#people have to be shielded from MK now thems the breaks

[imminent-danger-came]

Wukong + Shielding MK

Bonus:

[gh0st-t0wn3]

Lmk ss edits + Headcanons, Part 3 (Chang'e, Nezha, Pif, DBK)

- She/Her

- Bisexual w/ male pref (eternally devoted to her husband, Hou Yi, in Chinese mythology though, so I don't ship her with anyone)

- Constellation shaped freckles

- Even though her robot bunnies don't need to eat she still sets out extra plates otherwise she feels bad

- Ambivert

- Used to have a short hair phase

- Aside from cooking she's also good at coloring/painting and makes jewelry for fun

- Can talk for hours on end

- Would absolutely loose her mind if she found out about rollerblading, change my mind

- BIG sweet tooth

- Exchanged a few recipes with Pigsy before they left

- Uses Kaomojis

- Stress eats

- Chang'e and Macaque are besties (I saw other people talking about this and thought it was cute)

- Chang’e is one of the very few people Macaque allows hugs from because she gives the best comforting hugs ever

- She tried to teach MK how to cook once and he failed miserably, she has banned him from the kitchen permanently

- Everytime Macaque complains about something to her it ALWAYS has something to do with Wukong and Chang’e is honestly done with them at this point

- She is always energetic, like seriously, she can run around and cook and exercise for hours and never break a sweat

- She can play the flute

- She does Nezha's hair sometimes when he visits

- Her, Nezha and Macaque will all get together sometimes and just gossip for hours

- Hates it when her kitchen is messy, even when she's in a rush to make something or there's a lot going on she'll be sure to put everything in a neat order

- Smells like cakes, pies and other pastries

- Love language is quality time

- Her skin is always really cold (because of , y'know.. living on the moon) but she's lived there for so long now that she hardly notices anymore

- Doesn't really have a skin care routine and doesn't use a lot of products but her skin is always so soft and clear anyways

- Makes up her own constellations when she stargazes

- She has a small shrine in her house in respect to Hou Yi

- Has two group chats, one with Macaque and Nezha for gossiping, and the other with Pigsy and DBK for cooking

- He/Him

- AroAce

- Put his hair up in a messy bun the ONE time Wukong decided to drop in unannounced, still gets bullied for it to this day

- Would probably die if you ever gave him any kind of soda

- Has a scar on his neck and can even pop his head off like the headless horseman because of... iykyk.. sometimes pulls it off to scare people

- Like Pigsy, he's a huge environmentalist; got super pissed when he heard about climate change and pollution, like he was DEVESTATED

- Really likes chocolate milk, but only drinks it when he's alone because Wukong caught him once and still teases him about it

- Use to babysit Redson when he was little, especially when Princess Iron Fan was too distressed to look after him herself for long periods at a time after her husband was sealed away

- Taught Redson how to harness his powers while he babysat

- Perfect handwriting, it should be a font

- Has difficulty breathing, especially when he gets overwhelmed, due to... yk.. committing..

- Always has a least a small taste of metal in his mouth

- Redson would somehow manage to disappear if Nezha looked away for even a second so he wound up having to get a ring sling to carry him in, no one took him seriously with it on

- Sees PIF as an older sister

- Favourite food is strawberry cake

- Not necessarily a vegetarian but doesn't eat meat often

- Meditates to save and absorb energy instead of sleeping, that way if something happens or someone attacks, he's always awake and ready to handle the situation

- When meditating, stray lotus petals will float around and surround him that act as a shield while also emitting a peaceful aura that keeps both himself and the people around him in a calm state of mind

- Him and Wukong have a sibling rivalry

- Felt incredibly guilty when Redson got trapped in a scroll because he was the one Redson came to when his parents were gone and thought he failed to protect him

- DBK and him have an awkward relationship given the whole "Attack on heaven" thing, but have been trying to find something to bond over for PIF

- Erlang and PIF are basically his older siblings, like they'd be the kind of siblings who'll pretend to give him an important task so he'll leave them alone and then immediately shut and lock the door as soon as he leaves the room, y'know?? He still hasn't forgiven them for that

- Smells like Lotus flowers and strawberries

- Love language is acts of service and words of affirmation

- Likes the idea of hiking and stargazing but never has the time to do it since he's always working

- Isn't afraid to call out someone's bs (*cough* Monkey King *cough*) but can't handle someone calling him out for the literal life of him

- He loves flowers and their symbolism, use to study it before he was tasked with guarding the map to the samadhi rings

- He's actually a really good swimmer but people don't believe him because of his relation to fire

- Has absolutley licked himself to see what he tastes like

- She/Her

- Bisexual

- Has a beautiful singing voice and use to sing lullabies to Redson all the time when he was a kid. Although it's a rare occurrence, she'll sing lullabies to him even now if he gets particularly stressed out or anxious

- Feels guilty about being too mentally unwell to take care of Redson properly after DBK was sealed away when he was little but never knew how to make up for it so she just closed herself off instead which is why she's so cold with him

- Would sleep in a guest bedroom or on the couch for the first few years of DBK being sealed away because she couldn't handle being alone in such a big bed without him

- Follow up on the last HC, after she started sleeping in her and DBK's bed again Redson would sometimes come in in the middle of the night and sleep in bed with her so she felt less lonely but stopped after he turned 11-12 (or at least the Demon equivalent to that age cause he's like 500+)

- Does Redson's hair for him in the morning since he's always too tired to do it himself

- Use to style his hair like hers, with the little horns made of hair, at least until his real horns started growing in

- Her and Macaque are sworn siblings (I have no idea where this HC came from but I saw other people talking about it and thought it was cute)

- Sees Nezha as a younger brother

- Was outcast from her family after DBK started courting her, she was upset for a while but it was worth it

- Super long hair, like it reaches her thighs when it's fully down

- Master calligrapher, seriously her writing is so beautiful and neat

- When DBK was first freed, the first two or so weeks she would stay up as long as possibly and hold onto him so tight whenever she finally did fall asleep because she was scared she'd wake up and he'd be gone again

- Felt like she failed as a mother when she realized she missed Redson's first words, first steps, everything, because Nezha had to look after him while she mourned her husband

- Favourite flowers are Dhalia's

- Because her hair is long it's also very heavy, sometimes if her scalp is particularly sore from keeping it styled up in horns all day DBK will sit with her and brush her hair while she relaxes and watches TV or reads

- Cooks sometimes but isn't as good as DBK

- Has a terrible habit of hiding her emotions from her family (actually the entire Demon Bull Family struggles with this habit)

- Hates the feeling of ink on her skin, someone knocked over a bottle of writing ink in her hand once and she washed it for almost an hour straight to get rid of the feeling of it on her skin

- Smells like Stargazer Lilies

- Love language is quality time and words of affirmation

- Surprisingly big fan of horror movies (conjuring, exorcist, Shining, etc)

- Listens to true crime shows/podcasts while working

- Had servants home-school Redson and then took over home-schooling him herself when he was older

- All her clothes are custom made, and had to get them re-made with fire resistant materials after Redson was born, as well as everything else in the Demon Bull Palace (Clothes, rugs, sheets, blankets, curtains etc)

- Has separate makeup and jewelry boxes, one for everyday wear, and one for special events (anniversaries,  royal gatherings, etc)

- Ambivert

- If she runs out of patience for you, you will literally die

- He/Him

- Bisexual

- Hardly recognized Redson when he was freed from the mountain, which is why he didn't address him as quickly as he did Iron Fan

- Has a hard time trying to Remember Redson isn't little anymore, was devestated that he didn't get to watch him grow up

- Tries to connect with Redson and learn about his interests but it just comes off as really awkward for both of them

- Throws all of MK's (and other suitors) Courting gifts to Redson away if he sees them before Redson does (I am a firm believer of overprotective dad DBK)

- Learned how to cook for Iron Fan after they started courting eachother to impress her and it grew into an actual hobby of his, now he likes to cook and bake when he's stressed instead of yelling and breaking things (especially after the Lady Bone Demon incident)

- All his old cook books are pretty much dust after not being used and taken care of for several centuries and although he was upset, he still remembers a few of the recipes, majority of the food he makes now is what he learned from watching Chang'e's cooking show

- Exchanges recipes with Pigsy after getting to know eachother a bit at the beach, but they don't talk much outside of food related topics

- Once walked in on Redson and MK making out in Redsons room and promptly threw MK out the window (he was fine)

- Use to allow Wukong to take naps on his chest while they were still in the Brotherhood, mostly because Wukong would never stop and DBK eventually gave up on trying to get him to stop

- Got really emotional when he found out Redson got a nose ring to match with him (pretended not to care but started crying when he was alone)

- Keeps a photo of PiF and Redson with him at all times, it's not in great condition anymore because he was buried under the mountain with it, but it's too sentimental for him to replace it

- Knows Redsons date of birth down to the exact hour by heart (Canon in JTTW)

- Touch starved, being locked away for 500 years definitely took a toll on him

- Still hasn't entirely forgiven Wukong for calling Redson a "half-baked son"

- Much like how PIF will sing to Redson when he's particularly stressed or anxious, DBK will cook Redson his favorite childhood meal; he was worried the first time it happened because he wasn't sure how to handle Redsons emotional state and also wasn't sure if he still liked the dish he loved as a child, but Redson was visibly happier (or at least calmer) afterwards so he'll keep making it for him

- Has a sepertate pen and writing ink that he uses exclusively for writing to PIF

- He's a sucker for romance movies

- Will pick Redson up by the back of his shirt like a cat and drag him to bed if he's overworking himself

- Invited the Brotherhood to see Redson when he was first born; was disappointed when Azure, Peng and Yellowtusk never showed up

- Goes all out on him and PiF's anniversary to make up for the 500 anniversaries he missed (same with PIF and Redson's birthdays)

- Smells like dirt and regretful life choices (fr though he's been under a mountain for 500 years, that smell doesn't wash away easy after that long, Iron Fan surprisingly doesn't mind, but maybe she's just too happy that he's back to care enough about it)

- Love language is physical touch and quality time

- Cried watching the Titanic, don't even try to tell me otherwise

- Hopeless romantic

- Loves spicy food but doesn't have as high a tolerance as Redson (still very high though, but I mean c'mon, Redson is literally a fire demon)

- Cannot understand or use technology for the life of him, he's calling in Redson left and right asking how to download something or how to get onto another website

- Still feels guilty whenever he sees Redson flinch at him (because of the whole almost killing Redson when he was possessed by the Lady Bone Demon)

[heathneycanon]

td new cast ranking (spoilers)

hiii if you know me at all you know i loveeeee ranking things and i already made a tierlist but i'd love to give my detailed thoughts on the new cast. maybe to get them out of my system maybe to have more thoughts to develop later?? who knows. i've also already shifted around rankings so they're different from my tierlist bc as i wrote this my opinions changed and developed SDJFKD. but anyway. new cast ranking with explanations under the cut!!

16. Chase - I mean. It's Chase. His relationship with Emma is... not good! He is kind of the worst! However this does make him the tiniest bit funny . He's extremely pathetic and a misogynist and a bad boyfriend however. The undeniable fail energy is amusing. When he isn't winning. Like this man is at his best when he is absolutely failing, so Emma needs to break up with him. For her own sake, obviously, but also for Chase's failure energy to remain strong. He cannot get what he wants he needs to remain failing!!!

15. Caleb - There's nothing wrong with Caleb. Unfortunately there is also just. Nothing with Caleb, period. I'm fully expecting this to be rectified next season, but for now like... this man is not even a character. Nowhere else to rank him but here. Although this does go to show how much I like the cast LMAO because everyone above him is someone I have mostly positive feelings towards.

14. Nichelle - She was sooo funny I love how everyone (including the cast!) thought she was gonna be so good but then she turned out to be a girlfailure. We need more girlfailures in Total Drama and this season delivered!! We didn't see too much of her (and honestly?? She didn't stand out too much to me until her girlfailure tendencies were revealed which was right near the end lmao) but I fully believe she's gonna be GREAT next season. Especially with my suspicions that next season is going to be sort of similar to TDA, with fewer generally physical/Survivor-inspired challenges, and more entertainment industry related challenges. Idk she didn't give us very much but I do have hopes for her next season. Also her elimination was sooo Jerry's fault. I wonder if my season 2 predictions are right if Jerry might show up? I hope so. Get your revenge Nichelle!!

13. Emma - EMMA GET UP!!!!! Chase is not the love of your life he is not even the love of your week!!! Once again though, the loser tendencies are soooo strong in Emma. Idk I liked the haterism it was good. We need more of that and less of her and Chase. Break up with him!! She and Bowie were a fun duo while they lasted, I honestly love the way their designs really complimented each other? Probably my favorite version of Emma was during the pole challenge, like. Yessss get angry that was so fun. She did get back with Chase at the end of that but. Let's ignore all that. Idk she's just silly!! I think I'm getting repetitive at this point but I do want to leave this with the final thought that, once more, she NEEDS to break up with Chase. For his fail energies to remain intact, for her dignity and standards, and for me as the audience... leave that boy!! Kiss Nichelle or Julia instead I'm fully convinced Emma does not know girls are even an option and once she does it is OVER for Chase.

12. MK - I was expecting MK to be one of my favorites preseason and while she was not, I still liked her. I hope her parting words were foreshadowing and next season she makes a friend, because (as I've seen other people mention), she kind of... needs to have some sort of connections to be an interesting character? And the fact that she seems opposed to that makes any potential friendships next season even more interesting. I also love how she just has no respect for the intended rules of the game and Chris just... lets her do her thing. It is so funny. Like yesss hang out and control the shields. Watch all the confessionals with the phone you shouldn't have and also upload a video of Julia bullying a dinosaur. Honestly the lack of care Chris had surrounding phones in general this season (especially considering his initial show of confiscating what turned out to be like. A fraction of Julia's phones) was so funny. Sam and Dakota were watching from their couch fuming I just know it. Or maybe they were happy for the new generation. Who knows.

11. Zee - He's just fun! Like... chill guy. Was definitely high the whole season. I do maybe think he could've benefited from being around an episode or two less? Like he was good, but it wasn't like he was exactly getting any development or anything? He was kind of static character, which is fine, and he was a likable one for sure! But if he'd gone home two episodes sooner we wouldn't have had that . Nose scene. Which kinda makes me gag every time I think about it. Genuinely I don't think Total Drama has ever grossed me out more. Which is a feat. I need more of him and Ripper next season the whole bird scene with them was hilarious. Honestly, his dynamic with Chase was pretty funny too? Idk. Just a good dude! I also thought his different stories about losing his leg were great.

10. Millie - She wasn't really doing anything for me until the very end? I thought the concept of her character was kind of creative but I found her like... initial sort of... self-important deal kind of obnoxious? Her friendship with Priya was sweet but again, for the first half of it I found it kind of one-sided (on Priya's end) and so I wasn't loving her. Of course, at the end she became invested in the friendship, had her previous sort of... bad friend behavior revealed, and then was like... surprisingly vulnerable for Total Drama standards? Not unheard of, but not like... what I expected. And reconciled with Priya with everything out in the open. And that completely changed my feelings on the character (which had already been sort of slowly shifting). Overall, I still feel like she's one of my least favorites on the cast, but I still like her, and honestly, if I were to rewatch, she might be ranked higher. The fact that she admitted that she was only writing about everyone like that because it was easier to judge them than try to fit in was really good and rewatching those earlier scenes with that in mind might make me more sympathetic to her then? I do also really like a friendship between two people who haven't had friends before. So. Honestly I'm liking her more as I'm writing this. I really hope they do something good with this friendship next season. Also okay this is so funny when I wrote all this out she was number 14 and I keep moving her up one rank at a time. She's climbing.

9. Priya - PRIYA my friend Priya. Girls when they are normal and regular and have no problems whatsoever. You cannot expect me to be normal about someone who has grown up friendless making their first friend and immediately getting very attached. I absolutely loved her defending Millie in front of Chase that was when I knew I was gonna get attached to her character. Like... come on. I mentioned this in the Millie ranking but I kind of love how their friendship played out? Like in the moment as I was watching I wasn't sure I was loving it but after the fact? Yeah it's good. I like the way there was some tension but they actually communicated and resolved things. And of course there is Priya's whole Deal like. There is so much to unpack there. She has been training for Total Drama for her whole life for her parents and now she's done it!!! I hope season two sees her resolve to put her foot down and go to med school because like. I need her to have her happy ending.

8. Ripper - As I said in another post Ripper has unfortunately grown on me. Like mold. When they're not using him for grossout humor, Ripper is actually like... hilarious? The humor this season was honestly surprisingly good (again, barring the grossout jokes) and Ripper was like. Delivering. He is so pathetic and we all know I find that a wonderful trait for a character to have. Like... "So you're not gonna see me cry! I'll wait until I get home." like that is so 😭😭 honestly it's the delivery half the time. As the season went on I liked him more and honestly I liked how he tried to help Millie win back Priya? Idk. I was annoyed with his team for booting people I liked more instead of him like. Three times. But I like him now. He's just a silly loser guy. He's also bi but I'm not sure he knows it yet.

7. Bowie - GUYS. I was never in the camp that thought Fresh was gonna write the gay characters abysmally, I had a little bit of faith, but they really exceeded my expectations. Bowie was SO fun. The perfect reality TV villain honestly- having fun with it! His alliance with Emma was good, but IMO the highlights were obviously the Julia rivalry/fake alliance (rivalliance??) and RAJBOW. I wish we got to see more of Bowie and Julia because that dynamic was amazing, and I hope they continue to interact next season, and then of course his relationship with Raj was just. Really good. If Emchase was the price we had to pay to get Rajbow... then it was worth it. Like they were so good?? Raj's little crush?? The mouth guard??? The poem????? I do think it's a little unfortunate that they had their first kiss in a pool of tapioca pudding but this is Total Drama we're talking about. And they didn't seem to mind. Very excited to see what they do with their relationship next season. Back to Bowie on his own, I was talking about how funny Ripper was at times and Bowie was also one of the absolute funniest characters this season. As I've mentioned before I love haterism and Bowie has it in the most fun ways possible. Sometimes he would say exactly what I was thinking as I watched a scene. Top tier Total Drama confessionalist. The majority of the best confessionals this season had to have come from him. I love his scheming I love his humor I love his strategy and I love his relationships like... that is a good TD character right there!

6. Damien - I feel like he's gonna win next season. I'm not sure whether that's a genuine prediction, or whether I'm simply manifesting, but... come on! He was just fun! He wasn't a standout at first, but pretty quickly he became one of my favorites (and was promptly voted off </3) like. First of all. He was the first one to call Scary Girl Scary Girl so I have him to thank for that amazing name. Second of all, he's just... sweet! I loved the little hints of Damien/Priya we got this season, I'm definitely here for that relationship if they choose to make it canon in the next season. The Damien and Scary Girl dynamic was also absolute gold like yesss chase him around on a jackhammer. Anyway now he's actually gonna try to play the game, and I'd love to see him do well! He's got like... such a fun energy and enthusiasm. He's truly got "just some guy" energy which is wonderful. We need more "just some guy"s. I just think he's neat!

5. Raj - Top 5 time lets go... technically he is tied with the next entry (do not separate) but I didn't want to mess up the format so. Raj! I've talked about Rajbow already but let me reiterate: Rajbow good. Raj's crush was so sweet and I really enjoyed watching those two get together! But talking about something I haven't talked about yet... Raj and Wayne! Their friendship was SO good my god... I loved their incomprehensible (to me) hockey talk. I loved the genuine love and support between the two. I LOVED the joint medevac like SDJFL it would be wrong to send one home without the other... I hope if they're eliminated next season they go out in a double elimination or something... Idk both of their energy this season was just fun!

4. Wayne - Once again, tied with Raj, and I said most of what I wanted to say about Wayne already? But I do think the excitement he had surrounding Raj coming out to him was so good. You may think you're Rajbow's biggest fan, but nobody is a bigger fan of Rajbow than Wayne.

3. Julia - She just. She just got better and better as the season went on. She was already kind of funny with her influencer speak but when she got hashtag cancelled for BULLYING A DINOSAUR she became so much better. I've already mentioned how much I love her rivalry with Bowie so I won't talk about that too much. I will say I loved that one moment when they both fully judged Emma and Chase's relationship as well as their joint confessional like the rivalry was good but I need these two actually aligning even more. I also think she and Emma should kiss or something. I hope she sticks around for a while next season even though she went pretty far this season like... I need her to make the merge at least. LOVED her challenge beast tendencies, winning all those clutch immunities... What a character. Top tier TD antagonist, or at least close to it.

2. Axel - Yes I got attached to the second boot. What can I say she's coming to win next season trust! Idk you cannot show me a zombie apocalypse prepper character (who is clearly gay) and not expect her to be my favorite. Loved when she pushed Ripper off the boat. Love when she bit Ripper's hand. Love when she killed a bunch of squirrels and cooked them for her team like that's a team player right there!! Not to peddle the ScaryAxel agenda toooo hard but. I need to see them align next season like girl who is really into horror and girl who is really into survival/zombie apocalypse stuff? And they both bit Ripper and will eat cooked squirrel together? Ummmm that's couple goals. Honestly I want to see more of the Axel and Ripper rivalry too. Honestly just wanna see more Axel she rocks

1. Scary Girl - Surprising nobody. I know she's like... kind of a gimmick character which I've historically not totally loved but... she's so good. The voice acting (as others have mentioned) does a LOT for her like props to the VA, she really makes the character. The animation in general this season was a major improvement but it definitely helps Scary Girl as a character too. She had a great dynamic with Damien for what little time she was there, I've mentioned the potential of ScaryAxel already, and. Tell me you don't see how Scary Ripper could be one of thee funniest dynamics ever. The dynamic is called Scary Ripper and one of their key interactions was her trying to bite him. Do not get me started on Scary Axe Ripper like the name itself is just too much fun and BOTH of them have tried to bite him (one succeeded). She got voted out because she wanted to make sure the skull she needed to bring to Chris looked presentable and she just. Did the skull's hair and makeup to match hers. And then kept the skull when she was voted out and brought it with her to the finale. I hope the skull is also in season two. Scary Girl is the Total Drama character of all time.

[sxnburst]

ok go swim 1, 7, 10, 12, 19, 24, 42, 57

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

What’s the lie your character says most often?

"I'm okay. I'm fine." Or "That's no longer me." Literally, anything that pertains to when Sun was...as we like to call it baby faced. He was never weak. Not even when he was under Bentley's orders because his heart was so big and so full and he was golden. That made him brave and strong, but Sun felt that he was weak so...He'd lie and shield that side of himself in any way that he could. That's his biggest lie.

What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell?

Me? Hmm...I haven't thought about that, BUT I guess if I were in a crowd and I lost my boy, I'd say something like 'HAS ANYONE SEEN MY BABY MONKEY BOY!?!?!?!" That'd get his attention. he'd be so embarrassed. As for his romantic partner or best friend? NEZHA probably would yell out his nickname "FUZZBUTT" or something, right? Sun doesn't want anyone else to know that Nezha calls him that so he'd RUN to Nezha so fast and tell him to 'shut the fuck up.'

What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

There isn't much, really. But when Sun was baby-faced, the most excited thing he'd tell people at every chance he got was...winning in so many caged fights 😔. Because he'd win, he'd do good in his eyes and he'd get praise.

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

Something that makes Sun laugh every single time...SHIT. You know, Sun hasn't actually laughed since, y'know...Well, so in one of my current threads, Sun actually chuckles when MK talks about their first meeting with Monkey King. Know for a fact that if there's anyone who's heard Sun laugh in Current Sun, it'd be Monkey King. Sun's going to run to Monkey King and tell him what MK told him and....he'd actually laugh-laugh. To imagine that whole first meeting and imagine Monkey King getting splat only for him to squeak or whatever, it's actually a funny image!

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

Stuck in a room that Sun's been avoiding wouldn't really turn out great. But it also depends. Who IS the person that Sun's avoiding. There's a list of people really. It can go one of two ways. There could be a fight breaking out between the two, or just straight up dead silence.

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?

Sun didn't just take a cookie. He took the whole jar and it was an assortment of cookies. So! Whoever wanted some cookies is shit out of luck. Get another jar.

If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be?

The title of this topic would be WHY ARE YOU NEVER HONEST WITH YOURSELF?

The title says it all, doesn't it? This lying mo'fucker needs to seriously be more honest with how he's feeling instead of hiding it behind some prickly, assholery attitude. I'm gonna say this because you know....Monkey King hides his feelings but he's not an asshole....Sun should take a page from his mentor's book tbh

What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?

There isn't really much that Sun messes up on that's like a daily activity. Though, in the past, he couldn't eat without making a huge mess. I can picture the people he surrounded himself by here in Spirale would have to wipe some kind of mess off of him. He was also really bad at grooming himself and so that was another thing. BUT now, well...Sun doesn't really mess up on simple activities.

@ringlorn

[feysandfeels]

WE’RE BACK FAM! (She says to herself)

171. Honestly 10/10 to that little friendship between Hypaxia and Ithan. We love to see it.

172. Page 601 and I get my first Fury appearance. The fact that she was established as one of the most badass characters in this series and yet she only appears until now 💀💀 but tbf she was also established as one of the most like… not selfish… but very much with her own agenda… so like it makes sense that she dipped when she dippes.

173. Say what you will but Ember Quinlan is clearly a latina mom.

174. To me it is very wholesome that Baxian will have June and Fury too to talk about Danika, with Bryce and Ithan all the people that loved her best and remain will be together… and idk man that is how you live even when you are gone. That is how you move on too.

175. If Ithan goes to the Den carrying Danika’s sword I will cry.

176. I still find the character of Sigrid fucking useless… there should have been a better way for Ithan to rise to his power.

177. That old prime woke up served cunt (named Ithan his heir) and bounced. Forever my respects!

178. And apparently by “bounced” I meant… gets murdered by his *deep sigh* daughter. Sabine is the Cancer in this story.

179. Omg Ithan broke the sword!!!!!!! and i do think danika and the devil’s pack would have approved of this. I never once doubted you my love Ithan!

180. But also like wtf Sigrid eating her grandfather’s soul… like. Girl.

181. Sarah knows this blonde woman knows I will tear up at the mention of Connor… of Connor howling for his brother all the way from death. Somebody sedate me.

182. Ruhn’s “this is my first mission with my girlfriend. I want to impress her.” Let me just die single and alone.

183. NOT BRYCE OPENING A PORTAL TO NESTA’S LIVING ROOM JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJ we truly said “no♥️” to privacy.

184. Considering she’s barely up to my chest, I don’t think she’d made much of a shield” LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. Me when I was dating that dude who was a head smaller than I am.

185. Sathia owning to this meeting. Go off queen.

186. Ay mk I’m sorry but the River Queen’s daughter causing a scene because Tharion married someoen else… girl! AMIGA DATE CUENTA (Friend wake up but sassier in a latina kind of way) HE WASN’T GOING TO MARRY YOU! IT HAD BEEN A DECADE. I mean have some dignity I am begging.

187. Bryce telling Nesta she did outsmart them. Well you were an asshole and then bounced… that is not outsmarting.

188. NOT BRYCE SAYING I BROUGHT COLATERALL AND THEN USHERING HER PARENTS FORWARD. I - JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA. The undignity of it all. But I mean sweet.

189. Mk, no… Nesta corazón de oro dando esa máscara. O sea, sí, hell of a risk dando eso nilly willy sin consultarlo con su corte… pero no, esto es corazón de oro de ella. Nesta bby, yo sé que Rhysand will give you hell, pero nada, amiga, CORAZÓN DE ORO. I stand by you.

190. Bryce closing the portal just as Rhys’ darkness appears. I love my husband ok? I love his theatrics! I love how everywhere he goes he MUST™️ MAKE™️ AN™️ ENTRANCE™️

191. The queen’s daughter saying she will marry Tharion after all this if he is alive and divorces Sathia… girl. Dignity. Have you heard of this concept? Have you no friends to tell you to GIVE IT THE FUCK UP? Even your mother is fucking embarrassed.

192. Celestina fancy seeing you here you doubled faced bitch.

193. Pollux has taken her sons?? CAN’T A WOMAN CATCHI A FUCKING BREAK?!

194. Hunt breaking free of his own halo

THAT’S MY MAAAAAAAAAN SHOW’EM KING

195. Hunt sassying Celestia.. go off King. You are in your right to do so :)

196. Another point for Bryce for helping Hunt through his rage… but girl when is this perspective for you and your selfish half backed actions?!

197. i can oh so vibrantly hear Bryce say to Aidas “Welcome to Midgard. Hope you have a pleasant stay.” And i love it. Ngl she was infuriating up until the got to Avallen and things started to improve with the “raise your hand who is disowned” moment. Like from there on her growth was a little more visible and her jokes started to land better… all and all a win.

198. I am deadass willing to forgive everything Sarah did to Bryce, the direction she took her character, if she gives me Connor one last time. Connor talking to his brother… Just Connor.

199. Connor. Just Connor. Forever Connor. ♥️

THEY TOOK OUT RUHN’S LIP PIERCING?! THEY! TOOK! OUT! RUHN’S! LIP! PIERCING!!

SOMEONE HOLD ME. SOMEONE HOLD ME RIGHT NOW. I AM ABOUT TO BREAK THE RULES OF TIME AND SPACE AN REALITY AND MAKE THEM PAY

MAKE THEM PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

[fumifooms]

I wanted to post some venompeach scene screenshots for future reference and stuff, added my commentary of how I see them as explanation + comedy bc these 2 act hilariously familiar with each other. Sorry for the bad pic quality btw, what can ya do, I mostly post this to compile their interactions not the art anyways.

Greeting each other:

Her being delighted to see him:

Them having fun while fighting each other:

Her fricking pose as she sweet-talks about destroying him:

Help he did a twirl with her while fighting- just dance and get a room you two

The overconfident fool thinking he has her where he wants:

Def with the gravity of sworn enemies who want each other dead and hate each other /s

Him having the time of his life:

“Wait, you’re not Spider Queen, why are you barging in on our fight smh”

Notice his facial expression right when Lady Bone Demon enters the picture, sooo different to how he was acting and looking like with Spider Queen:

Then Spider Queen takes him back away from LBD and he goes right back to having 0 respect:

Him cowering at being at her mercy: /s

Also can I just say how Monkey King acts like he knows her soooo well? First thing he says is “Didn’t know you were so desperate for attention, Spider princess” like damn, she got read wow. Plus the “Give it up princess, you’re too easy to read”. Why is he so confident about knowing her so much lol chill, dude- Some extras on Spider Queen’s character:

Only genuine smile ever when she finally has her goal fulfilled, it’s telling that that moment for her is when she’s among people for the first time we see her be, everyone under her control and a spider float + spider dancers coming:

Genuine smile incoming. Her small laugh at that moment is so sad and genuine too: 

In 72 Transformations:

“You ruined everything!” as MK breaks her spider mech and she realizes she’s now doomed at the mercy of Lady Bone Demon:

MK taking mercy on her because she looked incredibly vulnerable:

Her extending a hand towards MK as if to instinctively protect, and being a shield between him and lady bone demon:

Her literally protecting him and telling him to run as she fights LBD:

God, I love her. I want to maybe compile all her scenes in a video because these are far from being her only interesting moments. Maybe do another post for her quotes. My fav is “After all I’ve won and lost and won again, you thought I was really going to let some boy take it from me?!”

[rainbow-beanie]

-_-_- On the air ship - _-_-

Mei comes downstairs to the lounge area where the group is currently sitting around a table talking amongst each other about what to do about lbd, when mei approaches them mk is the first to notice that mei looked kinda nervous for some reason and spoke up, unintentionally interrupting an argument pigsy and macaque were having about how surrounding her with shadow clones is NOT a good idea, especially with the fact that both he and wukong were currently couldn’t use their powers “hey mei, is everything alright?” at this everyone suddenly turned and looked at mei with a mix of confusion and concern

Mei perked up, mildly caught off guard by how quickly mk noticed her change in demeanor, and chuckled nervously while scratching the back of her head “oh! well….earlier i was talking to monkie king about stuff, asking him how he liked modern technology, and the topic eventually lead to us talking about music” mei then paused, looking off to the side hesitantly

Mk rose a brow, confused on where this was going, while macaque on the other hand looked at mei with a knowing expression, slowly figuring out what happened, mk on the other hand had no such luck, so he spoke up to gain mei’s attention again “well…that’s great! I tried to get monkie kid to listen to some of my music in the past, and he tried listening to it, but unfortunately it seems like he doesn’t quite like my taste in music that much…”

pigsy then spoke up “kid, sorry to break it to ya, but I don’t think many people could understand, much less tolerate your taste in ‘music’ “ while saying this he used air quotes with his fingers when he said music, mk simply looked at him with a flat look, then mei continued “well that’s when things suddenly went downhill… see, after I brought up the topic of music, monkie king had looked at me hesitantly, after asking what was up he explained to me about how he didn’t really understand your music taste, he didn’t say it was bad! it just wasn’t for him, i then explained how music has different genres of music and that some genres sound different then others, with some using different kinds of instruments or sounds, and then I had him listen to one of my favorite bands! mei continued

Mk then spoke up “that’s great and all, but that doesn’t explain why you looked all nervous after coming down here, did something go wrong?” Mk asked

Mei frowned as she glanced up at the ceiling, presumably in the direction wukong’s room was “well….”

Before mei could continue, everyone jumped as loud music started playing from upstairs, along with the faint sounds of wukong singing along to the music “SO, SO WHAT? I’M STILL A ROCKSTAR, I GOT MY ROCK MOVES AND I DON’T NEEEEED YOOOOOU, AND GUESS WHAT? I’M HAVING MORE FUN, AND NOW THAT WE’RE DONE, I’M GONNA SHOW YOU TONIGHT!! I’M ALRIGHT!! I’M JUST FINE!! AND YOUR A TOOL, SO, SO WHAT? I’M STILL A ROCKSTAR, I GOT MY ROCK MOVES AND I DON’T NEEEEED YOOOU TONIGHT!!!”

Everyone stared up with blank expressions, totally dumbfounded about what they just heard, macaque was the first to react by covering his ears in an attempt to shield them from the loud noise, but then noticed that the others were giving him strange looks, which made him confused “what???”

Mei was the first to speak up “I have a feeling he’s talking about you macaque” this just made him even more confused, since he was the first one to cover his ears upon hearing the music, he hadn’t had a chance to listen to the actual lyrics “what??? Why would he be singing about me??”

everyone then looked at each other, shrugged and continued talking, now unperturbed by the loud music upstairs, which did little to calm poor macaque who still had his hands covering his ears. suddenly sitting up, he made his way outside ���alright fine! if none of you are gonna explain anything or plan on making wukong turn that racket off, I’m gonna wait outside” with that he opened the door to the exit and slammed it shut

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #190 & 191

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re providing you a horror double feature- Mecha-Eli chan and Mecha-Eli chan Mk. II! Since they’re nearly identical (in NA) all you have to change between one and the other is how you roleplay. But hey, you technically get an extra build this week, go you!

Both of these servants are 100% Armorer Artificers for some fancy techno-gadgets built into their metal bodies.

Check out their builds breakdown below the cut, or their characters sheet over here!

Next up: She’s got so many pigs around her you’d think she opened a doughnut shop!

Race and Background

Shockingly, the robots... are robots. Specifically, Warforged, which gives them +2 Constitution and +1 Intelligence. They also get Constructed Resilience, which makes you a better ruler since you don’t need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, or get sick, you get advantage and resistance to poison saves and damage. Elisabeth might get sick from eating all that candy, but you won’t even be tempted.

Instead of sleeping, you take a Sentry’s Rest, spending 6 hours in a still state- you can still see, but you can’t move without breaking the rest.

Integrated Protection gives you your first armored casing, adding +1 to your AC. You can also don armor by fusing it to your body over an hour, letting you wear heavy armor without having to take off your tutu.

Finally, you get a Specialized Design, giving you proficiency with Performance and one set of tools. If you want to get your Elisabeth on, I’d suggest Bagpipes, so you can clear the room just as fast as she can.

Being a robot makes your background a bit complicated, but you were made to rule Castle Csejte Pyramid Himeji so we’ll call you a Noble, which gives you proficiency with History and Persuasion. If you’re playing Mk. II, swap the latter over to Intimidation, boom, roleplay changes done.

Ability Scores

Your highest score should be Intelligence, you have a supercomputer for a brain, it’s not a huge stretch. Constitution comes next, aside from Babbage you’re the only servant made out of iron. So far. Your Strength should also be pretty good, while you do shoot people, you also hit them, and you have one of the most damaging NPs in the game when ignoring type advantage. Your Charisma isn’t bad per se, but your delivery does get a little stiff from time to time. Your Wisdom isn’t that great, neither of you really “get” people. Yes, humans might take offense at being forced to stay in their homes their entire natural lives. That means we’re dropping Dexterity. Your head literally falls off on a regular basis, that’s an accident that would kill most people. Also, you’re not exactly running around in leather, so it’s not like you’d need it.

Class Levels

Starting off as an Artificer gives you proficiency with Constitution and Intelligence saves, as well as two skills. Arcana is the closest thing to robotics in the forgotten realm, and Investigation will help you make a sweep of the battlefield with your robot eyes. Your first machines are made using your Magical Tinkering, adding minor effects to tiny objects. It’s not exactly the wish spell, but you can get creative with it. Speaking of Spells, you can cast and prepare those now using your Intelligence. All you have to do is be smart. Grab the cantrip Mage Hand for a non-combat use for your rocket arm, and Sword Burst so you can try spinning to damage nearby enemies with your tail. I hear it’s a neat trick. You can also cast first level spells, like Feather Fall and Jump (it’s almost flying), as well as Catapult for a prototype rocket arm. Also, if you can spare the slots, grab Detect Magic for robo scanning.

For more substantive mechanics, you’ll have to Infuse Items over a long rest, creating two items from a choice of four blueprints, both of which will go up in number as you level up. Right now, I’d suggest grabbing Goggles of Night and Sending Stones for recon missions, an Enhanced Arcane Focus for better bullets later, and an Armor of Magical Strength for a suit of armor that can either add your intelligence modifier to strength checks and saves or prevent you from getting knocked prone. Doing either spends one of six charges, which partially get refilled at dawn.

Moving to the Armorer subclass dumps you into a proper heavy armor setup, but you can make it even more impressive by turning it into Arcane Armor. This lets you ignore the strength requirements for heavy armor (which you can wear now), and you can use the armor as a spellcasting focus. There’s also stuff about the armor being a part of you, but that’s already true thanks to being a warforged. As the guardian of Hungary you get the Guardian Model, which gives you cool Thunder Gauntlets that use your Intelligence to attack instead of your strength. Creatures that you punch this way have disadvantage against other creatures for a round. It can also produce a Defensive Field as a bonus action, giving you your level in temporary HP, up to Proficiency times per long rest. Finally, you get some free armorer spells to go along with your new outfit. Magic Missiles do a good job of standing in for bullets, and Thunderwave gives you a finale for your Breast Zero Erzsébet.

Your first Ability Score Improvement is going towards making your regular attacks even more powerful with the Crusher feat, rounding up your Strength and making your fists able to shove a creature they hit once per turn, moving a large or smaller creature 5′ away. Your critical hits also give all other attacks against that creature advantage. (Catapult is a save, so I don’t think they work together, but that’s a DM thing, I guess.)

Fifth level armorers get an Extra Attack per action, so you can make enemies taste both of your hands each turn. You also get second level spells, like Mirror Image to put together some cheap factory-made knockoffs to take damage for you and Shatter for more sound-based pain. You can also prepare spells like Levitate for your first taste of flight, Enlarge/Reduce to make yourself the giant mecha you were born to be, See Invisibility for more robo-scanners, and Pyrotechnics for some movie magic.

Sixth level artificers get Tool Expertise, doubling their proficiency with all proficient tools. Now you’ll be really good at clearing out a bar with your bagpipes. You also get two more Infusions, with one more up at a time. Some Resistant Armor will make you deaf to your own music with resistance to thunder damage, or you can customize it to block out plenty of other types, like acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. Makes a great gift for the totem barbarians in your party! You also get a Spell-Refueling Ring, because pretty soon you’ll be flying, and the worst thing you can do while flying is run out of spell slots. As an action, you’ll recover a 3rd level or lower spell slot once per day.

At seventh level, your Flashes of Genius make your smarts even smarter, letting you add your intelligence modifier as a reaction to nearby checks or saves Intelligence Modifier times per long rest. You were literally built to do everything for your subjects, it only makes sense that you’d be good at it.

Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence for stronger spells, stronger punches, and more flashes of genius. You take a little bit to get warmed up, but that’s true of most computers.

Ninth level armorers can make Armor Modifications, turning your armor into four items for the purpose of infusion, and you can infuse an extra 2 items specifically if they’re part of your armor. That’ll be really cool next level, but what’s really cool right now is your third level spells, including the freebies Hypnotic Pattern and Lightning Bolt. I would’ve preferred fireball, but we’ll take what we can get for big guns. You can also prepare spells like Fly to fly under your own power instead of awkwardly levitating like a balloon, Haste to overclock your computer, and Intellect Fortress to lord your superior brain over the fleshlings, giving you resistance to psychic damage, and advantage on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves.

When you hit tenth level you become a Magic Item Adept, partially because you’re a magic item. This means you get an extra attunement slot, and crafting common or uncommon items is a lot cheaper and faster. You also learn the Fire Bolt cantrip for more options from your guns. On top of all that, you get two more infusion blueprints, and can have one more made at a time. I’d pick up some Winged Boots for concentration free flight up to 4 hours a day, and a Helm of Awareness to give a creature advantage on initiative rolls and immunity to being surprised. You don’t really wear a helmet, but you give one to Guda during the valentines events, so now you can do that in game.

At eleventh level, you can make Spell-Storing Items at the end of a long rest, shoving a 1st or 2nd level artificer spell into a weapon or focus. A creature can cast that spell from the item up to twice your Intelligence modifier times, and it is as powerful as if you cat it yourself. You can only have one spell stored this way at a time.

I really wanted to multiclass into sorcerer this build, but to be honest the final level of artificer is too good to really pass up. So instead, use this ASI to become a Metamagic Adept, gaining two sorcery points and two ways to spend them. Most of your spells are really just part of your body, so a Subtle spell will make that more obvious by making the casting less obvious. You won’t need somatic or verbal components. Alternatively, you can use a Careful spell to turn your giant blasty spells into something slightly more controlled, automatically letting one creature make their save against the spell. You use a lot of firepower for a single-target NP.

Thirteenth level artificers get fourth level spells. Fire Shield and Greater Invisibility aren’t in character, but they are useful, and using useful things is in character. You can also cast spells like Stoneskin, which is an understatement if anything, Summon Construct or Fabricate to build extra Elis, and Arcane Eye for your very own security drone. I also recommend grabbing the glyph of warding from level 3 so you can fully stock your castle with summoned versions of yourself to attack intruders.

Fourteenth level artificers are Magic Item Savants, letting you ignore all restrictions for magic item use, and you can attune to five items at a time. You also get the Prestidigitation cantrip for easy 3d printing, and two more infusions, plus one more built at a time. Grab the Belt of Hill Giant Strength for a whopping 21 strength, and an Arcane Propulsion Arm for a proper rocket punch. That last one does come with a pretty hefty price though- you will have to chop an arm off to put this one on. (Your armor will replace the arm if you have to make space for another infusion though, so it’s not all bad.) Annoyingly, this arm also deals force damage for some fucking reason, so you can’t use crusher on this either. I’d let you just punch people normally though.

Fifteenth level armorers get their final goody, giving them Perfected Armor. Now your guardian model lets you spend a reaction to pull a huge or smaller creature closer to you at the end of its turn if it fails a strength save, and if it’s pulled into melee range you can wollop it as part of the reaction. You can do this Proficiency times per long rest. We’ll consider this a giant hand giving them a nudge in your direction.

Another ASI, use this one for more Intelligence. Now you have the strongest and most flashes, as well as super strong spells and force punches.

At seventeenth level you get fifth level spells, like the freebies Passwall and Wall of Force. Technically it’s invisible, but a giant hand cupping around you to block damage is totally possible. Speaking of giant hands, Bigby’s Hand lets you make a giant mecha hand that actually acts like a hand for once. Yes, we are fitting Mecha Eli’s bit from Las Vegas in here. You can also use Creation to make an exact copy of your body, and Animate Objects to bring it to life. It’s not as powerful as the original, but that’s what you get with factory-made goods.

Eighteenth level artificers are Magic Item Masters, letting you attune to six items at once. You also get another two blueprints with another one built at the same time, so unless you’re powerbuilding grab another Arcane Propulsion Arm for two rocket fists, and a Ring of Protection for a bonus to your AC and saves.

Use your last ASI to become Tough, for 38 extra HP right away and another two when you level up again. You are literally made of steel. Come on.

Your capstone level grants you a Soul of Artifice, which is pretty busted. You get a bonus to all saves equal to the number of magic items you’re attuned to, and if you would drop to 0 HP you can end one of your infusions instead, sticking around at 1 HP. We weren’t able to make your mass-production work out that well, but if you have to die 9 times to actually go down, I’d count that as extra copies.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You’re hard as hell to kill. With your lowest save being a +6 and the ability to add 5 to any save you don’t like the look of, magic will just slide right off you. Plus, with an AC of 20, just over 200 HP, and temporary HP from the guardian model, you have a lot of health to chew through from martial classes as well.

And that’s assuming they can even hit you! Flight is awesome, giving you plenty of mobility to avoid most combatants entirely and rain down fists and hellfire from a safe distance.

This build is highly customizable, with tons of tricks and gadgets to swap out as the situation calls for them.

Cons:

You’re super reliant on magical items to protect you, so if you get caught up in an anti-magic field it won’t be fun. Like, most artificers will have an awkward fight, but you won’t have arms.

While you have a lot of infusion options, you can’t have all of them up at once. That means you’ll have to make hard decisions constantly, and basically predict the future each long rest.

Two of the feats we took aren’t really that great, and probably should have gone towards better stats. Crusher only works on your regular punches, which are outclassed by your magic weapons, and you only get two weak uses of Metamagic per day.

[crystalas]

It’s only a matter of time part 3

wherein MK and Redson are still trapped training under Macaque and are given a chance to send a message home

Chapter 3: Training daze

Supper time came around after what felt like an eternity of silence between the two, Red Son would not move from his corner despite MK’s many attempts to get him to at least turn around and talk to him. The only way he knew Red Son was even alive was the fact that his tail would swish the floor occasionally. The shadow clone brought in the food bowls and place them on the floor taking away the empty ones. Only then did Red Son move and without looking at MK or even acknowledge him even being there and went to grab his bowl and dragged it back into his corner with his back to MK and began to eat quietly.

MK looked down at his food bowl and began to nibble at his meal, the silence felt horrible he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. What the hell do you say to someone being forced to eat well…people? Where was Macaque even finding all these bodies? Was he raiding a morgue? Killing people in the street? Did he have a farm or knew someone with a human farm? Red Son had said that demons eat people quite regularly and he was considered the ‘weird one’ for not wanting to.

All these thoughts rattled in MK’s head he desperately wanted to talk to Red Son to fill the silence, to get these horrid thoughts out into the air so they wouldn’t be piling up in his head and snow balling into worse ones.

What does human even taste like? Do they range in flavour? Are they like bananas where the flavour and texture changes as they get older?

NO! the thought train has to stop there before he feels compelled to try a bit for his curiosity especially when he had nothing to distract himself from it.

MK realised he had eaten through his entire bowl except for his bugs. He glanced back at Red Son and noticed that his hair was slowly returning back to its former colour instead of dark ash grey it was now dark red at the roots, but his demonic appearance was yet unchanged.

“Your hair is changing back” MK said softly, Red Son’s ears flicked a bit.

“Soooo… this is what you really look like?” he continued as he tried to get anything out of the demon prince, this merely received a tail twitch.

“Looks cool I mean I always thought it was weird that you didn’t look anything like your dad, but I guess it makes sense now.”

Another flicking of the ears and a swish from the tail.

“But why hide it? I mean if you were trying to blend into human society you wouldn’t throw your fire around like you do so…”

“Noodle boy?”

“Yes?” MK chirped elated he finally got something out of his cell mate.

“Please shut up, as it has obviously escaped your notice, I find these topics of discussion… annoying.” Red Son hissed, “I understand that we need to work together and keep each other alive and while I appreciate your attempts of…” he stopped for a minute as if he struggled to find the right words but gave up trying. “I would prefer if we…we…didn’t talk about it.”

MK looked down at his bowl and saw the revolting grubs that laid there, he gave a determined sigh and got up to plop himself down next to Red Son who just glared at him. MK looked him in the eyes grabbed the bugs and shoved them in his mouth, gagging slightly as the grubs crunched and popped in his mouth before swallowing them. It took him a whole two minutes not to gag but he kept them down none the less.

“What is your point exactly Noodle boy?” Red Son growled.

“We are stuck in this hell hole together, if you have to eat revolting stuff then so do I…”

“There’s a huge difference between you eating insects and me eating your kind!”

MK opened his mouth to say something but nothing came to mind to counter that point, his attempt of supporting Red Son seemly going down in metaphoric flames…

“However, if our sadistic master has plans of strengthen our bodies, we need all the food and protein we can get. When we get out, I will make that shadow bastard eat a fistful of dirt for every lump of this filth he has forced me to consume!” Red Son declared boldly and turned around to sit next to MK his food bowl already empty.

“Totally and when we get out, I will get Pigsy to make you the biggest bowl of noodles ever!” MK exclaimed “Actually make that two cos I want one as well! Cos man, do I miss carbs!”

That actually got a chuckle out of the two.

“I will hold you to that noodle boy!” Red Son said leaning back against the wall, “So who do think will get here first?”

“Huh?”

“No doubt my father has noticed my absence and is looking for me, I bet your friends and mentor are looking as well. So, who do you think will find us first?”

“Monkey King hands down, the dude has a decent track record of rescuing people from demons.” MK said confidently.

“Ah yes but can your Sun Wukong punch his way through rock and steel like it was nothing? My father will be the one to break down those cell walls and smash that monkey into paste! I’ll wager an entire tray of melon bread on it.”

“Cakes? Really? we’re betting our freedom on cakes?”

“I’m not talking about any melon bread; I’m talking about the deluxe cream melon bread from that uptown bakery that stuff is divine!” Red Son explained with a sigh, “Also food is all I can think about right now so yes…” he admitted with a grumble.

MK leaned up against Red Son who stiffen up for a brief minute before relaxing, they both knew that they were trying to put on a brave face on a horrid situation but for now at least they had each other to distract them from the nightmare.

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

The days seem to blend into a long stream of body punishing strength building excerise, combat training and magic techniques. Red Son’s strength and familiar appearance slowly returning with his new reluctant diet.

MK begrudgingly learned how to use his powers better, wherein Monkey King just gave him the idea and let him figure out the rest, Macaque actually gave him instructions and critique on what to do to make use his powers more efficiently.

“The reason why your clones went wild was because you saw them as yourself! You gave them too much autonomy” Macaque said as they went through his clone making skills. “Those clones are an extension of you nothing more and nothing less. When creating them make sure to only give them a simple command.”

“Red Son focus on the intensity of your fire!” Macaque would bark as Red Son would set fire to several wooden dolls to practise on his aim and control. “I don’t want those targets singed I want them torched!”

Combat training consists of the two sparring against shadow clones, Macaque stopping them occasionally to correct them on their stature and technique before making them continue.

“Put more power into that attack kid, remember your first strike should be your last!”

“Red! Stay light on your feet and watch those flames, you’re supposed to be a fire prodigy act like it! Don’t hold back!”

“MK is the shield and Red is the spear!” was one of the things that Macaque would repeat during training. Neither boy had any clue as to what that meant and now knew better than to try and question their master unless specifically asked to.

MK and Red Son quickly conformed to Macaque’s rule despite them wanting nothing more than to smack or burn their gruelling task monkey, however with the bands in place they knew it was wiser to just try and do as they were commanded.

Escape was also impossible for the first few days MK had scanned the entire dojo with his golden eyes of truth and came to the conclusion that Macaque wasn’t lying about him being the only way in and out of this dojo. They found that getting out of their cell which was insultingly easy, it was as if Macaque was mocking them with the fact that they were still stuck without his assistance. Even so the threat of the bands kept them inside the cell at night and MK hated how quickly they had become like trained dogs.

Some afternoons Macaque would lead them into the shrine room where he would teach them medicine and body anatomy. Which to MK seemed a suddenly off track from what they had been doing but when allowed to ask [and these lessons were the rare occasion where they were allowed to ask questions without consequences, within reason of course] Macaque just gave a small smile.

“You may be the Monkey King’s successor but you are still human, same with Red there will be times you will get injured in battle. Wouldn’t it be good to know how to heal yourself?” he had answered as he pulled out the next scroll. To which once again MK and Red Son had to agree, numerous times they were go to their cell with blisters, burns, aches and pains and all sort of small injuries from their brutal training regime which is probably what inspired Macaque to do this in the first place.

“Or perhaps you wish for us to learn the finer details of the living body so that we can damage it better?” Red Son asked while jotting down the details that Macaque had shown them on chi pressure points and their properties. Macaque gave a soft laugh at that.

“Meh I guess it’s a little of both”

“Care to explain why you are doing all of this?” Red Son inquired “You’ve never actually told us…”

“I did tell you Red, I’ve been commissioned to train you guys. You don’t need to know any more than that.” Macaque exclaimed; Red Son gave a growl of frustration but kept it low in his throat.

“What Red Son is trying to say is, perhaps if we knew what we were training to fight we might be able to prepare ourselves better?” MK tried hoping to get some answers, Macaque’s medical lessons ranged from first aid to skeletal structure of several different creatures, to herbal properties and poisons. If they were being trained to attack someone or something in particular these lessons weren’t giving them any context clues.

Then again nothing Macaque did in their lessons gave them any clue as to what they were training for, it was like Macaque delighted in keeping the two in the dark about everything. They had lost all sense of time in the shadowy dojo; time had no meaning when there was no sun or moon to mark the days or months. They had tried scratching out marks on the wall to count days but were warned not to. When they tried to keep track in their minds, they kept losing count because when you are worked to your last aching breath on a daily basis it made remembering what day it is a challenge.

Time must be passing because they were getting stronger, Red Son and MK would have rather chewed rocks than admit it to Macaque but they had noticed that they were getting faster and enduring the morning excerise regime better. Their movements in combat were more precise and fluid, less energy wasted in their attack and this got them praised by their master. Red Son fire powers were more in control, he could now control what he did or did not burn with his flames and MK could now create clones that didn’t go rouge and his skill with the magic staff was better.

One of the things that kept them sane was their nightly talks, where they would just lie in the cell too drain to do anything but chat and try to keep the despair at bay. They would talk about anything that came to mind no matter how small and stupid because when they grew too tired to talk it would mean they were be left alone with their thoughts and sometimes that scared them more than the idea of what would be coming tomorrow and why no one had saved them yet.

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

“I want to go home” MK said one day during their mid-day break, Red Son flinched and looked at MK was standing there defiantly with weapon in hand before glancing at Macaque who stood there watching them with that same irritating condescending casualness. Was he insane? He thought there was no way he was just going to agree!

“Seriously kid?” his master asked. MK could feel his resolve weaken under that stern gaze.

“Can’t we at least visit or call? I mean my friends must be going out of their minds, I don’t even know how long we’ve been down here…I just…I just want to let them know I’m alive at least.”

Macaque gave a thoughtful hum and both boys braced themselves for the agonizing punishment only for him to click his heels together and take out his staff.

“Alright”

“Wait really??!” the boys spluttered.

“But only if you can pin me for longer that five seconds, I’ll even let you attack together!”

Red Son and MK grinned at each other, at last a chance to properly fight back and Macaque in his over confidence was letting them attack without the worry of repercussions from the bands. They both got into attack stances the hope of escape or at least contact with the outside world filling them with renewed energy.

“You get rid of the shadows I’ll focus on getting him pinned” MK said to which Red Son nodded.

MK launched himself at Macaque who dodged his attacks with effortless ease, Mk pushed forward with more aggressive blows with his staff to which Macaque blocked them with his own. Red Son lit up his fists and threw a barrage of fire balls which flew around MK keeping clear of him and heading to their intended target. Macaque smacked the fire balls away with a swing of his staff causing fire to ignite along the training ground, he looked around and noticed he no longer could see MK until he heard a rip of hair and the sound of clones being created. He glanced up at MK who at first looked like he was going to rain clones down on him but realised they all had their staffs primed and ready. With the heavy melodious ringing clangs Macaque was suddenly fenced in by a barrage of cloned staffs to which he glanced around and saw flames suddenly erupts around them causing him to blink back from the brightness. MK leapt over the clone fence to look at Macaque.

“No shadows for you to escape to and nowhere for you to run!”

“You still haven’t pinned me yet kid” Macaque said with his hands folded behind his back, MK growled and leapt down knocking Macaque to the floor and holding him there with his staff letting it go knowing full well that Macaque couldn’t lift it.

“How about now?” he demanded. Macaque smirked again and looked down MK followed his gaze and saw that by jumping in and pushing him to the floor his body now created a small shadow to which he melted away into. MK looked around realising he had trapped himself in a fire pit. Red Son watched from outside and gave a yelp when Macaque appeared behind him grabbed him and threw him at the staff fence causing them to explode into gold smoke and the fire to pitter out. MK didn’t even have time to react when Red Son came flying through the fence, smacking him right in the chest causing them both to hit the ground.

They both laid sprawled on the floor as Macaque walked up to them, clapping softly.

“I’m not going to say you did well but I can see where you were going with it, good idea about blocking me from my escape routes. However, when you got cocky you messed up.” He explained as they got themselves up, MK gave a snarl of frustration and Red Son hair flared up angrily as he punched a nearby pillar.

“However, you did pin me for five seconds…” Macaque mused.

“So, we can go home?!” MK yelped.

“No, that attack was appalling” Macaque laughed, “I’m going to need to drill in better team work into of you two. No, I agreed that if you pinned me for five seconds, I’d let you make a phone call.”

The boys looked at Macaque as he pulled out a cell phone from his cloak.

“Wait how does that even get cell coverage in here?” Red Son blurted out.

“You’re the one who likes to mix tech with magic, you tell me” Macaque answered before tossing the phone to Red Son. “You get two minutes each, I don’t think I have to tell you not to do anything dumb like tell them who I am or where you are…”

“But we don’t know where we are!” MK cried.

“Exactly!” was the cheerful reply.

Red Son was first he took the phone and held it in his hands like he was holding a piece of fragile bone porcelain before swallowing hard and then handing it to MK.

“If I give Noodle boy my two minutes, will he get four instead?” he asked, the monkey gave a shrug as if to say ‘hell why not?’ MK blinked back tears.

“You’d do that? But what about your parents?”

“My parents aren’t exactly tech savvy, hell my father can’t even use a cell phone, and besides this is our one shot for someone to track the call and I know dragon horse girl is more knowledgeable in that.” He explained, he glanced at Macaque who was still watching them keenly. That is if our ‘master’ didn’t have some way of blocking it but he didn’t want to smash MK’s hope.

“Thanks…” MK breathed and dialled in Mei’s number, for a brief horrible moment he thought what if it was the early hours of the morning and she was asleep? What if she didn’t pick up? What if during the time they had been gone Mei changed her number? He had desperately wanted to call Pigsy and Tang but he agreed with Red Son, Mei was the one most likely to pick up and be able to use this call to find them.

“Hello?” Mei answered.

“Mei! Oh, thank god!”

“MK??!! Holy shit is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me!”

“Where the hell are you? Everyone is going insane! Monkey King is on the verge of going Kaiju trying to find you!”

MK looked at Macaque and he took in a deep steadying breath before trying again.

“I…I’m not allowed to say.”

“What?! Have you been kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay? Jeez that is a dumb question of course you’re not! you’ve been fucking kidnapped!”

“No…No we’re ok for the most part.”

“Hold on… ‘we’?” Mei asked.

“Red Son is here with me”

“Red Son got kidnapped too??!!”

“Yeah, we’re kind of stuck here getting trained…for something…” MK looked at Macaque and could see he was pushing his luck so stopped himself from going into further details.

“Man, that sinks my theory that Red Son kidnapped you in some stupid demon betrothal or something!”

“As if I would do that!” Red Son shouted.

“Wait was that Red Son? Is he there?”

“Yes…”

“Who did this? Tell me who so I can sic Monkey King and Pigsy on them, they are really wanting to punch someone”

“I’m…not allowed to say…” he whimpered. “Mei, you need to talk to DBK, Red Son said his mom can use wind magic to find stuff that might give you guys a lead.”

“Great!”

MK took another deep breath, he didn’t want to worry Mei even more by breaking down into tears over the phone, he wanted so badly to talk to her longer but knew his time was limited.

“Mei…I’m nearly out of time for my call could you please tell Pigsy and Tang that I love them and I’m really sorry for making them worry.”

“Sure thing” she whimpered he could hear her sniffing back tears. “Don’t you worry we’re coming to save you!”

“Could you tell Monkey King that I’m not giving up…and…and…I’m…” he could feel his voice cracking, tears trickling down his face.

“Tell my father to hurry up and rescue us! I have a whole tray of melon bread riding on a wager that’ll he finds us first!” Red Son declared loudly, “Please inform my parents that I, Red Son will not break so easily and neither will Noodle boy!”

“Times up” Macaque muttered holding out his hand.

“We have to go now Mei…I’m really sorry…I…”

“Dude don’t worry I’ll tell them, I hit record as soon as you mentioned being kidnapped…” he could hear her sniffle before returning to the phone in her strained cheerful voice that MK knew she had when she wanted to put on a brave face. “Tell Red Son he’s gonna loose that wager! Monkey King is so gonna get you guys out first!”

“Thanks…” he whispered as Macaque took the phone away and hung up. MK hugged himself as he fought back the urge to cry, he never thought how painful it was going to be telling his friends and family what could be his last goodbye. Red Son tentatively put a hand on his shoulder.

“Right now, that is out of the way, let us continue with your lessons…” Macaque declared.

[utterlyinevitable]

I wanted fluff but I’m in an angst mood now so make an angsty breakup headcanon for Ethan X MC (set in book3) but at the end they get back together because I’m not that much of an angsty teen LOL - your tumblr niece 😌

Ayla 🥺💖💖💖

buckle up this is a long one. 

Ethan x MC (Becca) OHSY/OH3 Breakup

The time after the Valentines Day argument was weird. They made up kind of after MC sent the Thank You text, and didn’t address any of the lingering issues about the future of their relationship and what hospitals she should apply to. Ethan’s response any time they got close was that he’d “write a glowing recommendation” for wherever she chooses to apply. 

They rarely spent time together outside of the hospital, both of them throwing themselves into helping as many patients as possible. Using work to avoid one another and their fears as best as possible. 

Ethan couldn’t take it anymore. 

One day, he made sure their office hours were scheduled together. 

They sat at the diagnostic’s table reassigning files in stark quiet. He broke the silence: “Come over for dinner tonight. I think we need to talk.”

Ever since the blow out, he had been working up the courage to tell her. There wasn’t a point in holding onto it any longer - it’s been almost a year since he recognized his devout feelings for her. But there was never a good enough time. He waited for a sign or any seemingly perfect moment to let it all slip. 

He’s gonna do it tonight. It had to be tonight. The words had been eating away at him even more so knowing she’s giving him the cold shoulder.

Without looking up at his intense gaze she responded, “Yeah. We do.”

Ever since the Amazon stint, Becca promised she would never ever fall for Ethan Ramsey again. She failed miserably. Spectacularly, actually. 

She’s more in love with him now, after everything, than she could ever possibly fathom. 

But she wasn’t going to tell him. 

She vowed she wouldn’t be the one to say it first. And now with everything going on, all their doubts, there really wasn’t a point to setting those three words free. Not anymore.

When she got to Ethan’s condo, he was in the kitchen finishing up plating chicken piccata. It smelled delicious and her stomach rumbled in response. 

But Becca wasn’t planning on having dinner. If they sat and ate, then they’d talk and they couldn’t talk. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for them to implode.

So she kissed him. Hard. Hungrily. Desperately. She needed to have him one last time. Ethan melted right into her, abandoning dinner. 

MC accepted a position in Arizona. 

She leaves in three weeks - moves away five days after Edenbrook shuts its doors. She hasn’t told Ethan yet.

The words come out before she was ready to say them. 

She couldn’t hold them in anymore. The way his blue eyes were so crystal clear and how he was looking at her, cupping her face and keeping her close. Everything in his eyes told her what was coming next. Her stomach did flips and stirred inside. He was going to say it. His swollen lips parted and he was seconds from saying those three words. 

She could not hear it. She didn’t want to hear it.  

So she told him about Arizona, cutting him off. 

All Ethan said was: “I’m happy for you.” 

He didn’t fight. He didn’t say it. He didn’t beg her to stay or volunteer to follow her. All that he said was an assertion that she made the right decision. 

They were devastated.  -

If working together was awkward before, it was worse now. 

Ethan was more on edge than ever. Everyone noticed. There was gossip about their break up, spreading more wildly than the news of their coupling. 

The gang did their best to keep them naturally apart. If one was in the office, the other would be advised to stay in the clinic or take lunch in the cafeteria. 

Both spent more time at work than they should have. Staying there for at least 16 hours every single day. They should have wanted to be at home, less risk of running into the other. But they stayed. A part of them always stayed together. 

That last day, Ethan was more irritable that usual. His own emotions of failing Edenbrook and starting over reigning supreme. He was back to cynical and jaded Dr. Ramsey.  

Then Leland Bloom came in with one last case. 

They both needed it. Neither wanted their final moments of working together to be tainted by their failed romantic endeavor. 

And it turns out Edenbrook needed the case too. 

They got funding from the Blooms rather quickly. And negotiations happened. And people kept their jobs. And Ethan has a bigger role to play than ever. He spent her last few days arms deep in bringing Edenbrook back to life. 

Formal invitations and job offer extensions were sent to all Edenbrook staff. A few members of the gang cancelled their plans to be part of this new adventure and stay in Boston.

All except one. 

The hospital survived but she was still leaving.

There was no heartfelt goodbye between Ethan and MC that final day working together. Just a “good luck” and “keep in touch”. Professionally speaking. The picture of simply colleagues - not even a hug or misconstrued squeeze of the arm. 

She was off to Arizona. 

A younger Becca would have loved Arizona - the Phoenix music scene, the perpetual warmth and sunshine. 

She hated Arizona. It was too hot and there were too many weird bugs making their way into her apartment and everything was just a little too dry. 

With only a year of residency left, MC barely made it six months there. 

She could have gone back to Edenbrook. Back to where she yearned to be. But it was too painful. Too many memories. And he’d still be her boss. 

His flashy new title making Ethan nearly every employee’s direct superior. 

So she reached out to June. 

Mass Kenmore still had room on their team, and at least MC knows their newest surgical resident.

MC didn’t have a place to stay when she got back to Boston. So she stayed with Sienna in their old apartment. Everyone went down with the ship. Everyone but her and Bryce. The new roommate that took over MC’s room was nice and a second year surgical who transferred to Edenbrook.

MC hadn’t even started her new position at MK before Edenbrook was abuzz with the news she was back in town. 

Elijah let it slip to one of the nurses that Becca was staying with them and that none of the doctor’s could work late because they were throwing her a small Welcome Back party. Though she’d already been back for two weeks and survived her first full week at MK. 

Ofc the news made its way to Ethan swiftly. 

The rumor was that the group had rented out the beer garden at Donahue’s to celebrate the moment she got off the plane. 

So Ethan sat at his usual stool waiting for her to walk in. 

She never did. 

So he went to her apartment at midnight and knocked on the door. 

Aurora answered.  “Dr. Ramsey?” she was confused, taking in the dejected man in front of her. There was only one reason he’d be back in this bubble. “She’s not here.”  

The group dinner ended at a sensible time and MC, Jackie and Bryce decided to keep the fun rolling. Doing their favorite late night activity - swimming in the river. 

Except this time they were actually caught. 

They bolted back to the apartment nearly half naked. The whole thing was so liberating and fun and they laughed so hard, Becca nearly doubled over from laughing that Bryce threw her over his shoulder  “Bryce!”  “We gotta keep moving, Becks. We’re too hot to get booked for public indecency.” 

Jackie stops in her tracks when she reaches the building door:  “What the fuck?” 

Causing Bryce to bump into her and almost drop MC. “Jeez, Jackie, what -” Bryce follows her line of vision to see Ethan. “Shit.” 

And MC is just hanging out with the best view of Bryce’s toned ass, the blood rushing to her head because gravity.  “What’s going on? Guys?” “Varma. Lahela.” 

MC freezes and her blood completely drains from her at just hearing his voice. That velvet baritone cadence of her conscience. 

Ethan holds the door open for them, awkwardly signaling for them to enter. 

Jackie takes the door from him. Bryce is frozen, not really sure if he should put her down or not. MC hoped he wouldn’t. 

But he did. He had to use more effort than anticipated to get her off of him, but gradually she slipped down his body and onto her feet. 

Bryce shot her sympathetic eyes, which she repaid with a scowl. Bryce shrugged and turned to follow Jackie inside.  “Hey, man.” he patted Ethan on the shoulder as he passed. 

She folded her arms across herself, trying to cover herself. Overly aware that she was in her underwear in the middle of the night.  “What’re you doing here.”  “I could ask you the same thing.” 

The silence between them was palpable. “You’re back and working at Kenmore.” he stated as indifferently as he could muster through his hurt.  “It’s my first week.”  “Were you going to reach out? We would love to have you back on the team.” 

She didn’t say anything. and that said everything.  

“Why are you here, Ethan?”  “I came to talk.”  “Talk? What could we possibly have to talk about? Edenbrook’s doing better than ever under your supervision, I hated Arizona and now work at MK. There. We’re caught up.” 

He just looked at her with a sinister smile. 

Her ragged breathing, goosebumps and flushed skin and how her eyes darted everywhere but at his face gave him courage. Or maybe it was the three scotches he downed before that moment. 

Four strides. That’s how long it took to get to her. 

He was so close she clutched her balled up clothes tighter to her chest, using it as a shield. Shielding her heart and exposed skin from him. 

Ethan’s voice was deep and breathy: “No, we’re not.” 

She finally looked up at him, lips parted with disbelief. 

His eyes searched her face for any sign of regret or hesitation. For any sign she didn’t want him just as badly. 

All he got was a brush of her trouser against his midsection as her grip on the ball of clothes loosened. 

Their eyes glued. 

One shallow breath... two... three... 

They collided. Neither sure who moved first. 

[maxwell-grant]

If they put the Shadow into Street Fighter, how would you make him feel like the shadow while still working as a character in a fighting game?

I’ve been waiting for this question for a while now and I think I may even turn it into a series, where I talk about turning pulp heroes into fighting game characters. See if I can merge my two interests together and make something out of it. I may expand these into actual movesets later. 

Okay so, I’m not into the idea of The Shadow in Street Fighter, specifically. At all. I don’t want Street Fighter to have guest characters outside of Final Fight, I already think a lot of the SF newcomers don’t fit with it’s design, and the last thing I want is a gun-toting vigilante who is way too much out of place. You’d have to rework so much of his skillset and design to make him work in SF specifically that you’d be essentially creating a new character. And putting him in Marvel vs Capcom, while better, would necessarily mean that either Capcom or Disney acquired the license, and either possibility fills me with dread.

But if we were to put him in, say, Mortal Kombat? Now we’re talking. MK’s got a lot of guest characters from all over the place, and it’s worldbuilding is such a mess, and has always been such a random hodgepodge, that The Shadow wouldn’t be out of place. And there’s no restraints on violence either, which is definitely a plus if you’re playing around with pulp heroes on your property. Considering fighting games and pulp heroes are two of my biggest passions I absolutely have some rather extensive thoughts on combining the two, but of course that would also require reworking several characters or picking choices very selectively so the roster doesn’t just largely comprise of dudes with guns and fistcuffs. Fighting games live and die on catchy character design. So let’s start talking about design:

Design-wise, I think you need to go with something like Matt Wagner’s much more streamlined and action-ready design, rather than something like Michael Kaluta’s cloaked Shadow or some of the more trenchcoat or robe-wearing Shadows. He needs to be able to move around, punch and kick and jump, and for us to clearly see his actions. The red of the cape and scarf need to pop visually to make his movements flow, especially considering that The Shadow’s already going to be using his cape for a lot of tricks. Maybe, to take a page from Riley Rossmo’s depiction of him in Batman x Shadow, his scarf and cape could shapeshift in size depending on certain actions he takes, as if you’re fighting an illusion. 

In terms of his fighting style, I don’t want him to fight with guns perpetually glued to his fists. There are plenty of examples of gun-toting fighting characters we can use for inspiration, such as Hol Horse (JoJo), Jill (MvC2), Chris Redfield (MvC3) and Erron Black (MKX), and obviously The Shadow’s gotta have his guns as part of the moveset, but I don’t think they should, or even need to, comprise the majority of his moveset, especially when other characters are going to have them. Fighting The Shadow should be like fighting The Twilight Zone, except it’s got guns and knives and bombs and assistants and any number of ways to put you down or get you to jump to the jaws of death.

Instead, I think the focus of The Shadow’s moveset should be built around three things: his ability to manipulate people into their own destruction, his crimefighting magician skillsets and tools, and psychic murder antics. Normally I’d be against relying on them but, for the context of a fighting game, I’d say go full in, and even amplify them. He should be a Glass Cannon who is fast, able to deal great damage and control the match through oppressive tools and psychological pressure, with the downsides that he can’t take much damage or pressure, has weak defensive options, and some of his options require set-ups to work. 

Gameplay Inspirations would include: Mewtwo (Smash Bros), Akuma & Seth (Street Fighter), Dr Doom & Dormammu (MvC3), Diavolo (JoJo ASB), The_None’s Giygas (MUGEN). Additional fighting game bosses and baddies could be appropriate here, since it’s The Shadow we’re talking about.

Some ideas for his moveset

Main attacks often include pistol-whipping, elbow strikes, open palm blows, choke holds and knife-hand blows at pressure points. Grabs include strangling and judo throws.

A dashing elbow strike, taken from the unreleased videogame as seen in the screencap above. Mainly used to extend combos. 

A counter move where he’s able to counter attacks and projectiles by going into his hit animation as if he took damage, only for his silhouette to fade as he instantly teleports behind the opponent with an elbow to the ribs. 

An attack where he points the Girasol at the enemy, and if he lands it, they get a red aura around their head and he becomes able to either denotate it for damage, like M.Bison’s Psycho Nightmare, or override their controls to force them to perform one move, opening them for attack, and it lasts until he gets hit back. 

A teleport move where he dissappears into his cape and reappears somewhere else. 

A standard gun fire move. Spending an extra bar may either upgrade his gun to a tommy gun, or allow an agent to come to his aid and fire alongside him. 

A move where he spends a bar to perform attacks while invisible Reptile-style, maybe more to gain additional intangibility

Tear bombs that produce smoke on screen that gradually chips away at health

Moves where he can summon mobsters trying to kill him to either shoot the opponent or act as meat shields, although they can hurt you back if you’re not careful

A move where he shoots glass above you and has it rain as a trap, very much like Hol Horse’s glass move in Heritage. 

A super move where he uses The Devil’s Whisper. 

A super move where he puts on his cloak and hat on the foe and dissappears, as a squad of mobsters shows up to gun them down while he laughs in the background. 

A special attack that takes a couple of bars to perform, but allows him to effectively break combos after three hits by making the screen flash as both and his opponent’s positions are reset, and it’s revealed the opponent landed three hits of damage on themselves. 

A super move where he uses The Black Hush to completely blanket the screen in darkness, with only the opponent being visible. The opponent is unable to even see their own projectiles. 

A super move / Fatality where he grabs the opponent and does a Penance Stare using the Girasol.

A super move / Fatality where he tricks the opponent into jumping in front of a train.

Additionally, if we were to make a fighting game with pulp heroes as it’s roster, while The Shadow would obviously have to be front and center, I’m thinking maybe he shouldn’t be a starter character. He should have the same kind of unlockable status as characters like Akuma. Not the Final Boss, but the Secret Boss, the kind of character you have to actively put in the effort to even earn the right to go up against. It’s only fitting that even here The Shadow would be hidden in mystery and puzzles. 

What better way to prove yourself than by conquering The Master of Darkness?

[scribeofmorpheus]

Counterpart [3/5]

Pairing: Bucky x Reader x Framework!Steve

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Words: 6k -Yeesh!

A/N: Okay so during Civil War (which I’m using as a timeline building block where Hydra wiped out what was left of Shield’s hero’s ) Iron Man vs Cap did happen but with a twist. Vision exists in the Framework but his name is Spectre and he looks like the original version from the comics. Also, in advance, I’m sorry, but I did say shit was gonna get dark.  Also, I may do a Framework Avengers vs Hydra spin off.

Note: To clear up any confusion, everything in Italics happened in the past: memories, CCTV footage, videos etc.

Warnings: This chapter contains depictions and mentions of alcoholism, language, violence, minor-character death, etc.

It’s a dark series, expect a darker take.

PART THREE: WHO THE FUCK IS BUCKY?

"Switch weapons to non-lethal, we want them alive for questioning. Concussive rounds only!" You relayed your orders to your men.

As you advanced into the building, you heard a body thud onto a car's roof from the levels above.

"One of ours?" You asked into the comms.

"That's a negative," Clint relayed with a cocky tone as another body crashed on top of another car's roof.

"Barton, I said non-lethal," you chastised.

Barton sighed, "Guy fell out a three-story window, the SUV broke his fall, he isn't dead. Look I can see him now, his fingers are twitching."

"Yeah it's called muscle spasms, corpses do that too!" You shot back.

"Slow down on the property damage, Barton. You have swords, use them!" Steve barked orders at your partner's reckless antics. The sound of people screaming followed suit.

"I told you, you should have gone on your damned honeymoon!" Clint said in an exasperated huff directed at you.

"Jesus, you two!" You sighed, "Keep the comms clear guys!"

You took cover beside a door as several of your men took up positions according to your hand gestures. You crouched down, gave the go signal and laid down cover fire as they advanced into the building.

You took down three people, all dressed in old Shield gear.

"Three down, ground floor is clear," you chimed in as you tapped on the Hydra agent's shoulder in front of you, signalling for him to take his men and ascend the stairs.

"Three? Someone's slacking" You could all but picture Clint's shit-eating grin.

There was a low rumble coursing through the building making furniture and light fixtures shake. Just then Clint's comms were filled with static before coming online again

"Barton you good?" you asked in a panic.

After some coughing and a few grunts, he replied sheepishly, "Yeah, yeah, don't mother-hen, it's not endearing. It was a fucking EMP, one of your grunts triggered a tripwire."

"Shit," you cursed, signalling for your men to spread out and keep an eye out. "Is he alright?"

Barton sneered, "Nah, the blast knocked him clear, he fell three stories directly onto concrete. Idiots dead."

"Top floor is clear," Steve said. "Moving down. Stay alert, I don't want any more casualties. Paperwork's a bitch!"

"Copy," both you and Clint said at the same time.

"Hey, Barton, be care--"

"Yeah, yeah. This isn't my first rodeo partner," Clint chuckled. Just then his comms started to break up. "I- comi- up- o-" a metallic screech bombarded your eardrums, everyone clenched from discomfort. "Got... eyes on!"

"Barton, repeat, you're breaking up!" You shouted as you raced for the stairs, shooting and disarming several enemies along the way. "Barton!"

As soon as your hand touched the railing, a whole section of the building caved in. You ducked away from the falling debris that crushed several of your men. Blood and concrete dust was all you could see as a ringing noise punctured your ear.

You coughed a few times, whacking the dust away from your face. You covered your nose with your elbow slung around your face. When the dust cleared, you saw the aftermath of a controlled EID having gone off. A section of the floor above was now a pile of rubble at your feet.

"Y/N! Can- y- hea--" Steve's comms were muddled, breaking out between words.

You adjusted your comms until it became as clear as a whistle again.

"Y/N? Anyone? Do you copy? What's the sit-rep?" Steve barked angrily.

"It's Y/N, I copy."

"Thank heavens!" Steve let out a breath. "The fuck just happened?"

"EID. Controlled burst. Half the third floor caved in," you informed him as you carefully made your way up solo. "I'm going to look for Barton."

"Copy. I'm authorising deadly force. I'm done playing nice!" Steve said menacingly as the sound of bullets hailing down echoed over the comms. And soon, chaos ensued. Gunfire, flash grenades, screams and blood sprays. The building complex transformed into a battle zone.

When you came around a corner obstructed by some rubble, you heard some faint coughs followed by the sound of strained groans.

"Barton that you?"

"About fucking time, my leg is pinned," Barton's words slipped passed the obstructing debris.

"I'll have to set a charge to clear the rubble before I can get to you."

"Shit," Clint said in a tone that informed you he was contemplating something. "Forget it, go after her."

"Her?" When the question came out, a plasma charge burned a hole through the adjacent wall, missing your nose by an inch. With wide eyes, you ducked, rolled and shot at the direction the charge came from. Standing in a patched up blue, silver and red suit of armour was the Iron Maiden. "Oh, her."

You fired off several shots, radioing in as you advanced towards the metal suited woman: "Barton needs assistance on the fourth floor. I've got sights on the Iron Maiden."

"That's a copy. HQ just informed me Spectre is inbound. Let's wrap this up before that can-opener gets credit for another one of our missions," Steve replied as wind zipped over his comms. He was moving fast.

"I hate that fucking clank!" You spit as you charged into the next room, emptying your clip and reloading with the magazine that held electro-rounds.

The Iron Maiden shot off plasma beam after beam, at one point using a continuous stream to all but cut through the entire room.

"Arrrgh!" The beam singed your cheek. You rolled and shot at her chest in a tight six-shot formation. The suit overloaded and dropped to the ground in a loud clanking sound. The armour opened up to reveal no one inside. It was on auto-pilot. "The suit was a distraction! There's equipment up ahead, computers. I think I see a command centre, I'm going in."

"Shit!" Steve cursed, "Stand down. Wait for backup. Y/N, did you hear wha--"

As soon as you entered the metal-encased room, your comms stopped broadcasting. The static nearly deafened you, forcing you to throw your ear-piece on the ground.

You stalked into the room quietly. A makeshift command centre had been set up. Computers, radios and weapons crates filled the room. There were several display cases housing mechanical suits patched together with mismatching parts labelled Mark XLIX. A large unopened metal case had the words: 'Rescue, MK-1616,' printed on it. In smaller font below that was an inscription: 'To my love, Pepper. In case I need a rescue.'

A hot flash of pain ripped through your shoulder followed by the sound of a gunshot. You sucked in air before dropping to the ground and firing two shots. One slug hit the wall. The other hit a strawberry blonde woman above the navel.

Pepper gasped and braced her stomach with all eight fingers, a look of defeat on her face as the gun hit the floor. She brought a bloody hand to hit a wall panel, sealing the panic room shut.

You stood from the floor slowly, "Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, as an agent of Hydra, and for the protection of the people, I hereby place you under arrest."

You hobbled over to her, cuffs in one hand, gun in the other.

Pepper coughed weakly, a grim smile on her face, "Just get it over with and kill me. You people have already taken the one person I ever cared about." Her eyes fell on a half singed photo of her and Tony.

"Tony Stark died of his own ignorance when he blew up that airport," you said.

Pepper rolled her eyes, "You're the ignorant one, letting Hydra brainwash you like the sheep you are." She spat blood onto the floor. "The explosion was a cover-up."

You clicked your tongue at her nonsensical story, "Shield sympathisers and your love of propaganda. You can drop the charade, your days of terror are over."

You cuffed her hands together and pulled out a compression bandage and applied it to her stomach roughly.

"Hhnnggg..." she gurgled and spat more blood, laughing afterwards with blood-stained teeth. "See for yourself." Her head nudged towards a computer with a video kept on pause.

You got back up, eyes locked on the computer, uncertain of how to proceed.

Banging emanated off the metal door that kept you trapped inside. You looked down at Pepper, her eyes fixed on the engraving written on the metal crate.

"I say you have 30 seconds before they break through. Tick-tock, the truth waits for no one," she bit her lip with a sharp inhale as blood trickled through the bandage.

"Fuck!" You cursed yourself as curiosity got the better of you.

You placed your gun on the table, pressed the enter key on the keyboard and slapped on a compression bandage on your shoulder, eyes fixed on the cam quality recording.

***

Tony crashed through two parking garage columns, debris almost burying his suit.

"Auxiliary power failing, boss." Friday's voice came off as a silent lament for what was about to unfold.

"I know," Tony said solemnly. "Do me a favour and call Pepper would ya?" He struggled to fly on one working leg, jet engines sputtering like a choking tail pipe.

“Propulsion systems going offline, sir.”

“Just focus on calling Pepper!”

"Calling Pepper Potts," Friday relayed as Steve grabbed hold of Tony's leg and yanked him back down into the ground.

"Gahh!" Tony gasped as the metal suit grew heavy and limp.

Steve brought his shield to bear with all his strength, it separated the metal case protecting Tony's chest, imbedding itself inside.

Tony coughed as the sound of ringing filled his earpiece, "Come on, Pep." He prayed for her to pick up.

"I'm sorry boss, it’s gone straight to voicemail," Friday said calmly.

Steve removed his shield from Tony's chest only to use it as though it were a shovel digging up dry gravel, hammering at the suits power core until its lights began to flicker.

At the final strike, the sound of his ribs crushing inwards let out a sickly popping noise.

Tony removed his helmet, blood trickling down his nose, one eye bloodshot. He laughed ironically after the beating.

"I can't believe my father ever admired you!" Tony struggled to breathe as his airways constricted. "You were supposed to be our symbol of hope. A beacon for justice. Now look at you, nothing but Hydra's lapdog ever since they fished you out of the ocean."

Steve's head fell to look down at Tony's defeated body. A devilish smirk crossed his lips as he took a knee to whisper at Tony, "Tell me, Tony, with all that money, all that brainpower, did you ever figure out who murdered your parents?"

A smile crept over Steve's face as Tony struggled to move his hands, the metal weighing him down.

"I'll kill you!" Tony's voice cracked.

Steve laughed and stood up, eyes locked at something in the distance. "You, kill me? No. But you will kill everyone still in this airport." He pulled out a detonator from his trousers, his thumb toying with the red button.

"Is this how you envisioned your future? Is this the type of freedom you fought so hard for?" Tony asked with a patronising tone.

"You can't have peace without order," Steve said coldly. "And I am order."

Steve looked up at the concrete ceilings of the half-destroyed underground parking lot, a smug expression making him appear sinister.

"Enjoy the view," Steve walked away, the cameras unable to pick up his position anymore.

"Boss, should I try Pepper again?" Friday asked with a hushed voice between the whirring noises of the power cell powering down.

Tony grunted as he lay on the ground, pinned in place by own suit of armour, "Yeah, why no--"

White light filled the cameras as they stopped broadcasting, an error message playing on the screen as a loud tone beeped continuously.

***

"No…" Your eyes went wide as a tear trickled off your chin and onto the keyboard. Your hands were shaking, knees buckling and your throat went dry. "This… this can't- this isn't--"

You didn't know what to say. The banging noises from the door being forced open eerily resembled the sound of Steve's shield banging against the Iron Man suit. You whimpered, your palm pressed forcefully against your mouth to stifle the noises. Your wedding band, still cold to the touch, still foreign to you.

Was this the man you loved? You asked yourself over and over and over again.

The metal door flew off its hinges and crushed the metal box Pepper had been staring at, her skin turned pale.

Through the doorway, the ghost coloured android, Spectre, hovered into the room. He looked at Pepper, the display of suits and then you. His head moving like it was made of rusted joints.

"Are. You. Alright. Agent?" The androids detached voice was disarming and without personality, you hated it.

You ignored the android and set your eyes on Steve, anger forcing them to shutter into half-open slits.

"Explain what the fuck I just saw!" You demanded.

Steve placed his hands on his hips and let out a disappointed huff.

Clint hobbled into the room, whistling lowly as he patted Steve's back, "Someone's in the dog house."

Steve shrugged him off and walked towards you.

"Uh-uh," you stepped back.

Steve's brows came together in a look of anger.

"Hey clank, get her out of here!" Steve pointed to Pepper, words dripping authority. "That goes for everyone else, go secure the prisoners. Go! Get out!"

Everyone scattered out of the room as Spectre picked up Pepper gently, her smile conveying her satisfaction at the turn of events.

"Well?" You challenged Steve when it was just the two of you. "Care to explain?"

Steve noticed the bandage on your shoulder soak up with blood, "At least let me fix you up first."

"Stop trying to deflect, Steve! Explain to me why I just watched a video of you blowing up the airport in Germany! When I agreed to marry you, we swore there'd be no secrets between us!"

"It was classified!" Steve swept the computers off the table in a rageful outburst. "Compromises have to be made in our line of work. You of all people should understand that!"

"That doesn't change the fact you lied to me!"

"I never lied!"

"A lie of omission is still a lie!"

"God damn it, what do you want from me huh?" Steve's jaw clenched as he stood barely arm’s length from you. "I don't expect you to tell me every detail about your missions. For god sake, even Sharon understood that part of the job meant keeping certain things secret."

You snapped and suddenly your good hand struck across Steve's face, leaving behind a red mark and a smear of blood from your shoulder.

Steve turned to you slowly, menace in his eyes as he clenched his jaw so tight you could see his muscle working and all but picture morals cracking.

"Just this morning you regarded your ex-wife like she was the devil, and now you're using her name as an excuse to make me feel like shit for expecting you to be truthful in our marriage?" You clicked your tongue. "You're fucking unbelievable sometimes."

You stormed out, leaving Steve by himself.

***

Your legs kept twitching as you and Barton sat on a row of chairs waiting for your turn to be debriefed -or reprimanded- by Director Pierce. His howling voice creeped through the hinge gaps of his door, fist pounding on his desk like drums of war.

Clint had his eyes closed, laying back into the chair. His leg had been cleared by the doctor as only having a few contusions. You looked at the part of his pant-legs that was cut off by scissors, deep purple bruises shown off proudly as he crossed his legs at the ankle.

"You're a lucky son of a bitch, you know that."

Clint laughed before placing his hand on your leg to keep it still, "And you're a jittery one."

"This day has gone to shit," you complained as you watched Spectre being led by several junior agents into the 8x8 lock-box Hydra kept him in.

"I'll say," Clint yawned and stretched, his jaw popping. "What was all that stuff with Steve about?"

You sighed, "Just work problems. He's been keeping certain… details about his time in Germany a secret from me."

Clint chuckled as though he was a wizened elder, "And that, young sith apprentice, is why you shouldn't marry into your work, or have kids!"

You rose a brow at him, "Unbelievable. You're married to the woman who practically runs this branch, not including Mr Constant Scowl in there!" You pointed to the name plat on Pierce's door.

"Yeah, but she's the head of public relations and I'm a spy!" He said matter-of-factly. "I don't ask her about politics and she doesn't ask me about my kill count- Oh, speaking of which, what was your count?"

Clint sat up in his chair, staring at you expectantly.

"The way the day's gone to shit, I'll gladly pick up the tab!"

"Yes!" Clint clapped his hands in triumph.

The door opened and Steve stormed out of Pierce's office, side-eyeing you before he headed for the elevator.

"I may have underestimated which one of you two is in the dog house," Clint whispered to you.

You rolled your eyes.

"Y/N, get your ass in here!" Director Pierce shouted distastefully.

You heaved a sigh and walked into the office.

"Shut the door," he ordered.

You did as he commanded.

"Mind explaining to me why you disobeyed a direct order from your superior?" Pierce demanded, the lines on his forehead plentiful as he kept his scowl intact.

"Sir?"

"Agent Rogers relayed to me that he issued the use of deadly force after an explosion went off before you decided to capture Virginia Potts."

"That is correct, sir. But I saw an opportunity to gain a valuable prisoner and I took it," you defended your actions.

"Yes, and then you and your husband had a lovers quarrel in the presence of your subordinates," he banged his fist on the table. "When Rogers was married to Carter, I thought nothing of it because she works Human Resources, but he assured me the two of you would keep level heads while in the field."

"With all due respect, sir--"

Pierce stood from his seat and pointed at you, "Do not interrupt me when I'm talking!" He slapped his palm on the table. "This is your only warning. Any reckless displays like the one you did today and I'll revoke that badge!" He pointed at your badge clipped to your breast pocket.

"Now get out of my sight!" He shooed you out of the room.

"Sir," you took your leave.

Once out of the room you kicked Barton's legs, forcing him from his nap.

"Ouch, fuck!"

"Get up, I need a drink!"

Clint eyed you, "We're still on duty."

"Fuck duty," You headed for the elevator. "You coming or not? I'm buying remember!"

Clint shot up from the chair and hobbled over, "That's all you had to say!"

~Avenger's Compound

The room was pitch black save for the colour-shifting, low light that resonated off the television screen. Bucky sat in the deserted lounge area nursing a despondent mood and a heavy brow. His eyes glued to the television screen as it played back an old DVR'd recording of his legal trial that took place months before being instated as an Avenger.

The volume on the television was low, but the room was empty enough that it sounded louder than normal.

"Case 12773. James Buchanan Barnes vs the people. We call forth Steve Rogers as a character witness for Mr Barnes who is on trial for any illegal activities committed in the name of the secret organisation known as Hydra, between the years 1945 and 2016, while under duress. Mr Rogers, please take the stand." The judged banged her gavel to silence the courtroom.

An old and weary Steve moved towards the stand at a pace slower than Bucky's mind was comfortable reconciling. Knowing his best friend was nearing the end in that moment still stung even while re-watching it as an old recording.

Bucky watched in silence as he looked at Steve lobbying on his behalf to be allowed to be forgiven for past transgressions.

"He never even had the luxury of committing any of these crimes of his own free will or sound mind. They should be dismissed or at the very least declared a mistrial. These are the actions of the Winter Soldier, a weapon honed and trained by a nefarious organisation, not my oldest friend and former member of the Howling Commando's, James Buchanan Barnes," Steve's old and gravelly voice was filled with conviction as he spoke into the microphone.

The crowd started to rumble and several camera shutters sounded off as the Judge banged her gavel to regain order.

A mournful smile crept over Bucky's lips as he fought back tears at the sight of his best friend lobbying tirelessly for him.

How he wished he could turn to him at such a time.

Bucky's heart had barely started healing when Y/N had been ripped from him.

Bucky paused the recording at the moment when Y/N had taken his hand reassuringly after what seemed like the hundredth procession. They had fitted him with a non-threatening prosthetic to seem less menacing in the eyes of the politicians and jury members. It didn’t stop them from staring at him in distaste every time a new piece of evidence was brought to light- and there had been a lot of damning evidence.

Bucky wasn't averse to the fact that his life came with a lot of baggage, which is why he was amazed when Y/N had stood by his side through everything. Through the gruelling and soul-crushing trial. Through those bleak, empty days that followed after Steve's funeral. Even through his reluctant integration back into the field as an Avenger.

It hadn't been easy. A lot of the public hadn't been happy with that decision, but Bucky had grown used to being under every government’s scrutinous eye. Yet, despite countless news channels and tabloid newspapers calling him a mentally unstable monster who could snap back to his old ways at any time, Y/N had stood by him.

"Broodin' in the dark?" Sam's voice called out from behind the couch.

"You know of a better place to do it?" Bucky retorted with no humour present, muting the video.

"No, this'll do it," Sam replied. “I thought I’d find you in the gym, working over that punchin’ bag you’ve taped to hell and back. Or at the very least lifting some iron. This is a change of pace.” he sat on the other end of the couch.

"Please, make yourself comfortable, it's not like I wanted to be alone," Bucky said sarcastically.

"Like I needed your permission," Sam jabbed.

“The punching bag is just a bag now.” Bucky revealed.

Sam nodded in understanding.

"Any updates?" Bucky seemed almost afraid to ask.

"No, we're still trying to track her signal," he said before looking at the screen in recognition. "Oh, shit. The trial. Damn, I do not miss those days. I had to wear my uncle Earl's suit, it stunk of weed, he says it’s for a prescription but I know better. How longs it been, eight months?"

Bucky refrained from laughing, "A little longer."

"That was almost as painful as the Sokovian Accords," Sam remarked.

Bucky looked at him with knitted brows, "We were fugitives then."

Sam let a full laugh out, "Yeah, and that was still a less stressful time."

"Weren't you shot out of the sky?"

"Yeah, almost, but you got your ass handed to you by a fourteen-year-old," Sam retorted.

“So did you.”

"Ah, good times."

Both men chuckled at the remarkable power of hindsight.

Sam tapped on the couch excitedly when he remembered something, "Hey, fast forward to the time they put Shuri on the stand. I love how she makes all those suits look like idiots when she talks about all the scientific gobbledygook she used to tape your mind back together."

Bucky sighed heavily, but a small smile peaked across his cheeks as he fast-forwarded the recording.

Midway through the video, Bucky was reminded of something funny during his rehab in Wakanda.

Sam caught sight of him letting out a silent laugh.

"What?" he asked.

"Uhh, it's nothing," Bucky tried to deflect.

"Spit it out Tin-can!" Sam said impatiently.

"During my rehab, Shuri started talking about the benefits of physical therapy. In the middle of her long-winded explanations, I used to zone out a lot when she used big scientific words, I lost track of what she was saying and blindly agreed to this therapeutic exercise she recommended. Turns out it was a week of yoga."

Sam burst out laughing, his hand slapped his chest in amusement. "Did you have to wear yoga pants?"

Bucky opened his mouth to answer but thought against it once Sam laughed even louder.

Out of the blue, a red streak of light reflected off the glass windows of the lounge prompting Bucky and Sam to crane their necks in the opposite direction.

Wanda tapped on the glass and ushered them outside.

When they walked out into the night, they caught sight of Wanda holding onto a small thumb drive and sporting a satisfied smile, "We located Y/N!"

"We?" Sam asked

At the same time, Bucky also asked, "You found her?"

"Me, Friday and Pepper!" Wanda pointed to the blue Iron-Woman suit that had just landed a few feet away with a heavy metallic thud.

"Boys," Pepper greeted from within the Rescue suit.

"Pepper," Sam waved. "Is that really you, or--"

The helmet of the Rescue suit peeled back revealing no one inside before closing again. "Sadly, I couldn't be there in person. I'm gonna hand the reigns over to Friday, she'll set the co-ordinates into the Quin Jet and provide assistance on your mission. I have a girl’s sleepover to supervise... on a school night no less."

"Thanks, Pepper," Wanda smiled.

"Anytime," Pepper logged off and the distinct Irish lilt of the Friday program came online: "I'll go get the jet ready, boss." The Rescue suit took the thumb drive from Wanda and flew towards the garage.

Bucky had looked a little lost through the whole exchange, but his eyes showed how determined he was to get things rolling.

Wanda continued, "Using Stark's satellites, we managed to pin-point her location to a set radius over the Weddell Sea. All we have to do is connect Friday's mainframe to the Quin jet, which she's handling, and we're good to go."

Bucky sprinted to the jet hanger after Friday without a seconds thought.

Wanda was about to follow suit when she noticed Sam hadn't moved.

"What are you waiting for, Sam? Gear up!"

"Are you sure you're ready for active duty?" Sam asked.

Wanda, in turn, cocked her head to the side and said, "My friend is in danger, of course I am!"

"That's all I needed to hear," Sam smiled proudly as he and Wanda made for the hanger.

 ~Several Hours Later, Over the Weddell Sea

"Coming up on the signal, boss," Friday informed Wanda. "It seems like the signal's remained stationary."

All three of them were geared up, wired up and more than ready to get their teammate back.

"Probably a base of operations," Sam noted.

"The scans show no entrance above ground," Bucky frowned. "Diving suits?"

"We'd mobilise faster if we had an underwater vehicle," Sam noted. "Besides, if we jump from this high..."

"Gravity," Bucky nodded, following Sam's train of thought. "So we can't jump, we'll have to land."

Wanda walked over to the Quin Jet's hull and pressed the button that opened the doors, depressurising the jet in a rush of strong wind.

"No, we jump on my mark," Wanda said boldly. "Leave gravity to me."

"Boss, this suit doesn't have underwater capabilities, you'll have to take me along with this," the Rescue suit handed Wanda the flash drive.

Sam and Bucky exchanged cautious looks before standing beside Wanda, her eyes glowing red.

"Now," Wanda signalled as she dove headfirst out of the jet.

"Shit!" Sam groaned as he followed second.

Bucky squeezed something tied around his neck and said in silent prayer, "Hold on, doll. We're coming." And then he dove third.

As all three of them were pulled down headfirst by gravity, their speed increasing as they descended further.

Sam instinctively began to brace but suddenly a whirlpool began to form, separating the seawater to form a tunnel that drilled downwards until it reached a man-made structure. Red streaks of mist mixed with the dark water to form spiralling stripes of red and navy.

Bucky began to feel his body growing lighter and lighter, red mist covering him, Wanda and Sam in puffs of smoke.

When they reached the seafloor, they touched down lightly, the whirlpool following them like a protective perimeter.

Bucky looked up, only to see a roof of water rippling about. The whirlpool had transformed into a dome below surface level. Wanda began to breathe heavy, her fingers held up as though she were simply holding an umbrella for them.

"There," Sam pointed out as he looked at his tablet, a glowing force field shielding a metal gate. "The origin of the signal."

"You were right, it is a base," Bucky said.

"That looks like alien tech," Sam noted.

"Mind if we hurry this along boys, the sea is quite heavy," Wanda strained.

***

Once they were inside the compound, Bucky and Sam handled most of the heavy lifting, allowing Wanda a bit of respite. All their opponents were clad in black tactical gear, no flags, sigil’s or markings.

Bucky transformed into a brutal machine, dispensing of all potential threats thrown their way with lethal precision and a feral show of uncontrolled power. Sam and Wanda would occasionally have to pry him off someone when he began to seered. He was unhinging.

"Black ops?" Sam asked

Wanda shook her head as she used her ability to restrain Bucky after an outburst, "Hiding under an Ocean floor bed? No, they scavenged the alien tech. Whoever they are, they aren't military or government."

"Hhhhh!" He resisted against her powers but then let out a deep sigh.

"You good?" She asked.

Bucky shook the Winter Soldier's temperamental resurgence away, "Yeah."

"Let’s go," Wanda released her telekinetic grip from him.

Along the way, Wanda spotted an odd Z shaped symbol spray painted into the walls. She recognised it from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it.

When they got to the control room, all three of them were covered in sweat, their bodies beginning to show signs of fatigue- Bucky most of all, his rage had burned through him like a match to gasoline.

"Y/N!" he shouted, relief taking over his hardened features as he raced to the sensory deprivation tank she was floating in. EEG's and EKG's wired up to her brain and heart function. A small bar at the bottom revealed her memories were at 72% synchronisation.

"We have time," Bucky said thankfully as his hand pressed against the glass.

Wanda looked around at all the other tanks filled with strangers, "Who are these people?"

"We'll answer that question once we get our girl out," Sam said as he plugged Friday's USB into the computer terminal. Sam saw a leather bound book lying on a table, “This looks important.” He flipped through the pages.

“What does it say?” Wanda asked as she took a turn about the room, inspecting the machinery which was stamped with Cyrillic, Greek and what looked to be Sokovian letters.

“I got no clue, I can’t read Hieroglyphs,” Sam tossed her the book.

Wanda grumbled after she read the title. “It’s Sokovian. I think it’s a manifesto…” Suddenly everything clicked in place. “I know what this place is. Helmut Zemo wrote a manifesto while in prison. It was in the news around the same time as Bucky’s trial. He talked about how the world’s greatest failing was superheroes. Something about the world being a better place if the Avengers never existed. If they never toyed with the idea of global security.”

"I read an old Shield case file on the way here. A man named Radcliffe invented the Framework, it was originally designed as a training simulator,” Bucky chimed in.

“So what? A group of anarchists mobilise, take his word as scripture and build a computer program where superhero’s don’t exist?” Sam asked.

The sound of soldiers mobilising to their position became cause for concern.

Bucky ran to the control room door panel and started flipping switches hoping the main entrance would seal behind them, all it did was cause several observation shutters to open and close.

Wanda sighed then shut the doors using her telekinetic powers.

"You sure are handy in a pinch," Bucky mused.

Wanda was too burnt out to think of a retort and simply nodded in agreement.

"Ugh, guys we may have a problem," Sam said.

Bucky's metal fist connected brutally with the sealed door, generating a loud metallic thud, "Why is nothing simple anymore?"

"What's the problem?" Wanda moved closer to the monitors.

Sam typed at the keys, unsure of how to proceed, "According to the program, there's no way to manually unplug someone. That case file say anything else, Buck?"

Bucky's eyes skittered in thought as the sound of a welding blade cutting through the door alerted everyone to their shortening time limit.

“A few years ago, some agents got plugged in They were rescued and successfully disconnected from the Framework before it was destroyed. I was hoping the same rules wouldn't apply here since I'm guessing this is a rebuild."

"Well," Sam urged Bucky to drop the other shoe. "How'd they get out?"

Bucky took a deep breath, "The only way you can unplug someone from this Framework is from the inside, there’s usually a backdoor exit programed into the world."

"Shit!" Sam ran a hand over his clean shave.

Friday's protocols finished downloading and her voice blared through the old, static PA system like nails on a chalk board, "Online, boss."

"Friday, can you locate our avatars in the Framework?" Sam asked.

"Searching," Friday responded.

The first of three bolts had been cut through, sparks halting momentarily before the saw blades were replaced and the motor of the welding machine was restarted.

"Come on, come on," Bucky tapped the tabled impatiently.

"Two avatars located. One James Buchanan Barnes and one Sam Wilson. The avatar of one, Wanda Maximoff died year 2015 during the destruction of Sokovia at the hands of a Hydra intelligence android gone rogue. Designation, the Crimson Cowl. Survived by known terrorist and fugitive, Pietro Maximoff."

Wanda gasped in shock as her lips trembled out her brother’s name, "Pietro is alive?"

"Alive is a relative term," Friday corrected. "But he has an active string of code within the Framework. To everyone plugged in, he is as real as they are."

Wanda slumped against a machine as she tried to process this information.

"Friday, if we go into the Framework, will we still have our memories?" Bucky asked as he took off his jacket, walking with purpose towards an empty tank.

"I can over-ride the base program's code and allow you to take over your avatar's body within the Framework, but I cannot change where you end up. You will wake up in a foreign world with your own memories and no backup," Friday informed him.

Bucky tapped on several buttons as he tried to activate the tank, "What about Y/N?"

Friday's voice whined several times before the PA system cleared up as much as it could, "The program automatically severs ties between the avatar and the brain once synchronisation is complete. The higher the synchronisation, the more her personality is overtaken by the one encoded for in the Framework. Chances are, she won't recognise you."

"What happens if our avatars die in there?" Sam asked as he placed his machine guns on the table and walked over to the adjoining tank.

"I'm afraid your mind will not be able to distinguish the real from the simulated. The Framework is programmed to feel real, so for all intents and purposes, if you die in there, you die out here," Friday informed them.

"You can't come with me Sam, I won't ask you too," Bucky tried to talk Sam out of coming with.

Sam placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder, "You never have to ask, Tin-can. We're all we've got." Sam looked at Y/N's submerged body in the tank to the left. "We're all she's got."

"I'm expendable," Bucky kept pushing. "You're the team’s leader. Steve chose you."

"No one's expendable," Wanda finally stood on her own two feet, trust in her eyes. "Two is better than one. I'm stronger, I'll hold them off when they breach the doors, you just make sure you make it out of there… all three of you."

The second bolt was welded through. The whirring halted and then started up again. Sparks flying like confetti.

Bucky nodded like the soldier he was and with little patience, he jumped into the tank and fixed the wires and breathing apparatus onto his body.

"Maybe you should be the leader," Sam pondered aloud.

Wanda smiled sadly, "There's more to being a good leader than just raw power. After all, I was trained by a man who uses a bow and arrow." She reminded him.

"Friday, how long do we have until Y/N reaches full synchronisation?" Sam asked as he turned his tank on.

"Calculating," Friday ran the numbers over the computer monitor. "Less than 14 hours real time. Time moves faster in the Framework, in there it will be just under 72 hours. When you rescue her, look for a signal, that’s where the exit will be programmed."

"Got it," Sam replied as he put one foot in the tank.

"Sam, I feel I should warn you about your avatar--"

"Times awastin'," Sam said with a cocky attitude as he placed the breathing apparatus over his face and fully submerged into the tank.

"Boss, you need to give the all clear to administer the sedatives," Friday informed Wanda.

She walked over and pressed the enter key. A long needle popped out of the tanks walls and pumped Bucky and Sam full sedatives. Their vitals read steady as they drifted off.

Wanda cracked her neck as she took up defensive stances, the room all but glowing the same shade of red as her eyes.

Friday began a countdown, "The avatars will be fully loaded in 3, 2, 1..."

~Hydra Headquarters.

You were hunkered over the toilet bowl as your stomach kept forcing bile up your throat. It had been a mistake to come into work after you and Clint had dived into several bottles of whiskey at McCredie's for a weekend-long binge. Steve had all but confined you the couch, still angry from your fight. Deciding his brooding glares and awkward silences were too much for you, you had chosen to sleep on Clint’s couch.

After throwing up your breakfast, you wiped your mouth with some tissue and dabbed at your watery eyes that bled mascara.

"Ughhh, that's the last time I drink with that smug bastard," you groaned to yourself as you flushed the toilet and struggled to get up off the floor.

After washing your hands and fixing a pair of big, dark-tinted glasses over your sensitive eyes, you made your way out of the Men's room -which you had mistaken for the Women's room- and headed for your desk.

You blocked one ear with your hand as you squinted from the few rays of light that slipped through the cracks, feet dragging against the carpeted floor.

Out of nowhere, a panicked junior agent ran up to you.

"Agent Y/N!"

"Fuck, don't shout, I'm literally less than five feet from you," you whined as your head recoiled from the agents loudly pitched voice.

"I'm sorry agent, but our border patrols caught a man trying to sneak past a checkpoint earlier," He handed you a file.

You tucked it under your arm without glancing at it, "Why should I care about a fence hopper?"

"Because, Ma'am, he demanded to speak to you."

"I was on television last night, any insane whack job can throw my name around and sound important," you started moving away from the conversation.

"He had a metal arm with a Shield emblem on it," he shouted after you.

A few other agents stopped what they were doing and glanced your way suspiciously.

The mention of Shield caught your attention, you spun around to face the scrawny junior agent, "Five seconds, impress me or I walk."

"He said his name is Bucky Barnes."

You waved your hands in frustration when he didn't elaborate further, "Who the fuck is Bucky Barnes?"

PART FOUR: TWO HALVES...

AFWHI tags: @fangirl-colo @dormousse @smallmarvel @ren-ni @sargentbucket @nikolett3 @wnygirl2012 @jentismyname @evilgeniuslabz-blog @myrabbitholetoneverland @sleepingspacedragon @500daysofbecky @reidreader  

Permatags: @gruffle1 @thechickvic @notawarriorjustyet @savethehoneeybees

tags: @ladybugsfanfics @ninaminaromina

[maladaptive-ninja-returns]

Blame It on Your Beats (3)

Bucky x Reader Series

Chapter Content: Fluff

Summary: A brush with the underworld leads you on a run, away from what was supposedly your normal life, with Bucky Barnes. You two do not seem to be in sync as Bucky tries to keep you alive, trying your best not to kill each other. Or that’s what you think you are doing.

Series: contains smut, adult content in there somewhere in the future chapters so please look at the chapter content and warnings before you proceed.

Chapter Warnings: Explosion, misleading promise, creeps *shudders*.

A/N: This series is written for @littledarlinhavefaithinme ‘s MK Writing Challenge. Thank you so much for hosting. I am having a lot of fun with the prompts. I hope I can do justice to them and put the entire series up before the deadline. :D

Tags for this fic are open

MASTERLIST

Fuck, I’m going to die here, you thought you told yourself internally.

“No, you’re not,” Stark assured you in your ear. “Get behind Banner’s desk. That thing’s practically indestructible even when he hulks out and stay with me on the comms, okay Y/N?”

“I am hiding behind the desk,” you asserted, jumping in your hiding spot as a loud bang followed.

The men outside were spraying some other chemical concoction on the heated glass before testing its current fragility with their huge hammers.

“You’ve got three minutes left sweet thing,” the guy from before shouted, now almost invisible behind the devouring flames. “Too bad, I would have loved to take you out...both ways.”

Between Stark’s instructions and that guy’s threat, you were the one feeling the heat and the chills behind the sturdy metal desk being used as a shield.

A disturbance came from somewhere inside the lab, making you pause your breathing to find the source.

Someone was already inside.

The thumping grew a little louder before it abruptly stopped, bringing back the cracking sound of the glass.

Your hands clenched at the only thing you thought could make an impact on the person- your laptop- making your arms ready for an attack.

Out of nowhere heated touch grew on your shoulder, sending your body in a flurry as your arms swung wildly to hit the person wherever you could, finding yourself hitting Bucky right in the face.

“Oh shi-” your laptop slipped through your fingers as they turned into fists and went near your mouth in strong denial.

A growl left Bucky as he felt the impact making his head turn at the mean swing, his body falling back before he steadied himself on his arm to get through the pain that stung.

“What? What happened?” Stark’s pitch grew a little higher.

“I-I’m so sorry Sergeant Barnes. I thought you were one of the bad guys.”

A deadly silence passed throughout as Bucky looked at you with an irritated glare before realising he was seeing you for the first time, trying to control any action he would take in that pain.

“Did...did you just hit Barnes?” Clint’s voice crackled in your ears.

“Holy shi-” Sam’s elated voice came too, “I want to meet this girl. Barnes, you better keep her alive.”

The sound of the cracks grew louder, making both you and Bucky snap out into the horrid reality of a dozen men waiting to attack you the moment those walls shattered.

Bucky’s blazing blue eyes turned towards you, all the frustration and irritation gone, as he presented his hand to you.

“Come on.”

You swivelled your backpack over your shoulder and took his hand, realising him directing you to smack in the middle of the room that was reflecting the yellow blaze everywhere.

Getting up on the table, your lungs nearly wanted to shout at the man to watch his step as his muddy boots soiled your research work, only to realise there was no point in doing so.

His hands came again for you, catching your arms in their strong grasp as he picked you up and helped you land on the table.

“I’m going to hoist you up into the vents. Start moving towards your right. Clint will guide you,” he stated, his face never even giving a flicker of emotion.

“Wait, what about you?” you heard yourself asking the soldier, watching him crease his brows for a second.

“I’ll be right behind you,” he added, “now come on.”

His hands came for your waist, making your insides flinch at the foreign touch as you tried your level best not to jump and make the soldier question your intentions of ever getting out of here.

You were quite sure you were heavy but Bucky made your weight seem next to nothing as he eased you up into the metal tunnels in one smooth motion.

Clint’s voice directed you through the labyrinth, which seemed to be growing wider by the distance, making it easier for you to stand up and walk- jog, rather- towards whatever exit he was sending you to.

An explosion reverberated through the shafts you’d come out from, making you turn back into the direction for an instant as your feet went cold.

“Keep moving, Y/N. You are almost there,” Clint’s dad-voice came over the comms, “that was nothing you should be worried about.”

“But sergeant Barnes?!” you nearly shouted.

The crackle of the distorted signal was the only thing you heard from the other side, making you think of all the worst scenarios- nothing ever being worse than imagining the person who was sent to rescue you to be taken down because of you.

“Kid,” Tony muttered after a few seconds in a quiet tone, making your dreadful thoughts seem not that far from reality.

“I’m here,” his husky voice came over the comms, “keep moving. I’m right behind you.”

__________

“Is that water? Do I hear water? I think I hear water.”

“Aren’t you talkative today. How’re you feeling, kid?”

“A man just told me he’d love to take me out both ways. How do you think I should be feeling?”

You tried to snap back at Clint but all it came out as was a shivering squeak while you jogged through the tunnels, keeping your ears open for any movement that was alien to you.

“No one’s taking you out anywhere except Barnes and these tunnels,” he articulated.

“How romantic,” you muttered, “I’m at the split, Clint. Where to next?”

“Follow the water’s sound. It’s coming from the right-”

“The right.” You walked down the path, the only thing lighting up the tunnel being your phone’s torchlight.

“How do you know all of these tunnels?” you wondered out loud, getting a groan and curses by other people on the line, to your utter surprise.

“He’s been pranking us using vents since ages,” Tony responded, “he practically lives there.”

A laugh broke out of you, astonishing not only you but the Avengers as well. “Are you serious?”

“You have no idea,” Natasha disclosed, “how we have lived with this bird crawling through the vents and coming at you with anything you can and cannot imagine.”

Your chest felt a little lighter on hearing Clint argue with Natasha while everyone laughed or had something of their own to add, helping you walk with a light step towards the end, which was a hatch to the other side.

Seems like we’re out of danger now.

Placing the phone down, you turned the wheel with whatever strength you had left, opening it with a loud creak, jumping into a little victory dance, picking up your phone and stepping outside. The crisp air touching your lungs felt good.

For an instant.

All the positive rush you had felt a few moments ago slowly receded as your eyes adjusted to the view, calculated the scheme of events and felt your blood rush out of your head and limbs as you realised what you had been heading for all this time.

“No.” it came out as a whisper at first.

“Hmm? What is it?” Natasha asked with a light in her voice.

“No,” you repeated, a little louder this time.

“Wha-”

“No, Clint, no. I am not doing this.” You were shaking your head vigorously for some spectator out there as your fingers clenched the edge of the rock behind you.

“Not doing what, kid?” Clint sounded so oblivious to something you were staring at, making you scoff and clench your teeth.

“I am NOT,” you announced, your voice echoing in the cave around you, looking questioningly at the forty feet drop, “going to jump into that lake.”

“Y/N, that’s the only way out.”

You huffed, stepping back inside the tunnel, “Yeah, well I guess I’d rather die by bullets then.”

A repeated stomp through the other side increased and you saw a familiar shadow running towards you, the tunnels behind him lighting up for some reason.

“Get out!” Bucky shouted in your direction.

“No!” you shouted back, “I am not jump-”

“Do you have a death wish?” Bucky skid to a halt near you as he took your arm in his strong grip and pushed you out of the tunnel.

“Does it look like I’m being given options where I can survive?” You tried to break your arm through his rock-solid hold but failed miserably, only flailing your limbs wildly in all directions.

“They are coming so you better jump-”

“Oh, for the love of-I don’t know how to swim, you dolt!” you declared, taking both you and Bucky by surprise.

The haunting wind whispering through the caves around you playing with his hair, teasing it as he looked at you with an expression you were not able to read so well.

“Y/N-”

“How did you get here? Not by the lake, that’s for sure!” You quipped, your eyes getting moist as your heartbeat quickened at the sounds of threatening footsteps and voice behind you.

“Y/N, you two are surrounded there’s no-”

“I got this, Sam,” Bucky claimed, turning himself towards you, taking in a lungful as his piercing yet soft gaze met yours- which was terrified to the core.

“Y/N-”

“James I don’t know how to swim. I am not jumping down to death,” you whispered, trying to stretch the gravity of your situation to the man standing in front of you.

“Alright, fine. Then let’s switch the tunnels and find another way out. I promise you I’ll get you out of here.”

There seemed to be no lie in his eyes as he spoke the last sentence. You nodded and turned back to step into the tunnel, feeling Bucky’s strong arm graze by your stomach, his hold tightening around your waist. He never gave you time to assimilate as he picked you and jumped down, making you scream out his name and clench on to his body for your dear life.

“Take in one huge breath and stay calm when you hit the water,” you heard him whisper in your ear through your hair flailing wildly everywhere, positioning you on his chest as he took out his gun to aim at the figure that now stood at the top, aiming his machine gun at the two of you.

A shot through Bucky’s barrel made you wrap your arms tighter around his frame, take in a lungful of breath and close your eyes as the liquid surface seemed to get closer to you, bracing yourself for the impact, telling your brain to stay calm like he ordered.

The figure standing on top watched you two go down with a resonating splash, letting his rifle go from his hold as he kept staring for at the ripples, waiting for your figure to turn up above the water.

“Dexter,” the expressionless guy came over, “the facility’s been taken back. We have to get out. Boss wants to know the status.” He handed over his phone to Dexter and moved back as a rumble began somewhere inside the caves.

“I have seen the package,” Dexter went straight to business as soon as he put the device to his ear, “I’ll have the location within twenty-four hours and the package will be in your care within next seventy-two hours. Yes, boss, all the hurdles will be taken care of.”

He turned inside the tunnel as the first explosion killed the rocks above him, forcing the cave to collapse on itself. “Don’t you worry, boss.”

He closed the hatch with a soft smile gracing his lips and walked in the other direction, his partner sending the casualty report of their crew that got taken down in the explosion inside the main building.

“I will take care of the girl myself.”

Continued here

TAGLIST

Permanent

@magiclolipopqueen @choke-me-sweet-pea @smexylemony @hazzastyles2471 @lokis-lady-death @lokixme @l0kisbitch @tarithenurse @hiddlestonstansworld @itheoneofmanyfandomsi @nalokoniloki @fuckidontknow @qualitynerdwasteland @cryinglots @unipanda1006 @literalangels @meganlikesfandoms @kcd15

BIOYB

@klmpun

[writerjodie]

The Assassins as Muse songs

Why not combine my two biggest loves in the world? The Assassins (and Templars) and the band Muse!!

Here I have given the major characters a song, and an explanation as to why I think this song suits them.

Muse is the first band I got into, and although I've moved onto different genres now I still hold them close in my heart.

Please enjoy, my friends, I worked hard on this one :)

◇▪◇

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad:

Uno, from the album Showbiz.

Altaïr is the first Assassin Ubisoft showed us, and Uno is the first single Muse released. I think the overall calmness of the song with fewer angry parts reflect Altaïr personality.

"You could have been number one, if you'd only found the time,"

◇▪◇

Ezio Auditore da Firenze:

Assassin, from the album Black Holes and Revelations.

Ezio's life was turned upside down with the execution of his family and his discovery of the Assassins. The song Assassin to me embodies Ezio's anger towards the Templars, and his eagerness to take them down.

"Oppose and disagree, destroy demonocracy,"

◇▪◇

Connor Kenway/Ratonhaké:ton

Showbiz, from the album Showbiz.

Connor controls his feelings all throughout his life, mostly channeling them into the rage that fueled his Templar hunt. Showbiz begins slow and quiet enough that it perfectly demonstrates the young Ratonhaké:ton we see at the start of ACIII, but eventually rises into a cacophanus finale that is a mirror image of the game's ending.

"Controlling my feelings for too long, forcing our darkest souls to unfold...pushing us into self destruction,"

◇▪◇

Edward Kenway:

The Defector, from the album Drones.

The Defector is all about non conformity and straying away from the norm, and I think this represents Edward beautifully. From the word go Edward was never a run of the mill Assassin, and proved himself to be good at working alone, without a country or a king to serve.

"You can't control me, yeah I'm a defector,"

◇▪◇

Arno Dorian:

Dead Star, from Dead Star/In Your World EP.

Dead Star captures the upset and rage Arno held at Elise's death. It's raging beat and muted guitars bring the struggle of Arno's battles into a beautiful audio.

"You used to mean everything to me, now you're tired of fighting,"

◇▪◇

Evie Frye:

MK Ultra, from the album The Resistance.

Although MK Ultra is about mind control, I feel it encapsulates Evie's intelligence and will to fight wonderfully. It shows her struggle in stopping the Templars, who ultimately want to manipulate pieces of Eden to control and contain.

"How much deception can you take? How many lies will you create? How much longer till you break? Your minds about to fall,"

◇▪◇

Jacob Frye:

Thoughts of a Dying Atheist, from the album Absolution.

It's the chorus here that I really think represents Jacob. Although he comes across as brash and bold, there's a deeper meaning to Mr Frye. The chorus reflects Jacob's unrest at the future, and how he truly feels about Evie leaving him alone in London.

"And it scares the hell out of me, that the end is all I can see,"

◇▪◇

Bayek of Siwa:

City of Delusion, from the album Black Holes and Revelations.

City of Delusion illustrates Bayek's suspicion against the Egyptian State, and his mistrust for the Order. I think the serenity of the song also reflects a little on his waning relationship with Aya.

"Stay, wait for me, build a fortress and shield your beliefs, touch the divide as we fall in the ravine,"

◇▪◇

Aya of Alexandria:

Eternally Missed, a B-Side of the Hysteria single.

Eternally Missed is a deep cut song, and on one side, shows how she and Bayek miss each other when they are apart. On the other hand, I think the lyrics and the lullaby-like tune hark back to her past as a mother, and bring flashbacks of Khemu to her mind.

"Chase your dreams away, glass needles in they hay, the sun forgives the clouds, you are my holy shroud,"

◇▪◇

Haytham Kenway:

Time is Running Out, from the album Absolution.

TIRO is one of Muse's most famous songs, and I think it really reflects Haytham's attitude at the start of ACIII, when he is looking for the Temple with Ziio, and during Forsaken, where he is chasing Pointy Ears. I think it also links with his ending, and how he cant 'bury' the past.

"Our time is running out, our time is running out, you can't push it underground, you can't stop it screaming out, how did it come to this?"

◇▪◇

Shay Cormac:

Take A Bow, from the album Black Holes and Revelations.

Shay's transition from carefree Assassin to Master Templar was a bloody one, and he was forced to do things, to kill people, that he didn't want to. I think this song is perfect for this transition, and is Shay calling out the Brotherhood on their mistakes.

"And our freedom's consuming itself, what we've become, is contrary to what we want,"

◇▪◇

Other headcanons and fics

[aboriginalnewswire]

US-Supported Israel Defence Forces Continue 'Acts of Genocide' Against Indigenous Arab Palestinians Under 'Operation Protective Edge' As the International Community Observes   

APNS /North America [08.06.2014] – As the State of Israel began extracting its ground troops from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning in observance of another (72-hour) ceasefire, the SOI and factions representing the Palestinian Nation have committed themselves to negotiations in Cairo, Egypt to discuss terms for an extended truce and the rebuilding of Gaza's crippled infrastructure after hostilities have ended. The SOI says it is willing to compensate the Palestinian population with the rebuilding of the Gaza if Hamas will agree to the total disarmament of the armed resistance; (Source: 'Official: Israel to allow Gaza rebuilding in exchange for disarmament', Ma'an News Agency: Aug. 5th 2014: http://ow.ly/A32mi)

Palestinian Authority (PA) representatives have also met with International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators in a (late) attempt to hold the SOI accountable for war crimes. The PA has said that they wish for a seat in the ICC, in order to help give the 'international' court jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territories, legally side-stepping the SOI.

One factor that could muddle the negotiations is the international news story of three, 2008 US diplomatic cables (leaked through WikiLeaks) that show the SOI discussing its intention to maintain pressure on the Gaza Strip's economy in an effort to keep it teetering 'on the brink of collapse'. The Norwegian news agency, Aftenposten, which cited the cables, say that the documents clearly show Israeli officials briefing the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on its designation of the entire Gazan region as a 'hostile entity' and its plan to persist in blockading the Gazan community until the Palestinian resistance to Israel, 'breaks'.

As the talks continue, the State of Israel's military offensive against the Palestinian Territories (codenamed: 'Operation Cast Lead') continues to wreak havoc on the Indigenous Arab population of the Gaza Strip as an Israeli-led air strike destroyed yet another UN-operated refugee facility in the southern quarter (Rafah) of the embattled region. Palestinian health officials and International news agencies report that at least 10 Indigenous Arabs had been killed and another three dozen left severely injured after Israel Defence Forces (IDF) shelled the refugee structure (claiming) that the attack was targeting an Hamas outpost lobbing homemade rockets aimed at Israel.

It should be noted here that UN sources have repeatedly made clear that buildings under their control are well known to the Israeli authorities and that the refugee station at Rafah was protecting up to 3,000 homeless, non-combatant, Palestinians. Earlier on the same day, IDF attacks reportedly killed about 30 people in the Gaza wounding some three dozen others.

The Indigenous Arab death tally – as of this writing – according to Palestinian health officials, stands at 1,900, (Gaza Health Ministry: 430 Children Killed; UNICEF Warns of "Tragic Impact" – August 06, 2014 | Democracy Now! http://ow.ly/A2vRk) more than 9,000 injured and at least $7 billion USD worth of infrastructure destruction to the Gaza Strip. The Israel's ministry has confirmed at least 67 IDF personnel lost in active combat, mostly during the OPE ground offensive, including three civilian casualties as a result of Palestinian rocket fire. The NGO American Friends of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) has reported (via Twitter) that the total number of displaced in Occupied Gaza now stands at an estimated 475,000 with almost 260,000 Indigenous Arabs seeking food, water and shelter from the violence in 90 UNRWA Palestinian school buildings.

Amidst this, the international NGO Human Rights Watch (HWR) has come forward with evidence that accuses Israel Defence Forces (IDF) personnel of shooting civilians in Khuzaa who were trying to run away after they ordered them out of their homes. The NGO has also begun reporting on an execution-style killing of several Palestinians found heaped upon one another in the toilet of a private residence, (Source: Jesse Rosenfeld, 'Who Is Behind Gaza's Mass Execution?': 08.01.14 - The Daily Beast).

These cases are not being discussed very much with the Hasbara machine working overtime in the background. And Israeli PM 'Bibi' Netanyahu has gone on the defensive, calling the IDF targeting of Palestinian infrastructure and the bombardment of recognised UN facilities in the Gaza, 'justified', laying fault for civilian casualties and widespread destruction upon the leadership of Hamas, (Source: 'Benjamin Netanyahu: Deaths in Gaza justified’ - The Independent: 06 August 2014 http://ow.ly/A2ho5). PM Netanyahu and his Likud faction insists that Hamas militias and rocket teams use residential areas as 'human shields' dismissing the substantial data highlighting the overwhelming human density of Israeli-imposed, Palestinian encampments, (See: 'Demographics of Palestine: Population density' http://ow.ly/A2ADO).

The US has also ignored this and doubled-down its own defence of the SOI's genocidal actions with Secretary of State John Kerry saying:

'We fully support Israel’s right to defend itself and the fact that it was under attack by rockets, by tunnels, and it had to take action against Hamas. Hamas has behaved in the most unbelievably shocking manner of engaging in this activity. And yes, there has been horrible collateral damage as a result of that, which is why the United States worked very, very hard with our partners in the region, with Israel, with Egyptians, with the Palestinian Authority, with President Abbas, to try to move towards a ceasefire'.   (Source: Democracy Now! : Aug. 6th, 2014 : http://ow.ly/A2xtE)

The hasbara effect continued when Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel also defended the SOI and the actions of the IDF in an full-page advert entitled; 'Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it's Hamas' turn' - (pdf) where he states: 'I call upon President Obama and the leaders of the world to condemn Hamas' use of children as human shields', which helped to set the framing of the discourse away from IDF atrocities during OPE, back towards the Indigenous victims. Zionist blogger Yochanan Gordon went so far as to post an editorial titled: 'When Genocide is Permissible' on August 1, 2014 (the post has since been removed, but an archived page is still available here) and deputy speaker of the Knesset, Likud MK Moshe Feiglin, has openly called for the SOI to pursue OPE until the Gaza Strip is 'reconquered' and has called for the IDF to erect tent cities (reservations) for Indigenous Palestinians somewhere along the Sinai until, 'relevant emigration destinations are determined': (Source: The Times of Israel: Aug. 5th, 2014 http://ow.ly/A2OSX).

Conversely, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the last IDF attack on the UN in Gaza a 'moral outrage' and a 'criminal act' and requested that the Israeli government and military officials responsible for authorising OPE be held to account without specifying how this would happen or under what conditions. (See: 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on December 9th 1948') This is a chilling repeat of his earlier condemnations of similar acts of gross IDF violence against UN outposts in the Occupied Territories during 'Operation Cast Lead' in 2009; ('Ban “appalled” by Gaza's damage', BBC, Tuesday, 20 January 2009: http://ow.ly/zVClJ).

This past Thursday, Navi Pillay – the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – slammed the July 30th attack by the IDF, raised the issue of UN facilities trying to protect Palestinians and pointed out the intentional targeting of what remains of the Gaza's meagre infrastructure. The commissioner also emphasised the increasing number of juvenile casualties citing (at the time) the loss of more than 250 Indigenous Palestinian youths and babies. (Source: 'Pillay condemns continuing attacks on civilians in Gaza', UN News Service: http://is.gd/prSVzB)

'Under international law, humanitarian relief personnel and objects used for relief operations – this would include UNRWA schools in Gaza being used as shelters – must be respected and protected', Pillay said. 'An attack against humanitarian relief personnel and objects used exclusively for relief operations, is a violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime'. (UN News – July 31st, 2014)

Others have followed suit in announcing their condemnation of the SOI's official policy of broad, 'collective punishment' against civilian lives, infrastructure and Indigenous Palestinian political independence. In Europe, UK Foreign Office minister, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, has resigned, saying Britain’s policy on the crisis in Gaza is 'morally indefensible'. Surprisingly, the minister did so publicly by announcing her resignation via Twitter stating: 'I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza' and that: '...British government can only play a constructive role in solving the Middle East crisis if it is an honest broker and at the moment I do not think it is.'

The intense condemnation of the SOI has also extended beyond the usual borders of Anglophone political and economic influence to include the South American Indigenous states of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru and Brazil which have all recalled their ambassadors as their governments officially condemned the attacks. Venezuela and most notably Bolivia – which has officially listed Israel as a 'Terrorist State' (See: 'Bolivia Government Officially Lists The State of Israel As a Terrorist Nation', APNS Dispatch: http://is.gd/XVW78I). Both nations have identified OPE as an act of genocide against Indigenous Arabs and have called for universal condemnation of the SOI. Venezuela has demanded a special hearing of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to end the invasion of the Gaza in an official statement. Argentina and Uruguay have decided to leave their embassy staff in place, although they did enter into a joint statement with other S. American states strongly decrying the violence as 'disproportionate', (Source: Weekly News Update on the Americas: WNU #1229: 3 More Nations Recall Israel Envoys http://ow.ly/A2pfu).

Legendary revolutionary Cuban leader Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz compared the SOI's OPE invasion into Palestinian Territory and its historic abuse of Indigenous Arabs is a 'genocide' that he said was being wilfully assisted by the United States. He also suggested that it is clear to the world that the US is now 'unable to control' its Mid-East client-state:

'I think that a new and disgusting form of fascism is emerging with considerable force at this moment in human history': ('Holocausto Palestino en Gaza', Granma: 5 de agosto de 2014: http://ow.ly/A34TY)

The Caribbean Communist nation hasn't had a diplomatic relationship with the SOI since 1973 when Cuba officially voiced its objection to Israel's questionable treatment of Indigenous Arab Palestinians.

To date, US government spokespersons have only expressed official condemnation about the attacks against UN structures saying that the Obama administration is, 'appalled' by the 'disgraceful shelling' and asked (nicely) that the IDF (please) consider the risk of harm to non-combatants. (Source: zeenews.india – 08.04.2014) US State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki also raised the possibility of an investigation into the spate of IDF attacks on recognised UN facilities without providing any details.

But despite these statements, the US government has also quietly stepped-up its long-standing tradition of providing military assistance to Israel (seemingly) in tacit support of OPE. And Pentagon officials have now confirmed rumours of munition transfers being quietly released to the IDF since the beginning of OPE (Source: 'U.S. Has Sold Ammunition to Israel Since Start of Gaza Conflict' - ABC News: Jul 30, 2014: http://ow.ly/zX2zK) from its (1 billion USD) War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition-Israel (WRSA-I) caché maintained by the US military within the SOI, (Sources: Tikkun Magazine – July 31, 2014: http://ow.ly/zVw99 / ABC News – Jul 15, 2014: http://ow.ly/zX33l).

It is important to remember here that the SOI began 'Operation Protective Edge' against the (elected) Hamas government on July, 8th following a false-flag propaganda manoeuvre that fed the international public deliberate misinformation about the abduction and murder of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank by a (claimed) column of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) operating within Palestinian territory; (Source: 'Jihadist group takes credit for teens' killings', The Times of Israel: July 3, 2014: http://is.gd/jRCmam). Although Israeli Prime Minister 'Bibi' Netanyahu repeatedly insisted that Hamas was directly responsible for the killings – the moral justification for beginning OPE – it has since been revealed that SOI intelligence authorities knew from the very start that the murders were not connected to, nor ordered by the Palestinian (Hamas) government, (Source: 'J.J. Goldberg - 'How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza' – Forward.com, July 10, 2014: http://ow.ly/zX3d9).

It is also known that the Shabak enacted an immediate gag order (d-notice) that allowed resentment against the Indigenous Arab population within Israel and the Occupied Territories to fester based upon this false information. And there is good reason to suspect that the revenge murder of a young Palestinian – Mohammed Abu Khdeir, (who was burned alive by his assailants) by several racist Israelis in East Jerusalem was due to this propaganda pressure.

And oddly enough, an outspoken Mossad agent had actually predicted such an abduction scenario just weeks before it actually happened; (See: 'Mossad chief's chillingly prescient kidnap prophecy' - By Barak Ravi, Haaretz: 15.06.14 http://ow.ly/zXcMn).

What is also in amplified debate is the actual objective of these latest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip (Hamas territory) since the killing of the settlers – the base rationale behind OPE – took place in the (PLO dominated) West Bank? Some have speculated that the ultimate goal is to dismantle the new Palestinian Unity Government (PLO/Hamas) and there is good reason to suspect this; (See: 'Israel's Operation Protective Edge: Why now?', middleeastmonitor.com: July 21st, 2014 http://ow.ly/A2Zef: 21). But as we have mentioned in previous dispatches, some petroleum and economic analysts have suggested that the real aim behind OPE is to secure Palestinian petroleum sources for the SOI and International energy firms: (See: 'IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis', theguardian.com – Wed. 9th July, 2014 – and – 'Oil in Palestine: A gurgle of hope' | The Economist Mar 20th 2014: http://ow.ly/A2Jy3).

Independent political analysts Professor Michel Chossudovsky and Felicity Arbuthnot have both addressed this issue in detailed articles for globalresearch.ca. One titled; 'War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields' and first published in 2009 by Prof. Chossudovsky, pointed out that one year after the end of 'Operation Cast Lead', the SOI made public the 'discovery' of natural gas in the Levantine Basin, or as the Israeli press termed it, just 'off the coast of Israel'; (See: 'Gas Deposits Off Israel and Gaza Opening Vision of Joint Ventures' - New York Times http://ow.ly/A2Je7 Sept. 15th, 2000) and articulates the following information:

'British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority. The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21,  2007). The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001). The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.' (emphasis mine.)   

Ms. Arbuthnot's later analysis appeared in Global Research on Dec. 30th, 2013 where she discussed the back-room deal making and international political fault lines involved in the capitalist exploitation of the natural resource:   

'Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, if all goes to plan. The giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, is widely described as “off the coast of Israel.” At the time the gas field was: “ … the most prominent field ever found in the sub-explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about 83,000 square kilometres of the eastern Mediterranean region.” (i) Coupled with Tamar field, in the same location, discovered in 2009, the prospects are for an energy bonanza for Israel, for Houston, Texas based Noble Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration. Also involved is Perth, Australia-based Woodside Petroleum, which has signed a memorandum of understanding for a thirty percent stake in the project, in negotiations which have been described as “up and down.” There is currently speculation that Woodside might pull out of the deal: “ …since the original plans to refrigerate the gas for export were pursued when relations between Israel and Turkey were strained. That has changed, more recently, which has opened the door for gas to be piped to Turkey'. – 'Israel: Gas, Oil and Trouble in the Levant – 2013'. (emphasis mine.) 

Prof. Chossudovsky in particular has connected the timing of large-scale IDF incursions as a military cover for the industrial exploitation of Indigenous Palestine's natural petroleum resources. Further speculation along these lines also hint that the SOI's stated goal of eliminating the Hamas wing of the Palestine Unity Government would facilitate this agenda as they would certainly continue to bargain for more equitable terms. Or perhaps, the concern on the part of the US and the SOI is that Hamas will at some point simply (and expectedly) claim (with justification) the entire Levantine Basin petroleum reserve as Palestinian Territorial property. A situation that will likely keep this crisis going until something breaks. Or until the oil flows.

– –

Further Notes:

Joshua Norman 'WikiLeaks: Israel Intentionally Kept Gaza on Brink of Economic Collapse', CBS News (Jan. 5th, 2011) http://ow.ly/A367w

David Wurmser, 'The Geopolitics of Israel’s Offshore Gas Reserves', (April 4, 2013) http://ow.ly/A37JW

Al Shawa Petroleum & Gaza Company: Private Company Information - Businessweek http://ow.ly/A37L3

'Israel shells UN school in #Gaza' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English (17 Jan 2009) http://ow.ly/zVkDk

Sam Hamad, 'Operation Protective Edge: Reading between the lines', middleeastmonitor.com (July 16th, 2014) http://ow.ly/A31gk

[globalsecurity.org] – Operation Protective Edge http://ow.ly/A31ES  

A. Kofi [w/ sources] -- APNS [2014-08-07 07:17:32]

– – Aboriginal News Group (ANG) ang-newswire.blogspot

[cfijerusalem]

Elected Knesset speaker by right, Gantz heads for government with Netanyahu

After a dramatic U-turn by the Blue and White party chairman, Benny Gantz was elected Knesset speaker Thursday evening as part of an emerging unity deal, breaking up his centrist alliance to enter a government with his longtime foe, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Receiving the full support of the right-wing bloc, Gantz was elected to the prestigious post with the backing of 74 MKs. Eighteen voted against and the rest, including Yesh Atid, a faction within Blue and White, did not participate. According to the reported deal taking shape, Gantz is set to partner with Netanyahu in a unity government, serving initially as foreign or defense minister and then taking over from Netanyahu as prime minister in September 2021. Gantz is expected to resign the speakership after a unity government is formed, to be replaced by a Likud MK. (The Times of Israel, By RAOUL WOOTLIFF, March 26, 2020).

Israel’s Defense Minister Explains the Corona Virus Strategy to Defeat It!

A Video: “The entire Corona strategy explained in two minutes, by Israel’s Defense Minister. What you see here is the famous graph that tracks the daily pace of the new corona-positive people. As we all know it’s an exponential growth that suddenly takes you by surprise. What we want to do is, you see the red line here, the national capacity of intensive care rooms and ventilators are at capacity. What we ultimately want to do is ensure that the number of patients is always below the... capacity that we have. We don’t want a situation where people go to the hospital and not be able to get the care they need. So what we want to do is to flatten the curve. How do we do it? First, you educate the public through social distancing. By education alone, we begin to flatten the curve. Second, we investigate any person who was around a corona-positive person, to self-quarantine. This also flattens the curve a bit. The third thing we do is massive public isolation, that we see across the world. It comes at a very heavy cost, but it works. It flattens the curve further, to a degree. The next thing we do is testing – massive testing of anyone who might have the corona virus and then we send them to full isolation. This is an extremely effective measure which helps flatten the curve. Now, what you also want to do is to increase the national capacity to receive the corona virus patients. You get more beds, get more machines, train more staff. So this means if you flatten the curve sufficiently, no person will arrive at the hospital and find no beds. That’s the whole strategy in two minutes.”

Israeli Researchers Announce Successful Coronavirus Treatment in Birds

A group of researchers in northern Israel announced on Feb 27, 2020 that they had achieved a “scientific breakthrough” in treating coronavirus. At a press conference, researchers of the Migal Galilee Research Institute briefed the successful treatment applied on coronavirus in birds. Israel’s Volcani Agricultural Research Institute had confirmed the treatment’s viability after they discovered the cure via a clinical trial on birds infected with the coronavirus. Coronavirus infected birds are very similar in patterns of human infection, and human symptoms. The coronavirus genetic structure isolated from human and birds are found to be matching as per the researchers. As a result, the treatment developed for birds could be applicable to humans. Researchers believe that based on the findings an effective treatment could be developed for humans within three months. David Zigdon, Chief Operating Officer of the Institute, said, “The solution we are developing against COVID-19 virus has proven effective, and we believe a version for human treatment can be ready within eight to 10 weeks. That would be followed by a 90-day test period to ensure safety. The treatment we developed for birds is given orally, and the treatment we are developing for humans will also be given orally.” Director of the Institute, Professor Dan Levanon said the speed with which the treatment could be used would depend on regulatory approval. (BioSpectrum, Editor’s Pick, March 2020)

An URGENT MESSAGE For young people, wherever they may be throughout the world, they must cooperate with their governments, in order to preserve their lives and the lives of their families. Disregarding government recommendations and orders might result in tragedy. It might seem “cool” to ignore authority and go to the beaches on Spring Break, but it is a foolish thing to do. We pray that everyone will abide by their governments’ laws, reach out to those who need help, if that can be done safely, and shelter in place, until the crisis passes.

“Surely he will save you from ...the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (Psalm 91:3-4).

Reporting for CFI Jerusalem Lonnie C. Mings

Christian Friends of Israel - Jerusalem email: prayer@cfijerusalem.org