the ground, Salvatore took a deep breath, hoping that Donna was in a good enough mood to give him what he needed, before finally following after Angie.

“DONNA! SALLY’S COME FOR A VISIT. I DON’T KNOW WHY, THOUGH!” is what Salvatore hears Angie scream just as he hobbles through the front door of the estate, the Beneviento home looking just as dark and empty, save for all the doll’s of course, as the last time he was here.

“Tores,” Donna greets simply, appearing out of nowhere behind the hooded man, much like her doll had done just moments earlier.

“D-Donna! Y-you’re looking w-well” Salvatore greets back, fiddling nervously in front of the younger woman, his inability to read her expression due to the presence of her black veil causing the deformed man to sweat anxiously, despite both Angie and Donna’s use of their familiar nicknames for him. “How a-are you d-doing? H-have you m-met… your g-gift yet?”

“I have” the veiled woman answers simply, after a long moment of silence, turning her gaze to the other room, where some ornate chairs, a coffee table, and a couch sit in close proximity to one another, creating a delightfully cozy area to host party guests, if such things were to ever actually grace a house such as the Beneviento’s. Currently the only thing the sitting area hosted was a tall, grim looking man, dressed entirely in black, with a pale, gaunt face, and long, unkempt black hair that fell gracefully upon his sleeping face.

“All he’s done since he got here a few hours ago is sleep and stare off into space” Angie whispers quietly to Salvatore. “Donna says he’s just resting and adjusting to being out of the pod for an extended period of time, but I'm starting to think he might just be brain dead.”

“I take it you have met your gift as well?” Donna says suddenly, regaining Salvatore’s attention just as she motions for the deformed man to follow her out of the room and away from the still-sleeping man in the other room.

“U-uuuuuh… y-yes… yes I’ve m-met mine… th-that’s… actually th-the reason w-why I’m… h-here…” Salvatore stutters nervously, as he hobbles behind the younger woman, struggling to keep up as Donna effortlessly floats through the confusing maze of the Beneviento estate.

“Hahaha, keep up, ugly, or I’ll make you test one of my puzzles before entertaining your little request” Angie giggles sadistically as she flies past Salvatore’s shoulder and zooms down the hallway to the left. Hoping that Donna wasn’t purposefully trying to trick him so that Angie could make good on her threat, Salvatore books it down the hall, breathing a sigh of relief when he catches up with Donna just as the funeral clad woman enters her personal quarters.

“I’m sorry for the sudden change in location, but I wanted to give your concerns my full attention without fear of waking Antxon from his slumber” Donna apologized once Salvatore had closed the door to her workshop behind him, removing her veil from her head and placing the ornate head covering on its designated stand, revealing the large, veiny tumors that grew from her right eye to the deformed man. Smiling kindly at Salvatore as the deformed man removes his hood.

“N-no worries” Salvatore assures, lowering his hood to reveal the array of bulbous growths that grew along the front and back of his neck. “I’m j-just glad you… h-have s-some time to h-help me.”

“Of course, it's not a problem at all, Sal. At least, not after the incredible favor you did for me, it isn’t. I didn’t know what I was going to do when that huge storm we had last year broke parts of the waterfall off and flooded the house. I thought I was about to lose everything all over again before you came in and diverted the water flow back down the opposite side of the cliff. The fact that it’s a little late in the evening means nothing if I can repay you for saving what remains of my home” Donna says kindly, a beautiful smile spreading across her face.

Salvatore giggled and looked away in embarrassment, unused to being praised so heavily, even by Donna, the sweetest and calmest of Salvatore’s younger siblings. But regardless of that fact, yes, it’s true, Salvatore is, in fact, the reason why the Beneviento estate still stands proudly, if a bit dilapidated, on the cliff it had been built upon however many centuries ago by Donna’s ancestors. After a large summer storm knocked out several of the rocks that had previously ensured the waterfall pointed parallel to the house, the flow of water was forced to change due to the presence of a new hole through which water could, and did, flow heavily through.

Donna was practically paralyzed from her hysterical sobbing when Salvatore finally arrived with a potential solution to the slow but agonizing destruction of her childhood home. Angie was all but convulsing madly on the ground just a few feet away, a sickeningly humorous display of the debilitating fear and madness that was flying around inside Donna’s brain at that moment. Shockingly, Salvatore’s potential solution, to open up a new, larger hole on the opposite side of the cliff that would hopefully divert the flow of water away from the Beneviento house, ended up being exactly what was needed to solve the problem.

A couple of powerful swings of the tail of his much larger, much stronger fully-mutated form had the rock on the other side of the cliff falling away like small pebbles, allowing the river water to burst forth from the brand new opening. The hole through which water had been escaping onto Donna’s property slowly drained itself of water before stopping altogether, the waterfall having been successfully diverted to the opposite side of the cliff side, saving the Beneviento home from previously certain destruction.

If it weren’t for how understandably distressed and thankful Donna had been due to the results of the situation, Salvatore would have been just a bit annoyed by how frantically she sobbed while insisting upon paying the deformed man back for his kind services. Salvatore didn’t really see the need. He was more than happy to help Donna out with her problem, but he didn’t do it with the intention of getting a favor or payment out of the younger woman. Sure, it would be nice if, because Salvatore did something nice for Donna out of the kindness of his heart, Donna was willing to extend the same kindness to him when he called out for assistance, but that had never been his intention.

He wasn’t Karl, after all.

Regardless, Donna had been insistent that Salvatore may call upon her for whatever he may need in the future, and it would appear as though today was the day that he would be able to take advantage of Donna’s kind offer.

“I-It was n-nothing… I a-assure you… I was… h-happy to do it f-for you… b-but since… y-you offered to d-do something… for m-me… in return f-for what I did… I-I figured I’d… make u-use… of i-it…” Salvatore trails off, hoping he wasn’t imposing too much upon his sister. He knows she said he could ask anything of her, but even someone as talented and powerful as Donna had her limits. The deformed man can only hope that Donna will be able to assist him this time just like she has many times before.

“Of course. What is it that I can do for you? If you’re looking for manual labor of some kind, I’d certainly be willing to lend you as much of a hand as possible, but unfortunately my true skills lie in only a few areas, so I apologize if I prove to not be much help in the long run” Donna says bluntly, though her unintentionally self-deprecating speech is quickly shut down by Salvatore.

“N-no no, not a-at all… I’m w-well aware of… w-where your s-skills lie… and th-that’s why… I��ve c-come to you f-for this” Salvatore explains hurriedly. “I-I need… a dress.”

“A dress?” Donna asks, the rise of her left eyebrow revealing just how much Salvatore’s request had shocked her.

“Y-yes” Salvatore nods his head. “A d-dress… f-for a very beautiful y-young… young woman…” the deformed man says, trailing off as his cheeks begin to burn from outright embarrassment of his own words. How much more desperate and pathetic could he possibly sound?

Donna merely chuckled at the older man’s sudden bashful behavior. “Oh? So you’d like a dress commissioned for your gift would you? Well, isn’t that sweet.”

Salvatore turns away as his whole body burns with shameful embarrassment. Now, it wasn’t as though the deformed man wasn’t comfortable around Donna to talk about these sorts of things, but Salvatore wasn’t nearly as close with Donna as he was with Karl, so a part of the mutant man couldn’t help but wither slightly as the black clad woman’s soft laughs slowly came to a stop.

“Forgive my rudeness, I don’t mean to make you feel bad by laughing at you. I actually think your idea to give your gift a gift of her own is quite smart and charming. Are you looking to woo your gift, Tores?” Donna teases goodnaturedly, using her nickname for him to boot, as she walks over to a nearby drawer and begins pulling out fabrics of various colors and materials, gently placing them all out on the table in the middle of the room for Salvatore to see.

“I-I don’t k-know about… th-that… I th-think I’ll just be h-happy if…i-if we can at l-least… be f-friends.”

“But you would like more?” Donna asks knowingly, smoothing the fabrics out.

Salvatore let's his gaze fall to the floor as he fiddles with the leather bracelet on his left wrist, grimacing as selfishly filthy and domestic thoughts begin to fill the deformed man’s mind, twisted visions of tender embraces, brutal love making, and soft, loving kisses shared in a bed filled with so many children; his children; their children, scattered here, there, and everywhere across the warmth and safety of their nest, filling in every space not currently occupied by either of their parents. Surrounded inside and out by the love of the family he’d never allowed himself to dream of before. Not that Salvatore's sick and disgusting mind could ever come up with an image as pure and wholesome as this one on its own.

“I-I would… I’d l-like… a g-great deal m-more… th-than I’ll p-probably ever b-be worth… b-but I can’t h-help it… she’s just s-so… so… sh-she’s everything I’ve ever w-wanted in life… and s-still someh-how s-so much more… I h-haven’t been able to… t-to stop th-thinking about h-her… since I f-first laid eyes u-upon her… I-I want to g-give her… e-everything… I w-want to be h-her everything… i d-dont know… if it’ll e-ever work… b-but a p-part of me can’t help b-but… can’t help but w-want to try… just t-to see if m-maybe… maybe… i-it could?” Salvatore admits somberly after a few moments of silence.

Donna hums in understanding, remaining silent as she continues to gather up her supplies. After a few more moments of searching, the younger woman finally sits at the large sewing table, turning to Salvatore as she picks up a thick and luxurious looking silk material, dyed the color of bright red blood, a small smile on her face. “Well, if you’re planning on winning your gift’s affections through the use of gifts, then we’d better make sure we make her a gift worth falling in love over, yes?”

Salvatore gasps in excitement as he realizes what Donna’s words really mean. She’ll help him make a dress that he can gift to Nadine!

“O-oh thank you… th-thank you, thank y-you, thank you thank you thank you!” Salvatore praises, grabbing Donna’s hand and shaking it excitedly between them.

Donna chuckles in amused fondness. “But of course! Anything for an older brother as reliable and helpful as you! Now, the actual construction of this dress will, unfortunately, take some time, if you are looking for something fancy and luxurious, that is. There’s also the issue of measurements, as the dress will need to be custom fit to your gift’s unique frame if you want it to look the way it's supposed to. However, if you’re in a rush and would like something to give her today, I could throw something suitable together for just the time being. It won’t be the final version of course, but she'll at least have something to wear while I work on the real dress in secret. Does that sound like an agreeable plan, Tores?” Donna asks, folding her hands in front of her, making her look very professional and serious.

Salvatore nods his head. “Yes, th-that’ll be j-just fine! I’ll l-leave the d-design of the d-dress… u-up to you, D-Donna… I t-trust your e-expertise… h-however if y-you do h-have… something… th-that I could g-give Nadine t-today… then th-that would be a-amazing… as well…”

“Nadine” Donna repeats slowly, smiling again. “What a pretty name that is? Which one is she?”

“Th-the blue one… w-with white… f-freckles… an-and fins.”

“Ah yes, I remember now. Mother Miranda spoke quite poorly of that particular subject. Said she was an absolute menace, if I recall. What do you think of her?” The black clad woman asks, curiously.

Salvatore shrugs his shoulders. “I-I’ve not m-met her officially… yet… I g-got nervous an-and hid… under some c-crates… when she f-first woke up… b-but she seems… surprisingly… m-mild mannered and calm… as f-far as I c-can… as far as I can t-tell.”

“I see” Donna says, “well that sounds interesting. Though… why were you hiding under crates, again?”

“... I-I don’t w-want to talk about i-it” Salvatore mutters softly, the embarrassed heat returning when Donna chuckles at his behavior.

“Oh, don’t worry, Tores, you know I’d never judge you about something like this. Were you afraid she’d hate you when she saw you? Is that why you hid?”

Oh, Donna, sweet, kind, wonderful, omnipotently all-knowing Donna. How Salvatore hated her ability to read him like yesterday’s newspaper.

“M… maybe…” Salvatore hesitantly admits, before a thought crossed his mind.

“W-were… were you… w-wearing your veil… f-for the same r-reason… Donna?” Salvatore asks, realization causing his eyes to grow wide as he looked up at the younger woman, a soft chuckle escaping her in response.

“I suppose you could say that” Donna breathes. “I know my… mutation, isn’t nearly as bad or even life altering as yours were, but… I simply can’t handle the looks of pity, disgust, and fear that the villagers leveled me with whenever I dared leave my home. Not like you can at least.”

“I-I don’t know… i-if I’d call what I-I do… ‘handling’... I-I try to hide m-myself away… j-just as much as y-you do, Donna” Salvatore interjects, taking a step forward and reaching out to take the younger woman’s hand in his own, a comforting gesture is what Salvatore hopes it comes across as.

“I suppose… but at least you feel a sense of comfort and confidence whenever you’ve lured someone into your reservoir. You have the home advantage and are capable of utilizing and manipulating your surroundings to best fit your needs. Whenever someone enters my home however… well, let's just say the comfort of a home field advantage isn’t enough to soothe my mind of the constant worries and anxieties that come with having a total stranger in my home.”

Ah, so that’s what this was about. Salvatore was more than aware of Donna’s uneasy and traumatic upbringing, as well as how much more damage her cadou mutation did to her as well, both physically and mentally. Unlike Karl however, Donna at least had the distinct advantage of being an adult when her mutations took place, but this didn’t really end up doing very much for her in the end, only shoving the already reclusive young woman even further into her grief stricken shell.

It had taken Salvatore no shortage of effort and time to slowly but surely work his way past the hard exterior of Donna’s shell, slowly convincing her to open up until she was comfortable enough around him to both hold a conversation for longer than 5 minutes, as well as take her veil off in his presence, a gesture that Salvatore honored by removing the hood of his cloak as well. Since warming up to him however, Donna has proved to be a valuable, if difficult to get a hold of, figure in Salvatore’s life, and the deformed man was proud to call such a talented and pleasant young woman his younger sister. Even Donna herself would admit to greatly enjoying the times when the deformed man would go out of his way to pay her a visit, if only to sob about the latest romance film he’d watched while she worked on her personal projects.

In the years that they’ve had to get to know each other, Salvatore is proud to say that he’s managed to learn quite a few more personal things about Donna, and one of those things happens to be the fact that Donna hates nothing more in this entire world than random strangers in her house.

“I-Is this… about h-him?” Salvatore asks, knowing Donna knew exactly who he was talking about, despite having turned her head away so the unhooded man couldn’t read her expression.

A gentle squeeze of the hand has Donna talking. “I just… don’t know what to do with him. Mother Miranda gave us these gifts but didn’t tell us what we were supposed to use them for, other than “whatever we want”. But what if I never wanted a gift in the first place? What if I don’t want to have to tiptoe around my own damn home just so that some poor sap doesn’t have the daylights scared out of him the second he sees me?” Donna laments, sighing heavily in frustration and fear. “From what I’ve hear, your gift sounds like an absolute madwoman, so at least you’ll have something interesting to look at even if she rejects you. All mine had done all day is sleep and look like he left his brain behind in the pod. What on earth am I supposed to do with a brain dead body? I might as well give him to Heisenberg as an early birthday present.”

“W-well… I don’t k-know if I have a-any better of a “ch-chance” with my g-gift as a-anyone else… b-but I do th-think that… if you w-want to have a g-good relationship… o-of some k-kind… with y-your gift… then… m-maybe you need… to be th-the one to r-reach out… reach out an-and try and start it… y-yourself… sh-show him th-that you mean… n-no harm… and that you j-just want companionship and a-acceptance… an-and maybe… maybe if h-he wants… the s-same thing… you can… you can m-make something… out of th-that… m-make things w-work out best f-for the both of y-you… i-in whatever w-way works b-best… for the b-both of you… not a-anyone else” Salvatore suggests, feeling like he’s talking entirely out of his ass at the moment, but hoping that Donna, as smart as she was, would be able to get at least something out of his meaningless rambling.

“Hmmm… make things work for us in whatever way works out best for us, huh?” The younger woman asks, though seemingly more to herself than anyone else. “You know what… I think I might just give that a try. Thank you, Tores, you’re always such a wealth of knowledge and wisdom!”

“W-well… I c-certainly do my b-best” Salvatore blushes, rubbing the side of his neck happily as Donna giggles and turns her attention back to the fabrics.

“Alright, well, with that emotional conundrum handled, why don’t we finish our conversation about the dress you’d like to eventually give to your gift. I have a few pieces already made lying around that I'm sure will fit her, I’ll just need to shorten them a tad bit, so I'm not as concerned about what you’ll be giving her today as I am about getting an idea of what you’re looking for in the dress you plan on giving to her in the future” Donna says, breaking back into her serious business mode.

With a nod of his head, Salvatore begins describing to Donna the vision he has in his head, both for the dress as well as how it will fit on Nadine’s uniquely structured body.

“Hmmm, that definitely does sound like a challenge” Donna admits once Salvatore has concluded his explanation, “however, I don’t think it will be so difficult that I won’t be able to do it within the next few weeks.”

“S-so, you’ll d-do it?” Salvatore asks, hopefully.

“Yes, I’ve already said that I’d be more than willing to aid you in whatever you needed, but the fact that you’ve come to me with a problem I can solve with my needle and threat just makes me excited to start working. I hope its to your liking once its finally finished!”

“Oh, t-trust me, Donna... I k-know both N-Nadine and I… will be v-very pleased… with th-this dress… once i-its finally f-finished,” Salvatore assures as Donna leads him out the front door of the Beneviento estate, their conversation having concluded and Salvatore still in need of something to go along with the gorgeously pristine white satin nightgown that Donna had given him to gift Nadine until her real dress was ready.

“Well, I certainly hope so,” Donna says kindly. “I’ll do my very best on it, you can rest assured about that, at least. Anyways, I won’t keep you much longer, since you still have quite the night ahead of you it seems. At least, if you’re planning on heading up to see her too, you will.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Salvatore nods his head solemnly. “Y-yes… I am s-still planning on g-going up to see… Alcina… just to see i-if she has… anything else… I c-could possibly g-give Nadine.”

“Whatever it is, you’ll have to pry it from her like an old rotting tooth, I imagine” Donna comments quietly.

“I-Im afraid you m-might be… b-be right about th-that one” Salvatore laments, though the thought of surprising Nadine with an even more incredible gift than just the satin nightgown filled him with a sudden inexplicable feeling of determination, as though nothing in the world could stop him so long as he had his beautiful Nadine to return to.

“B-but anyways… I w-wont take up… any more of y-your time… th-thank you, Donna… you h-have no idea… how m-much this means to m-me” Salvatore thanks as he begins heading back down the hill.

“You’re welcome, Tores. And who knows, perhaps one day… if things with both our gifts turn out well… we could all get together and share a meal… all of us together?” The black clad woman asks, her hope and apprehension for what the future may hold plain as day in her voice.

Salvatore merely smiles as the younger woman. “I w-would enjoy that g-greatly, Donna… an-and Nadine would a-as well, I think… let’s t-try and… and set s-something up… for after w-we’ve all been g-given some time… to a-adjust to our n-new living s-situations?”

“I think that sounds wonderful, Tores. Have a safe journey, and do let me know if Alcina could please return my large mannequin. Those things are a pain to make myself and yet she never remembers to send them back after she commissions a new dress.”

“Don’t w-worry, Donna” Salvatore chuckles as he hobbles away, beginning to make the rest of the journey toward Castle Dimitrescu along the still-snowy village paths, “I’ll be s-sure to let her k-know!”

“BYE, SALLY! SEE YOU NEXT TIME!” Angie all but screeches as she flies past Donna and crashes into something inside. Salvatore chuckles when he hears the audible sigh from Donna, knowing that she’s about to have her hands more than full, even without her gift factored into the equation.

Oh well... at least it would make for a funny story to hear about later!

So long as Donna survived the whole ordeal, that is.

27 notes · View notes

makingscipub · 7 years ago

Text

Turning bacteria into passwords

A few days ago, I had the pleasure to meet two enthusiastic members of the first Nottingham iGEM team: Vikram Chhapwale, who specialises in computer science and AI, and Chris Graham, an emerging expert in biochemistry and genetics. Both are undergraduates studying at the University of Nottingham.

Chris and Vikram are part of a seven-member team which is made up of Jake, Ellie, Georgette, Matt, Natalia, Vikram and Chri. Together, they have backgrounds in biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics, chemical engineering and computer science – a great interdisciplinary mix. They get advice from international science, engineering and computer experts, such as Maria Zygouropoulou, Daphne Groothuis, Luca Rossoni, Sophie Vaud, Ines Canadas and Jamie Twycross, as well as from Louise Dynes, our outreach officer. You can find out more about their project here on the website of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre Nottingham, led by Nigel Minton, Alex Conradie and others.

I won’t provide more general background information on iGEM itself, as I have done that elsewhere. Let’s just say that iGEM is a student synthetic biology competition which aims to bring together young scientists from around the world, addressing global challenges through the engineering of biological parts.

Vikram, Chris and I had a great chat and I tried to learn about what they want to do for the upcoming iGEM competition. The operative word here is ‘tried’. Not being a maths, genetics and/or computer buff (rather the opposite), most of what they said went slightly over my head. In the following I’ll nevertheless try to give you a flavour of what the Nottingham iGEM project is all about – and in this case ‘all’ is the operative word. Entering the iGEM competition involves so much more than just ‘doing a science’ as the Sarcastic Rover would put it.

In the following, I’ll first talk about all that goes into ‘doing an iGEM’; then I’ll give you a flavour of Nottingham’s project and then I’ll say something about the personal journey on which the members of our team have embarked.

iGEM – life, the universe and everything

The undergrads involved in the iGEM competition have a lot of work to do over the summer, in preparation for the big ‘jamboree’ in Boston in November. They not only have to come up with a juicy science idea, they also have to produce a website, think about good ways of doing public engagement/human practices, get sponsors (in this case, for example, Eppendorff, Biolabs, SnapGene and, of course the University of Nottingham’s own Impact campaign), consult people on intellectual property issues, talk to potential investors and much more. As this is all happening for the first time for our team, this is a giant experiment, of which the little experiments in the lab are only a small part.

The team came up with a snappy title (“Key.coli”) for their project, which is looking at how biological systems can be used to overcome the limitations of current passwords; they set up a facebook page, a twitter account, a wiki, produced a Vlog, and created a catchy logo (which references Robin Hood – see featured image).

In order to stimulate public engagement with the project, they created two games that you can play and through which you can learn about the project. There is a 2D retro adventure game, inspired by current non-biological keys called THE KEY – which is also available on mobile and a game called FLUORESCENT ARCADE, both similar to Pac-Man games of the past; as well as a game called NOTTPORTAL, a 3D game inspired by the video game PORTAL, to be released at the jamboree in November.

iGEM – the key idea

When trying to come up with an idea for the scientific part of the iGEM competition, the team discussed the rise in cyberattacks and hacking which have recently been much in the news. In this context, ‘keys’, be they physical, digital and/or biometric, are of great importance and they have to be safe and secure. This poses problems, as physical keys can be ‘copied’ from a photo using 3D printing for example; digital codes can be hacked and ‘broken’ (and quantum computers are only just emerging as a remedy); fingerprints can be faked, and so on. So the team thought that it might be worth exploring the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of a ‘biosynthetic key’ or ‘password’ using bacteria, in this case E.coli.

The key idea for this new type of password that can be used to open accounts or safes is the use of a unique bacterium, indeed a bacterial password system (Key.coli). To achieve this, each bacterium is given a unique fluorescent property that is modularly created by a set of specific set of promoters and jellyfish fluorescent genes. In the key device, these bacteria are freeze-dried for storage and when the user needs to use it by “clicking” the metal case together, another vial filled with hydrating medium pours in, re-activating the bacteria and causes the key’s unique fluorescence to show. If this fluorescent spectrum matches (as decided by a similarity algorithm) the spectrum in the ‘lock’ or mother colony held within the scanning device, the safe or account can be opened. If the system is stolen, the bacteria die over the course of a week and the key becomes unusable.

This is the short version! The long version of the story involves proteins, plasmids, promoters, terminators, dead CRISPR Cas9, gene expression, ….. and quite a complicated way of ensuring randomness in the way genetic elements are assorted. So if you want to know more read on here.

iGEM – the journey

We all know that life is a journey. In the case of iGEM. the journey begins in Nottingham in the summer and ends in Boston in November (although ‘ends’ is the wrong word, as the students will probably carry iGEM with them throughout their whole life journeys). On the way, there is science to be done, which is a journey from an idea to an outcome and beyond, with lots of ups and downs; but there are also real journeys involved.

For example, the team went to a meeting in Edinburgh and enjoyed getting together up with other iGEM teams. They also went up the Shard in London, and so on. On the way they met lots of people and had all sorts of unexpected adventures. After an iGEM meeting in Nottingham, Vikram, for example, was invited to play the guitar at the Canalhouse Bar; Jake acquired skills in web design; Matt became a baker, and other members of the team have probably many more stories to tell.

iGEM – the excitement

Working with bacteria is difficult. They don’t always do what you want them to do. But when they do, that’s very exciting. The day I was interviewing Chris and Vikram, Chris had just come out of the lab and found, what I heard in our conversation as ‘different shades of red’.

Here is Chris’s explanation of what that means: “When you spend every waking moment working with DNA, which can only be read from devices and screens, redesigning, retrying and theorising what you have designed will work, you can get nervous. This morning we saw the first colonies of our ‘Promoter Library’. They were all different shades of red and it meant that our modular design and use of promoters with alternate powers to express RFP [red fluorescent protein] was right. The fact we had a predictable array of red colour meant that we didn’t get everything wrong, the device is in our sights and finally… the cloning worked. I couldn’t be happier.”

I hope all goes well for the team and their bacteria in the autumn and I wish them all good luck inBoston, and lots of fun on the way!

The post Turning bacteria into passwords appeared first on Making Science Public.

via Making Science Public http://ift.tt/2x4Ii4o

#IFTTT #Making Science Public

0 notes