#played a lot of power stone though. i wonder why i considered that one the exception...

[inverted-dagger]

if i had managed to actually play psychic force as a kid i think i wouldve been obsessed with regina the same way i was obsessed with millenia from grandia 2

[vampireradiation]

I have got to talk a little bit about S2 E8 and the insane end of season that was.

Spoiler warning obviously so scroll now if you don’t want that //

First of all the parallels between the beginning and end of episode, right? Start of episode, Louis considers himself as good as dead. Claudia is gone, he’s resigned to his fate. The rocks being still embedded in his feet is kind of an obvious metaphor to me and the way Armand dismisses it as a dramatic gesture and nothing more because he could remove them any time. End of episode Louis, circling his feet in his stone garden, almost like they’re still ‘circling round the insulating rocks of my death bed’, didn’t he say??? And are we forgetting that they slap you in the face with the fact that he considers this apartment basically a coffin? When he’s doing the end monologue I wonder how much of himself he feels died with Claudia, maybe he doesn’t care what any of them could do to him, maybe it all circles back to him still being mentally trapped in that coffin. But I think it goes deeper than that. We have hints of Akasha now and Lestat directly references having her blood, not being capable of dying if he doesn’t will it. It’s technically possible he was fully just fucking with Louis, it’s also possible the blood Louis got was a lot more diluted so it didn’t pass to him, but what I wonder is whether, during whatever reunion Louis and Lestat had that we didn’t get to see, Lestat gave Louis the information he’d been hiding from him. Some of it, anyway. Whether Louis also has this power, and that’s why Louis is completely fearless. He knows they couldn’t do shit to him. I imagine none of my theorising is super unique on this.

What I really want to point out from the beginning though, is what Daniel says in response to Armand’s comment to Louis. ‘And he’s been lying to you all these years for effect’. Daniel knows, and he knows what he’s doing. We know he had the script at this point, we know he’s put the pieces together that Louis didn’t and is waiting to drop the bomb. Just like Armand calls out after it happens. (And the acting is fucking incredible because the look Armand gives Daniel??? So many layers to this. How does he say so much.) This is the exact weird game playing chess move only makes sense hundreds of years later with hindsight shit that all the vampires in this god damn show seem to get off on more than actual sex. Moreover, Armand gets off on it and I think especially when he sees it in Daniel. Daniel has been doing the vampire shit before he ever fucking turned, he knows the game. He delights in getting to play it. I think this is a lot more of the reasoning behind Armand’s decision to turn Daniel than keeping his word to Louis but I want to talk more about all that in its own right at some point.

The cinematography/direction as the whole thing is unraveled at the reveal is absolutely brilliant to me. It kind of flawlessly captures the absolutely horrifying and creeping feeling of finally putting something together, watching it sneak up on you until it clicks and everything shatters. Seeing Daniel in dead silence staring at the ‘GET OUT. GET OUT NOW.’ message as Louis and Armand leave the room, realising he dropped this bomb on himself. When we look to the beginning of the episode right before this, Daniel is telling the agent he wants to survive this. The agent tells him he should be fearing Louis, not ‘the other one’. Ironically Louis clearly wants Daniel protected and would not harm him now, maybe purely out of desire to get that damn book out though, knowing Armand would hate it, I don’t know. Still, he turns Daniel anyway. I cannot wait to see more vampire Daniel btw, I always wonder how much more chill vampires would be when they turned after living out a more natural length of human lifespan first. In vampire media we don’t get to see a lot of older looking vampires that are just regular people who got turned after aging, we just see completely smooth looking young adults or completely shrivelled and withered up unwell old world monster vampires. We see some of how this has given Daniel more confidence possibly, he’s being completely himself he’s just going for it a bit harder I guess. It’s gonna be really interesting to get a more in depth look at his experience though, because wouldn’t it be the best possible time to turn in some ways? The power dynamic between him and the vampires is super weird because you can tell he knows he’s in over his head but is refusing to show it and he’s able to play their games on their level, until they get into the powers and shit and he’s forced to remember he cannot be in control here. But now he’s a vampire??? Shit is gonna get interesting.

Man I didn’t even get onto discussing the Louis/Lestat reunion we got and the insane amount of shit to read into there. This is already crazy long and it’s from my thoughts on literally just a few minutes, I have like 20 more paragraphs on this episode alone in me easily, so I’m probably going to tag these under ‘vamp analysis’ so people can filter them out or go find them easier.

[true-blue-sonic]

⭐!

First chapter of Run To You! :> Under a cut because this got LONG-long XD

So for starters: the title Arrow of Time I got from the Sonic Frontiers song of the same name. Considering the lyrics One-way direction, cannot rewind, I thought it fitting for a chapter wherein Sonic is yote into the time stream and left stuck. And it helps that Arrow of Time is a banger, and the remix from the DLC is even more of a banger! That alone was reason enough to feature it :>

Location-wise, Sonic is in that Eggman base from '06, where Eggman pulls Elise out of thin air before Sonic gives him the Chaos Emerald and gets sent to the future with Knuckles and Tails for his troubles. (Unrelated, but now that I think of it, there they see Silver and Blaze talk to Mephiles. Could that be a reason why Sonic is so cool with letting Silver team up with him later? He knew Silver was being deceived? Maybe? Now I want to write a fic about that XD) Except I settled on that location way after I'd begun writing the chapter... and I wrote the chapter with the idea Eggman had Sonic locked away fully and he wasn't in any way there. That is why he's on a broadcasting screen, and not physically behind the glass window that we see in '06. I decided that I didn't want to change that (I hate rewriting; editing is fine, rewriting is the bane of my existence XD), and thus I kept with my original idea. Considering how hard Sonic is trying to break out, I deemed it quite possible Eggman anticipated that and made the entire room from reinforced Spin Dash-repellant steel instead of leaving Sonic a glass window to potentially break through. But once I decided that the Eggman base is the one from White Acropolis, I went to study the cutscene and see how Eggman's time travel machine works. That's why I described the pink energy beams and such, and also the lever Eggman pulls. I wonder if anyone pieced together that it's meant to be the same place as White Acropolis! I mentioned the obnoxious search lights (blinding bane of my existence when I played '06 with my friends lol) to hopefully make it a bit more clear XD

Then came the time travelling itself. I found this really hard to describe, since I found it really hard to picture what being trapped in the time stream could be like. Eventually I imagined it kind of like what they did in Interstellar, where the dude gets sucked into the black hole and sees his daughter's bedroom in all those moments in time in those squares that just go on endlessly (this is the best way I can describe it XD). I did do some research about how time as a dimension works, like with a tesseract and such. My idea was that Sonic would be frozen in the same spot, and the world would progress without him being able to move or influence it. Imo a nice thought, but still... it was confusing, haha. Though, I am happy with what it became! I wanted to describe the progression of time through the colours and light Sonic sees: behind him there is greys and browns, that represent the base not yet existing: it's all stone and dirt and stuff. The greys and blacks and reds are Eggman's signature colours of his robots and the fact the base itself is made of metal. The scene becoming dark represents the fact the base has eventually run out of power almost fully, because it got abandoned following Eggman's possible death (I'm up in the air about whether he's dead-dead or uploaded his consciousness online, but RTY isn't going to give an answer to that question). And then of course, the cyan represents Silver lashing his powers in frustration at finding an empty room, which alerts him and Sonic to each other <3 Silver can warp himself through space with his PK ('06 and Gens bossfight) and has a lot of other things going on (e.g. his precognition gained from time-travelling in TSR), so I figured it wasn't impossible he could also impact the dimension of time and pull Sonic out of there. And that's how he rescues Sonic <3

I needed Sonic to be injured, though. Chapter 3 was hinging entirely on Sonic waking up in Silver's hideout in the morning after being knocked out, so I needed him, well... knocked out! I spent a lot of time thinking about how this was possible: the guy who mows down endless robots and obstacles when Boosting isn't gonna be injured from Spin Dashing into Eggman's metal walls a couple of times, haha. So to make this work, I combined him being fried by the pink energy with him starting a Super Peel Out from CD, which he couldn't finish before getting sucked into the time stream... and then the moment he is un-time-streamed he blasts off, absolutely crashes into the metal, and that is what does him in. They knocked him out in Frontiers when Giganto throws him really hard, so I figured this specific scenario could work too XD And it gave the chance to write Silver carrying him home all romantically in chapter 2 :> :>

And lastly, their dialogues: I had to extensively compare that chapters 1 and 2 were the exact same with their dialogues, and that edits in one chapter would be carried over in the other. But I did change the sentence "placement" , to put in extra action tags or observations each character makes. I believe I pulled that off successfully as well🍀

Overall, I was quite antsy that chapter 1 of RTY would suck or be uninteresting, but I'm really happy with what it became! And as a final fun fact that I just remembered: originally I had the lines:

And yet the timestream had to be traversable, somehow. How else would that Silver have arrived in the past twice?

in there as argument for Sonic to doubt Eggman's gloating. But then I realised that in the Rivals games, Sonic never learns about the future, Eggman Nega, and so on... So I changed that to him time-travelling on Little Planet, and I (unfortunately! I really liked a first mention of Silver before he actually appeared) removed the above.

Alright, now I really have to stop talking or this will be WAY too long XD

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Took the weekend to celebrate my birthday. For those of you who care, I went to the playground with my mom, my sister and our babies (they're the same age, birth month twins, we shared a pregnancy) and got lots of sun and fresh air. The playground has an industrial strength adult-sized seesaw and it let's you touch the fucking sky, bless. After lunch at my favorite Chinese buffet that serves the best shrimp I've ever had in my life, we went back home and my best friend was sitting on the porch to surprise me with a case of fancy beer and two new games for the PS5 I got for Christmas 💕 Hollow Knight and Elden Ring, imma tear that shit up whenever I get sick of Fallout. Then my husband's parents came and they gave me $70 and this rad Beetlejuice T-shirt.

It's big too so I can cut it however I want 🥰

After everybody left, husband pulled this scrumptious strawberry krunch ice cream cake out of nowhere and solo'd me the happy birthday song 😊 with feeling.

Then I got dicked down professionally and got to indulge my insomniac tendencies and stay up all night playing video games with the reassurance that he had baby tomorrow, I could sleep in as late as I want. 31 is going to be a fantastic year for me. I have a lot of big things happening.

Now. For the angry mob in my ask box:

Didn't read a word of that. I muted Tumblr the night before my birthday and this morning my wonderful husband filtered through and deleted all the ugly ones for me so I wouldn't even have to skim any of your garbage. I am dearly loved.

Not looking at notifications either. In fact, consider Tumblr notifs off for me forever. Y'all can have my attention when I feel like giving it and only when I feel like giving it. Abusive reblogs will also be blocked and forgotten. Trying to communicate with you imbeciles is like trying to teach trigonometry to toddlers (say that five times fast), so let me spell this out as simply as I can for you single-celled organisms.

• I reblogged one of Spike's posts three times (our one and only conversation) before blocking him

• At this point, I began receiving nonstop anonymous harassment that went on for about 1-2 weeks. I did not retaliate in kind because I don't believe in it. I've been the recipient of anonymous harassment for many years due to my dead dove content. My candid responses are sharp and cruel enough on their own without need of anonymity. The very notion offends my pride. I cannot abide cowardice.

• I did not report Spike. Not once, not for any of it, not even the abusive anons that I fully believe came from him. Why? Because there's no proving it, I'm not going to waste anyone's time on a hunch, and I have gotten so much hate over the years that I don't bother with any of that frill. It's too time-consuming. If I reported everything that offended me, I would never leave this stupid app.

• If I had reported Spike, you can bet your simple ass I would be sitting here gloating and taking credit. He's a shitstain and he deserves bad things. But I didn't! It sure is fucking funny that it happened though, and it's unspeakably flattering that you utter buffoons legitimately believe I'm capable of this, that I even have that kind of power. Have y'all not seen my notes? What kind of numbers do you think I'm pulling? How many people do you think I have under hypnosis? Cause I'm tellin' you right now it's like 2-3 bitches and none of them would ever do anything like that at my behest. It would damage our mutual respect.

Real Rae and anon-answering Rae are two different people. The person I am when I am responding to anonymous harassment is a cold, ruthless cunt with no concern for your thoughts, feelings, or intentions. Once an individual has decided that they're going to hide their identity in order to manipulate me, I shut down and turn to stone. This is a carefully cultivated defense mechanism.

"Don't eat me. I'm toxic."

A simple way to avoid ever interacting with this character I put on is by never leaving anonymous harassment in my askbox. And no, I won't turn off anons for you to make you comfy bc wahh you don't like me and I'm a meanie lmao. Utilize that block button, child. Learn how to enforce boundaries and respect the boundaries of others. Neither Spike nor any of his braindead minions are entitled to my time and attention.

It's incredibly valuable.

Now onto the next order of business: Laura/Afterthefuneral? Who was in my server for a little while before I booted her after she was criminally obnoxious? Who is now buddying up to Spike and intentionally trolling, feeding his paranoia with complete and total fabrications? (I have never even visited Bluesky. I don't even know what the user interface looks like.)

Here's a screenshot of how she really feels about Spike. It's the only thing we ever agreed on:

And here's a video of her cussing out her sickly cat, Pumpkin, after he was incapable of consuming the salty processed meat she left out for him:

TW: Animal abuse, disturbing footage

Pumpkin is 20~ years old. Pumpkin has cancer and a whole host of other health issues, several of which clearly stem from neglect.

Laura insists that she is unable to afford treatment/euthanasia/nail trimmings for him despite how often (and it was miserably often) she showed off her newest Beetlejuice-themed swag purchases, price tag and all. Laura believes in supporting small creators, you see. Amazon isn't good enough for her. Anyone who shared space in Dante's with Laura can attest that her treatment of Pumpkin is nothing short of inhumane, and that we were all (with the exception of a special few who tried their best) peace-keeping cowards who never held her accountable in any real way. Pumpkin deserves better.

I never wanted to make this post, Laura, but I will not continue concealing your hideous truths while you perpetuate egregious lies. I wish you had just listened to us the handful of times you were gently encouraged to please ease his visible suffering. Instead, you paraded him. Thinking about him is painful. Thinking about you is repugnant. Thinking about my inaction, and how I had to be pushed this far to get just a drop of justice for that pitiful animal riddles me with guilt. The bitch I was five years ago would have chewed you up and spit you out the first time you posted a picture of his poor, grimacing face and those painfully ingrown claws with the audacity to call it "sexy" (much less endured the months of countless indignifying photoshoots and captions that followed) but these sensitive motherfuckers out here got me caring more about optics than justice ‒ and that's what's really wrong with all of us, ain't it?

Y'all want a confession out of me? This is what I'm guilty of. I ignored Laura's animal abuse because I was afraid that if I pushed it, our mutual friends would be upset with me. Cowardly shit. I'm sorry, Pumpkin. I don't know what I could have done for you, but I didn't do enough and it's selfish of me to use you now as a primary character witness.

I'm going to take some more me time to tend my garden and reflect on the type of person I want to be. It saddens and angers me greatly that I allowed fear of backlash to compromise my rigid moral compass. What was I even afraid of? That's not who I am and I refuse to ever play that role again.

To the nice, harmless folks in my askbox, thank you for the love and I'll be getting back to you...when I know how to gather myself enough to answer all that. For now, I think I want to write nasty beetlebabes. It's been too long.

[constelationprize]

the art of failing up! the art of failing up! *chants* *holds up plackard* please? owo

*steps out into the railing like a graceful monarch*

There is a line of dim lights leading up to the brightly lit balcony. Stuart walks carefully, taking a look around – the penthouse looks more lived in than the apartment he was given, but it's clearly still copy and pasted from a high end design catalogue. There's no way Ichirou actually sits on that white sofa and uses the knitted blanket arranged fashionably against one of the seats, unless he's somehow fond of staring at the wall where a normal person's television would be.

Ichirou really takes his lot as a stone cold leader seriously. Considering the state of the mistress suite, Stuart doesn't think there is any evidence that he has a life anywhere outside the office. Surely, though, owning a television wouldn't kill him.

The penthouse balcony overlooks the bright cityscape in a view that might be breathtaking to anyone who cares about it. There's two leather chairs with a low glass table in between, where rests a single glass of whiskey on the rocks. Ichirou is seated on the chair to the right, in the same breeches and shirt he was wearing earlier that night, sans suit and tie.

Stuart stops beside him and idly wonders if he should bow and posh up his accent; if that's what the little lord wants out of this power trip.

“Lord Moriyama,” he greets, instead, the corner of his mouth fighting to stay flat.

Ichirou raises his eyes to him. He has always had this too-intense stare, and it is now made worse by the yellow lights of the balcony, as if there are tiny pinpricks of fire in the center of his iris.

“Did you enjoy your evening, Mr Hatford?”

It takes everything in Stuart’s power to simply go sit across Ichirou and not reach out to strangle him.

“It was certainly… Peculiar,” He smiles, “Not the circles I’m used to walking in, that’s for sure... I was surprised to find that your company is filled with simpering idiots and conniving fools. Maybe that’s why Matsumoto is growing too big for his britches – he’s not planning a coup quite yet, don’t get me wrong, but he’s certainly ready to play the field. Also, the tenderloin was a little overcooked.”

“That’s a bold accusation.”

“Not really,” Stuart shrugs, “I prefer my meat medium rare.”

[yuhi-san]

Finally onto vol two of trimax, now that dokomi is over

First of all, what a messed up start to the volume. Legato really is all kinds of fucked up.

The… table manners going on here. We just let that stand as it is

Very intrigued by midvaley, more on that later

“We will cause him ultimat suffering at the hands of you humans.” Yeah hats the thing, isn’t it? Sure humans can be nasty but it always comes back to the fact that knives needs to make sure vash sees that. Always meddle in a way to make sure humans want to hurt vash or have a reason. I guess someone is afraid humans aren’t as horrible as he makes them out to be if he doesn’t manipulate the situation, huh

You can see the rage on vash face when da-rei mentions his secluded home. We know vash won’t kill, no matter what but moments like this make me wonder, do you guys REALLY wanna figure out what would happen to you if vash were to stop playing nice? Then again they seem to all have a death wish to some degree so there is that

The gun on the wire thing is soo cool tho

for all the talk Wolfwood does, it seems to itch under the nails to help vash, especially since da-rei mentioned home.

So, the whole Wolfwood shoots da-rei situation and the after…. For one I think with everything else going on in that moment we don’t focus enough on how shocked vash was that Wolfwood shot him. Yes he’s angry, the look he gives Wolfwood is seething but the expression at first makes it clear vash didn’t see that coming at all.

Which is even more interesting considering he was aware da-rei might shoot him. At first he says that the blades position suggest he wasn’t going to do it but then he admits that, yeah there was a chance but insists he would have just dodged. Vash knows there is always the chance someone wants to harm him (but decides to take the chance anyway) but he did not expect ww to kill da-rei at all.

“you talk about saving everyone but you don’t wanna dirty your own hands” we’ll be back on that later, as well as “no matter what you do, you give up so easily”. Just waiting fpr the hospital yuri for that

See, I knew almost all the key moments of trimax already but without the full context. So its super interesting to see in what order or time they play out. Wolfwoods infamous ‘shoot’? yeah I did not think they were having this conversation so soon. Mostly because that’s intense. Yeah emotions are running high and all but jesus Wolfwood, don’t you think this reaction and speech are a little extreme? This early on? Offering up his live like that, challenging Vash to shoot him? Sure, it was evident vash wasn’t going to do it but considering how afraid Wolfwood actually is of dying, gee…

At that point its clear ww doesn’t just disagree with vashs ways but also cannot fathom why would make the choices he does. At the same time vash can clearly see that Wolfwood so desperately wants to be good and kind but feels forced to play devils advocate and all. But at this time, vash is too caught up in his own worldview and codex that he cannot quite understand that for Wolfwood this is not simply a ‘deciding to give up so easily situation’

Wolfwoods dream oh man.. its another scene I knew but not the context. I didn’t realize he was dreaming this. previously I though this was actually happening, way later when they are at the orphenage. God his smile looks so sad and pained. Its so much like vash when the people throw stones at him and he’s like, I don’t know what to look like.

On a lighter note, dried up vash is so funny. What a disaster he is. Especially when they drop the lighter oh man

The line about how not everyone can just gamble their life is very important and I think it applies a lot to vash. yes he doesn’t make use of his plant powers. He tries, at least at that point, to be as human as possible. But the truth is that most humans could never survive the things he does. Vash can take gambles others cannot, including Wolfwood. Which he even says to vash’s face but again, I don’t think vash truly understands that at this moment.

Home, oof. Vash is so tense and worried what he will find and then its just… people being happy and okay. They are ecstatic to see him! Is vash! it’s a big deal! They were worried, they hope he stays a little, they are excited to introduce him to their children! It makes vash cry to be greeted like that. And yeah, its an illusion by leonof but judging by  vash reaction and his absolute shock after, this was a very accurate one. that’s how people just are with him when he comes home so that it was an illusion, ouch.

Wolfwood is mad. Like, it always seems to itch him to help even if he doesn’t give in to the urge but there wasn’t even a question on whether  or not leonof deserves his ass kicked for that sick stunt

Ww may take issues with what he perceives as vashs naivety but seeing him go through all these emotions because of leonof tormenting him has ww go, yeah no, fuck that und fuck you.

[the-sky-queen]

The dragon requests Shadouge Children Lore.

What inspired their designs/personalities/them?

What things did you consider when creating them?

Loreeeeeeeee

Please?

You got it Saph!!! Strap in, we're going kid by kid and explaining my entire thought process for each of them! >:D

Ember

So when I first made Ember, he originally wasn't technically a Shadouge kid. Can't remember how much I've said on tumblr, so I'll just go over it all. Beta Ember was from a (now abandoned) AU called Legacy. Basically, Shadow died in SA2, which lead to Sonic and Rouge teaming up to learn as much as they could about this so stinkin mysterious hog and what was going on with him. Eventually GUN decided to make a replica of Shadow, but one they could control this time, one that was more perfect than Shadow had been. Rouge discovers this baby replica (Ember), almost ready to come out of the tube, and she immediately calls Sonic to help her bust him out before GUN can implant a chip in the baby's brain so they can control him. The two rescued the newborn and then went on the run from GUN, eventually becoming a family. (Yes this was a Sonouge story XD)

So Ember was basically a clone of Shadow, but wasn't an exactly clone. I figured GUN wouldn't have easy access to Black Arms DNA, so Ember is 100% hedgehog. Since he was a clone, I knew I wanted him to look pretty similar to Shadow, but I wanted him to be just a little bit "off." Like an incomplete copy job. His black fur isn't quite as deep of a color as Shadow's. I usually describe it as "dusty black." And instead of red stripes, Ember has orange. It was that orange color and the overall faded looking colors he has that led me to naming him Ember. I thought it fit! And that's also why Ember's stripes look the way they do. I wanted to evoke the look of flames with their shape. This was also around the time I was playing around a lot with what mobian feet look like, which is why Ember doesn't wear shoes. (And at this point, I don't think I could design any for him that look good anyway XD) I also decided to not give Ember any Inhibitor Rings. If he was a perfect version of the Ultimate Lifeform, it would make sense for him to have more control over his Chaos Powers and not need them.

Ember's personality wasn't really a set in stone thing while he was a character exclusive to Legacy. He was still a baby, so he was mostly just babbling a lot. I did a flash forward scene once where he was older and absolutely miserable because this version of Ember would have occasional massive growth spurts programmed into his biology to get him developed to the point GUN wanted him to be and it hurt. Despite his severe lack of development though, I really liked him and wanted to take him and make him a character in my Sonic-verse. So since I was running out of steam on Legacy anyway, I yoinked him up, revamped his story just a bit and dropped him into Shadow and Rouge's laps!

I didn't want to change too much, so Ember's story is still largely the same. Created by GUN as a better version of the Ultimate Lifeform. I decided to nix the accelerated growth thing so Ember could grow up normally. I was also coming up with the idea at this point of Ember being super shy and traumatized by GUN. He couldn't really be like that if he was rescued as a baby like Beta Ember, so I decided to have Shadow and Rouge not discover him until he was a bit older. I think the age I decided on was like seven. At that point, Shadow and Rouge discovered him, took GUN to court, and adopted him. Anyway, so as a result of GUN's treatment of him, Ember is not okay. :( He's super shy and unsure and he's always questioning his place in the family, always wondering if he really deserves to be here. But he loves his family and is super protective of his little siblings. I also decided it would be SUPER cute for him to have a crush on Sonic's oldest daughter Joy.

There's still some things about Ember I don't quiiiite have figured yet (like his pseudo super form thingy) but for the most part, that's everything! Some things had a lot of thought put into them and some were just me going "yeah that's cool, let's do that."

Spark

Spark's been around for pretty much as long as Ember has. Just like him, Spark was originally part of a different (now abandoned) AU called Project Shadow: Restoration. In that AU, Silver goes back to the future and looks for Shadow, only to discover that he allegedly "went insane" shortly after his wife Rouge's death and was locked away as a result. Silver goes on a quest to find Shadow and eventually does, only to discover Shadow also had a SON who was also locked away, so they go track him down as well.

I wanted Spark to be a more traditional fankid in the sense that he's kinda a mix of his two parents. Once I decided that, it was kinda just picking and choosing what traits he got where. He got his main black fur from Shadow and the white in his stripes from Rouge. He got his separated eyes, eye color, nose shape, and ears from Rouge as well. And recently I updated his design just a liiiittle bit to give him a more Black Arms-y tail. (I keep forgetting to post his new design aaaaaaa) I made his quills downturned for really no reason. XD I just thought they looked nice. I gave him blue shoes to match his eyes. And I gave him inhibitor rings because he can control his Chaos Powers about as well as Shadow can. You can't quite tell in his art, but he doesn't wear gloves (BECAUSE I LIKE IT WHEN CHARACTERS GO GLOVELESS), and the white is actually just his fur color on his hands. His stripes are thick. I really wanted Spark's stripes to be thicker than his dad's.

Beta Spark actually had this weird thing going on with his mortality because I wanted him to still be a little kid when Silver and Shadow rescued him from his stasis pod. Beta Spark aged EXTREMELY slow. He was still the equivalent of a 5 or 6 year old when Rouge died of old age. I decided to scrap this when I yoinked him for my Sonic-verse.

I wanted Spark to be the spark of joy in Shadow and Rouge's lives, hence the name. I also wanted his personality to reflect that. He's happy, bubbly, and overall carefree.

I decided early on that it would be hard for Shadow and Rouge to get pregnant because of Shadow's weird alien DNA. I even made a vague reference to them having a miscarriage baby prior to Spark (more on her later). So as a result, I decided Spark was a preemie baby, born early and needing to be in the NICU for a bit, but recovered quickly because of his Ultimate Lifeform heritage. Admittedly, this decision was made largely because my baby sister Potato was a preemie and I have a soft spot for those kinds of babies.

When I yoinked Spark for my Sonic-verse, I didn't change much aside from getting rid of his slow aging thing. Just like Ember, I wanted him to grow up normally.

Dawn

Dawn was the latest edition to my Shadouge family. I'd already yoinked Ember and Spark and as I was looking over the family, I decided there really needed to be a girl kid. I hesitated on what she would be like for a while. I made reference to her in a little oneshot I wrote for another person's AU that I never posted (NO I'M NOT SAYING WHAT IT WAS) where I mentioned Shadow and Rouge were married and had a kid named Spark and Rouge was also currently pregnant.

When I finally started designing her, I decided to follow what I did for Spark, but reverse it a bit. She got the main white fur from Rouge and the red stripes from Shadow. I gave her Rouge's bat wings and Rouge's general eyes shape. She got Shadow's hedghog ears, the female hedgehog nose shape, and Shadow's red eyes as well. I decided to play around a bit with her eye markings and gave her more of a mask like shape because I liked how it looks. I also gave her bangs just because. She looks cute with them! Her clothes were a real struggle for me and I was honestly just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. I decided since she's a little kid, she's probably in that age where she insists on getting herself dressed, regardless of if she's choosing stuff that matches at all. I wanted to show off her leg and arm stripes, so I gave her short sleeves and shorts. She later morphed into being athletic, so of course she'd choose shorts and short sleeves over other clothes. I decided she was into art and let her decorate her shoes with stickers. XD Once again, she doesn't wear gloves. I also decided she's got better control over her Chaos Powers, so she doesn't need inhibitors.

When coming up with a name for her, I realized I had a bit of a pattern going on with Ember and Spark's names. Those were two words that were faint lights, but had the potential to become bigger under the right circumstances. I decided to keep with the theme of increasing light and chose the name Dawn for our third kid.

Dawn's personality has kinda gone all over the place. It's still subject to change since she's still a little kid, but right now she's bright and bubbly like Spark, really into sports, arts and crafts, and an absolute mama's girl. She knows she's the youngest and she will take advantage of that. >:)

[insert info on Spark and Dawn's new Black Arms stuff that I will go over when I post their new art]

Angel

Ah yes, the secret bonus child. Remember how I said in Spark's section that Shadow and Rouge had a miscarriage? I decided to keep that idea. Before Ember was adopted, they lost a baby. I've kept the details about Angel purposely vague since she was never born. For a long time, all I really had for her was her name, chosen both because she is an actual angel and as a soft reference to Maria. Angel doesn't really have much more to her. If she had lived, she would have inherited the Doom Wings from Shadow. I've been toying around with giving her a design and possibly a role in some storyline, but nothing's official yet.

And that's all of them! Let me know if you have any more questions! I love talking about my kiddos :D

[elliepassmore]

Ruthless Vows review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: historical fantasy, love stories, magical amnesia

Divine Rivals review

I've been dying to get my hands on this book since I finished Divine Rivals! The ending of DR definitely packed a sucker punch, so I was interested to see what was in store for Roman and Iris in this one. For anyone wondering, there is an HEA!

This book opens shortly after where DR left off. Iris is back in Oath with her brother, Forest, and is still (obviously) upset about losing Kitt. But Iris isn't down for the count and is determined to continue reporting on the war effort and determined to find Kitt again. Iris again shows her mettle, both when trying to find and help Kitt and when she decides to go back to the front with Attie.

Kitt is, as expected, not quite himself. He's still a writer, but his words are no longer entirely his own, and his memories are just as wiped as Forest's were in book 1. It was good to see that he was still himself though. Kitt may have been Dacre's minion to start, but he very quickly begins questioning things around him and his true self shows through, even if he still doesn't remember. I think book 1 really highlighted Iris while this one highlights Kitt and his journey. I liked getting more of Kitt's POV in this book, and I think there are some scenes that really go to show his growth in DR and in this book.

Attie is also back in this one and we get to see more of her life. Not only do we get to meet her family, but she also plays a pretty important role in this one. I enjoyed getting to see more of Attie and more of her and Iris' friendship. She even got a bit of her own romance in this book. I'd definitely be interested in a novella or companion book about Attie.

Tobias is a new character in this book, and is Attie's burgeoning love interest. He's an auto driver who helps the Inkridden Tribune get stories, and correspondents, to and from the front.

We also get to know more about Enva and Dacre in this one. Kitt is, obviously, with Dacre and we actually get to a good number of scenes between him and the god. Dacre is just as insidious as he's painted in the first book and it's clear just how much thought he's put into how he's going to destroy Enva, regardless of who gets in his way. Enva is...less of a presence in this book, but we do see her and get to know more of her story and why she hasn't personally stepped in to help those fighting on her side.

This book is split between Oath and Dacre's realm. Oath begins as the familiar city we were introduced to in Divine Rivals, but after Iris and Attie return from the front the second time, it's a changed city. There's a power struggle between those, like the mayor and Kitt's family, who support Dacre; the newly-founded, anti-god/dess Graveyard group; people like Helena at the Inkridden Tribune, who support Enva; and then the regular citizens are caught in the middle. The Graveyard group seems to have come out of nowhere, but there are hints that it's been around for a while and is only just now popping up. I would've liked to see more development of things in Oath, especially since I think the Graveyard group has a lot of interesting implications, particularly considering how they very quickly have everyone cowed. I also think the implications of war reaching Oath were interesting, and while I understand why this was a relatively short portion of the book, I think it would've been interesting to explore that more.

Dacre's realm is underground, relying on ley lines and special doors for travel. As grim as it could be, I liked seeing the various aspects of the underworld. There are parts of it made completely of stone, then there are halls/tunnels with unusual creatures and large gemstones, and then there are areas with seemingly unnatural features, such as sulfur vents and hot springs and mountainous regions. I definitely liked that Kitt got to see so much of it since it really was an interesting place, and it showed a lot of the past and present magic of the world.

Overall I found this to be a satisfying sequel and finale to the duology. It's not without its tragedies but it does have happy moments and a happy ending. I do wish that Iris and Kitt were together for more of the book, but it's pretty fast paced, so it doesn't feel like too long. I did enjoy seeing them together though and this time they're fully on each other's side!

[naffeclipse]

Haunting your inbox again with another question about a sleuthing jesters series :)

In No Small Favor, I’ve always been curious about a few things. How quickly did word spread in the underworld about Moon getting shot? I’ve been thinking about that one mini drabble you wrote about how Eclipse would patch up Sun if someone nearly destroyed him to earn the mob boss’ favor. So did he plan to intervene before Moon’s condition became irreversible? (Though that begs the question of what really would be considered irreversible, and Sun did go for awhile without a working celestial wire at the end of the series.)

Also, what was Eclipse’s reaction when his goons passed on word that the vigilante was asking for him? Did he actually think they were considering joining him, or had he already put two and two together that they were looking for him on behalf of Moon? If it’s that latter, I could see how he might view that as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: save Moon and get the vigilante in his debt.

One more thing! Is Balloon World considered his domain, or is it just a general seedy area where mobsters can use the back rooms as they want?

Never mind, I just thought of one more question djjflskdkd XD Did you ever have any lore/ideas about DJ Music Man’s role/character in the series? I know he doesn’t show up in it, but I wondered if you had some notes or thoughts about his interactions and relations/dealings with the underworld.

Hope you don’t mind the question(s) haha <3

Lumi, you are welcome to haunt my inbox anytime you feel, my ghostly friend ♥

Eclipse was aware that Moon had been injured—what he wasn't aware of was the extent of his injuries. He knew Sun would tend to their brother, but as the days passed, Eclipse would have grown more aware of their absence and would have investigated himself if the vigilante hadn't intervened. (Celestial wires ceasing to function for long periods of can lead to permanent damage even after being fixed/replaced. Much like falling into a coma, it can be very difficult for an animatronic to power back on after a long period of inactivity.)

Eclipse was certain the vigilante had finally begun to see things his way (it was inevitable, and this is the easy way for them) so that's why he's a bit, ah, displeased when he realizes the vigilante is asking about a celestial wire. At the same time, he understood that Moon is not actually okay, but Eclipse did not miss the opportunity sitting in his lap trying their best to look pretty and not afraid. He's more than willing to kill two birds with one stone, and he did.

Balloon World is a personal favorite hangout of his, and more or less somewhere you don't want to go if you don't want to run into the mob boss himself. He doesn't own it in the traditional sense, but it is his place that's kept under wraps.

Ah! I never did touch on Music Man but he's got a little story! He's the head of a rather lucrative underground operation, though less powerful than Eclipse, but he handles his gang wisely and is able to successfully and discretely laundry money via his club and a separate recording studio as fronts for his illegal business of trafficking weapons. He's on pretty good terms with a lot of gangs and knows to not cross wires as a supplier. My design for him is that he's humanoid but fairly large, on par with Eclipse's height except that he has six arms instead of the regular two. Music Man is mistaken for a simple-minded weapons dealer but he is very strategic in all aspects of his work; he will effectively remove the problem of your existence if you happen to interfere with his smoothly running operations. (He can also play a mean guitar.)

The vigilante found out his real name through some bribes and, uh, more persuasive violent means and would have liked to have gone after him, but other events took up their attention.

I don't mind the questions at all so long as you don't mind me rambling hehe ♥

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Hey, Little Songbird

Chapter 30 - AO3

Alya stared at him with an expression so filled with disgust and regret that Felix shuffled uncomfortable. She spun away, her shoulders shaking. “You know, I used to wonder how you and Adrien could possibly be related, but now? I totally see it.”

Felix sputtered. “Excuse me!?”

“You’re excused. This is too stupid and doesn’t make any sense; I’m not dealing with it. Let’s just… get this done, okay?”

“What are you talking about, it makes sense—!”

“I’ve learned my lesson about speculating hero identities. Trust me, it is not worth it. So can we please drop this?” She passed him a flash drive.

Felix considered her words and agreed. This really wasn’t the time for speculation. It was the time—he looked down at his chest, but unfortunately the brooch was still there—for action.

He and Alya walked to their homeroom, but while Alya went inside with a wave, Felix hid around the corner, so everyone would be inside before they started. As the morning bell rang, he stepped into the room.

Mme. Bustier frowned at him. “Young man, you need to go to your homeroom—” Felix removed his hood, Duusu squirming in the fabric to hide. “Felix? I guess your suspension is over now… Then the only person we’re waiting on is Marinette.”

“Marinette won’t be at school today,” Felix told her, taking a moment to survey the class. The sheeple were glaring at him, Alya was vibrating in her seat, Rossi looked smug… and Adrien. He looked horrified to see Felix here. Had Gabriel told him what Felix did? Was he on Gabriel’s side now? “Something about a family emergency? She should have a note to give you tomorrow.”

“Well… you were supposed to apologize to her today, but if that’s the case…”

“I’ve already apologized to Marinette,” Felix reassured her. “But there’s someone else in this room I must apologize too; after all, I was trying to frame someone as well. That’s why I created a video to properly explain my feelings. May I?” He gestured towards the computer. “It won’t take long.”

Bustier fretted but agree. “If you’ve already made something…” She even helped him setup the projector screen while Felix got to the video. There were only two files on the flash drive: one labeled “Apology”, and the other labeled “After.” He opened the “Apology” video.

Jagged Stone’s face covered the whiteboard. “Cat? I’ve never owned a bloody cat, especially not one saved by a Lila Rossi.”

One by one, her lies unraveled. Interviews with the celebrities Rossi lied about, logs indicating that the Italian Ambassador hasn’t left Paris in over a year, doctors explaining Rossi’s various illnesses to contradict her actions, exerts from her diary… Even though their classmates’ faith in Rossi broke with that first interview, it was fascinating to watch their opinions of her sink lower and lower as the tears and glares multiplied. Rossi was mortified, watching the video with wide eyes as her claws sunk into Adrien’s arm. Even Bustier, the supposed adult in the room, could only watch, even though stopping the video was totally within her power. The collective mood sunk,

And sunk,

And sunk.

It was glorious. Felix wished he was recording.

Felix paused the video before the last scene could play and smirked as Rossi glared at him hatefully. “I’m so terribly sorry I tried to frame you, Rossi. As it turns out, that was the only think you were actually innocent of!”

She jerked at his address, then turned around to the class, fishing for sympathy. She found none in the furious gazes and tear-filled eyes. She shook, from rage or humiliation, Felix knew not. “You… you bastard…”

“My parents were happily married when they had me,” Felix purred. “Pity the same couldn’t be said about you, no?”

Her eyes widened with fear. Oh, yes, Felix knew an awful lot about Rossi now, perhaps more than he ever wanted to know. Usually he wouldn’t taunt someone because they were the result of an affair, but… Rossi seemed to bring out the worst in him.

Realizing that she had no allies in the room, Rossi’s eyes welled with possibly-fake tears and she ran from the room, practically wailing. Felix sniffed. “How cliché.”

That snapped Bustier out of her daze. “Felix! We are going to the principal’s office right now!” He shot Alya a panicked looked, but she was already running to the front of the room as Bustier grabbed his arm. “There was no need to humiliate another student, no matter what she did—!”

He tore his arm from her grip. The only reason she hadn’t left claw marks was the protection is hoodie gave him. “If she didn’t want to be humiliated, maybe she shouldn’t have done something humiliating!”

That set certain people off.

“Dude, that’s too cruel!”

“She might have been horrible, but you didn’t need to be so mean about it!”

“I don’t know what has gotten into you, young man, but hurting people—”

Finally reaching the front, Alya restarted the video and the last scene played. Bustier shut up as she and the rest of the room saw the video footage Felix had taken of Rossi willingly taking an akuma. While they were enthralled, Felix took his chance to lock their classroom door. They didn’t have much time before Rossi showed up again. “She’s a terrorist; why should I respect her?”

Climbing up on the desk, Alya took her place before the class while Felix readily the second video. She addressed the class. “Like Felix said, it’s been confirmed that Lila Rossi is working with Hawkmoth. Thanks to this information, Ladybug has discovered the possible identities of Hawkmoth and Mayura and is now working with the police to conduct a sting operation while his attention is on akumatizing Lila.”

“Alya!” Bustier hissed, “Get down from there—”

They had anticipated that someone wouldn’t believe them, and Alya had planned ahead by getting evidence from a source no one could argue with. Felix opened the second video and now Ladybug’s face covered the whiteboard. “Hey, Mme. Bustier’s class, this is Ladybug speaking! As Mlle. Cesaire might have already told you, today the police, temporary heroes, and I are conducting a sting operation against the possible identity of Hawkmoth. But while I say ‘possible,’ we’ve received evidence that proves without a doubt that this individual we’re raiding is Hawkmoth.” Felix covered the brooch with his hands. “It’s because of this evidence that I asked M. Graham de Vanily and Mlle. Cesaire to expose Lila Rossi today. As his only known civilian helper, my partner and I are certain that Hawkmoth will akumatize her, given how successful she’s been against the heroes in the past.

“This is why I am talking to you now. As of now, all of you are part of the sting operation.” He noticed several classmates sit up at her words, the sadness and anger dissipating from the room. “I need you all to evacuate the school and help the other classes evacuate as well. But most importantly, you can’t do anything that will indicate that we’re attacking Hawkmoth during her akumatizations. I know I can trust you.” It felt… like she was talking directly to Felix. He held the brooch tighter, rough edges cutting into his hand. “Thank you. Bug out.”

The video stopped and Alya organized the evacuation out the windows. Fortunately, they were on the first floor, so it wasn’t much of a drop. Mme. Bustier left first and helped the other student drop down. Felix tried to help, but Adrien pulled him aside. “You’re working with Ladybug?” Adrien asked. Was that… awe in his voice? Did Gabriel not tell him anything yet.

“She asked,” Felix answered uncomfortable. “Come, it’s time for you to leave…” Felix tried to get Adrien out the window so they’d stop talking, but Adrien refused to drop. He just… dangled out the window.

“You’re not coming?”

Felix looked away. “I’m the bait. Hopefully we can keep Rossi focused on me long enough for Ladybug to defeat Hawkmoth, but to do that… I need to keep her mad.”

Adrien smiled. “Well, they picked the perfect person for that.”

He laughed. “Certainly. Adrien… about what happened at your house…” Something—or rather, someone—pounded on the door, making it shake on its hinges.

“What happened at my house?”

Had Gabriel told him nothing!? No, there was no time. “Adrien, you can’t go home.” He told him instead.

“What?”

“When you evacuate, you can’t go home, okay? Go anywhere else, anywhere at all, but don’t go home. Just trust me, you don’t want to be there.”

The door collapsed, and a hot rush of air ploomed into the room. Felix pushed Adrien out the window and he landed on the ground in a heap. There were still other classmates stuck inside—the goth girl, the jock, the dreadlock girl, he really should start learning people’s names—but there was nothing he could do now to get them out.

He faced Rossi. She… looked horrible.

Fashion-disaster Hawkmoth struck again, he supposed. Though, now that he knew Hawkmoth was Gabriel, perhaps these were designs that the board of directors at the company refused? Because instead of something relatively fashionable, Rossi loomed in the doorway dressed like a cartoon devil in a prom dress, her skin hazard orange and her pigtails mutated and curled up in mock devil horns. She scowled at Felix; her teeth looked like jagged shards of glass. “You…”

“Rossi.” He sneered.

Her eye twitched. “It’s End Days now! And I’m going to ruin your life, just like you’ve ruined mine!”

Taglist: @graduatedmelon @novicevoice@dur55@kris-pines04@18-fandoms-unite-08@moonlightstar64@bee-a-garbage-shipper@sol-o-shade@kittyotakunoir666@tinyterror333@allieoftheenemy@marichat00@xgxmxtx@two-faced-biatch@feliciakainzofspades@evil-cricket@emilytopaz@spicybelladonna@chocolateherringtacofan@user00000003@wannajointhecrabcult@happymonster-pants @duquesapincarrasca  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen  @sxltinette @kittydemon9000 @thetrashypanda423 @unoriginalmess @toodaloo-kangaroo @troycattribunny

[toothzome]

The Elements and the Fun Gang

I've had a theory/speculation for a while: that the fun gang all have ties to a certain element. Not anything like "element 6" or anything coded like that, but the elements of earth.

I believe this, for one, because it is an interesting way to look at their magic/predictions for future events. Knowing how they interact with each other during fights based on the elements provides a guideline for how any future fights should play out. For two, it's also a helpful way to look into their characters outside of that, like how their personalities are shaped.

Starting off, Susie is the element of fire. She's bold, hot-headed, and even incorporates fire into attacks in-canon. Her design is based on a lizard--possibly a dragon with her thoughts of "Susiezila." Fire suits her perfectly. Though the emblems of anger have been down since her introduction; now replaced with the flame of determination.

Ralsei would then embody earth. It's hard to imagine it, with his nervous shtick, stuttering, and overall hesitance to do much of anything (even if he is slowly gaining confidence), but we can see through a lot of his physical traits (his earthly tones, his general down-to-earth personality, the fact that he has healing powers which are historically generated with earth and nature) that he is earth. He is the grounding force of the fun gang, the one that reminded them of their mission in CH1, the goat (an animal associated with grass and dirt), the prince who gave them their mission in the first place. It's interesting to wonder how he'll change as he gains more confidence. In the future, we may see Ralsei transform from a grounded hero into a full-on rock-like force of good.

Of all the elements, Kris best fits water. I originally considered if they fit earth, until I remembered more about them. Their association with adaptability, their overall relaxed nature, the scene with the sink in CH2, the fact that their skin turns ocean blue in the dark world--it all led me to believe that Kris fit water the best. Their emotions, while default stoic and calm, can shift depending on the situation, as water changes form, shape, and flow depending on force. Kris is water; a calm element that can rapidly transform given trouble.

Finally, it makes the most sense for Berdly to be air. It may not seem fitting for his "nerd" personality, but then one has to remember that it was an air he put on. A front. The truth is that, for lack of better words, Berdly is an airhead. He's a kid whose head is inflated with the idea that he's the smartest, he uses wind/tornadoes for his attacks, and he's a bird! The sky, flight, and general association with air comes naturally to him.

In addition, Noelle is ice. That is unmistakable. It's important to note that ice is another form of water, explaining why Kris and Noelle get along so much. Susie clashed with Kris at first, before becoming friends with them. As we see from CH2 she's even become calmer from being around them. It's water cooling down fire. Ralsei is close to both Susie and Kris because he meets them in the middle ground (literally) as the element of earth. He can withstand all the elements. Berdly initially clashed with Susie and Kris because of his stature as air; a force that can disrupt both water and fire. It further explains why he got along with Noelle so well; her bearer of ice prevented her from being too disrupted by Berdly's wind. Noelle finds herself loosened up around Susie, her confidence having rubbed off on her; fire melting away the tensions of ice.

It's very interesting what this may mean in the context of future conflicts. Perhaps Kris, after Snowgrave, will begin to embody ice more? Maybe Ralsei representing earth is foreshadowing a future of stone for all the darkners? All I have is the "element theory" for now, I don't want it to be a harbinger of bad <:0

Tl;dr: each of the fun gang represents one of the 4 elements. Susie is fire, Ralsei is earth, Kris is water, and Berdly is air. Noelle is a variation of water, being ice. This outlook helps understand their personality, their interactions with each other, and why they clashed in the past. It also gives a bigger scope on their magic/fights.

[yesimwriting]

Dying Starlight

A/n: i dont think an audience for this exists?? ik it’s not shadow and bone related, but ive been reading red queen and i wanted to try writing maven and ive been playing with this idea. umm...on the off-chance that there is an audience for this i do think of this as more of a series but i’ll probably end up deleting this lol 

(Series?) Summary: reader is a childhood friend of Mare’s who isn’t officially part of the Scarlet Guard but gets captured by Maven. As a prisoner, she feels like her mind is being messed with as she begins to see a more human side of Maven. The new King tells himself the only thing he sees in her is that she’s a way to get to Mare, but something about her genuiness is infectious. 

-- 

Irony twists things. Right now, the irony that my last thoughts might be about how I wish I had been trusted with a suicide pill twist my impending doom into something almost comical. I’d laugh, but I’d rather not startle the rats in my cell. This has been their home for presumably years, but I’ve only been down here a few hours. 

I scratch the back of my wrist, staring at tired stone walls like they’ve done something to me. I wish I knew what time it was. How long have I been down here? How long has it been since I was separated from Mare? An hour? Three?Each passing minute strikes me like a bullet, but I can’t count them. I’ve never had a talent for accurately feeling the passage of time.

My head aches, frustration and dread tangling themselves in the pit of my stomach. Mare told me the Queen can search through someone’s mind, seeing memories even they can’t remember. What will they do when they see I know virtually nothing? What will happen when they see how close Mare and I truly are? i can’t do anything and the unknown hurts more than my bruised rib. 

The sound of the heavy door that divides the luxury of the castle from the wasteland of the cells creaks. I only let my arms flinch, moving from my side to wrap defensively around my stomach. Dull footsteps echo down the pathway that lead to the cell I’m in. I don’t cringe, not even when the sound of walking stops. 

I was not born into a rich family, but I was born into a proud one. Fear was practically a criminal act in my household. I’ve been trained to suppress all signs of weakness. My eyes don’t leave the stone wall, I mentally trace the pattern of a long crack in a specific rock. It reminds me of the slope of the Big Dipper. 

Will I ever see stars again? The answer leaves a sharp pain in my chest. 

“Mare told me about you.” 

The words jar me, my stomach dropping in revulsion. Mare had trusted him, and here he stands--successful because he’s a traitor. I know what it’s like to be the most overlooked sibling and to crave to change that. I know what it’s like to want to succeed more than you want air in your lungs, but I don’t think I’d ever betray someone. I like to think that there’s a line even the monster in me won’t cross. 

I don’t look at him, partially out of an attempt to protest and partially because I’m afraid of what I’ll see. “She might have mentioned you in passing.” 

His scoff is ridiculous. “She didn’t lie about your sense of humor.” 

That almost makes me wince. His words are too close, too personal. It’s like he knows me. I turn my. head, ready to cut through the uneasy beginning to get to the miserable middle if it brings me to the end faster. 

“You’re here to torment me, not make small talk.” Turning had been a mistake. I regret it instantly. His expression is unforgiving--cold, sharp, and made up of only angles. But that’s not why I stare. I did not expect him to be objectively attractive. The fine slope of his nose, the sharpness of his cheekbones, and the ice blue of his eyes. I need to snap out of this mindset. I’m sure his beauty will not be so distracting when he’s burning me. “Though some might consider that the same thing.” 

He scoffs again, the sound dry. The sneer of his lips does not diminish his attractiveness. The fact makes me loathe him. “I wonder if you’ll still be so prone to humor after you’ve been broken--any information of worth extracted from your thoughts.” 

“Let me save everyone the trouble and just tell you everything that I know now.” My back straightens despite the pain in my ribs. I look pathetic, dirty and in a torn dress. He’s regal, dressed in fine, all black clothing. “I know that Mare wanted to kill you today, I know that she needed a distraction and that her distraction needed to be expendable, which is why I’m sitting in front of you.” I squeeze my hands together awkwardly, a bit of genuine irritation rolling in my stomach. “That’s literally all I know, I’m not even part of the Guard.” I scratch the back of my wrist. If I were him, I wouldn’t believe that, but I’m being honest. How pitiful can one person be that they’re worth more disconnected from the group they work for than as an actual member? “You don’t take that kind of risk for someone that’s only skill set is in thought.” 

I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but I don’t regret it. Maybe he’ll think that my story is so pathetic it has to be true. “You have to know more than that.” 

“The Scarlet Guard only reaches out to me on a need-to-know basis, and anything worthwhile to you is something I clearly didn’t need to know.” In a way, I’m glad I can’t give him anything. “So are you going to kill me with a bullet or do you prefer more flamboyant executions?” My death should be plain. I am human completely--I bleed red and I have no powers. “I do think anything more than a simple death is more trouble than I’m worth.” 

His lips press together oddly, something beneath his expression tightening. “You don’t think your dearest friend will return for you?”

The sarcasm in his voice sparks something in me I thought only my sister could. “I think she has a lot of responsibilities and I wouldn’t blame her for having priorities.” 

His eyebrows draw together. “I think you’re painfully unaware of how attached to you she is.” I press my lips into a thin line. “She’ll come for you.”

Something selfish in me hopes that he’s right. No one has ever wanted me enough to come back for me. My mother wanted perfect daughters that knew how to only think in terms of trapping men with stable careers. My sister did it, but I could never manage, and to my mother that made me useless. 

“If you believe it,” I mumble beneath my breath.

I don’t know if he hears me. I can’t bring myself to care if he did. “For your sake, you better not have lied to me.” 

My back relaxes against the raspy wall, fighting down a grimace as the motion irritates my rib injury. “Cross my heart, Your Highness.” 

I watch him carefully, his expression turning into something much more grim. “A King is referred to as His Majesty.” 

“My father was a prominent war general and my mother only wanted daughters she could use to social climb.” I fight down a grin. “I know what I said.” 

His expression darkens into something bone chilling. “I am the King and you’ll refer to me as such or deal with even less pleasant circumstances.” 

I fight against the urge to cower, picturing Mare’s strength in my veins. There’s weakness in everyone, and if I squint I can see the thin cracks in him. “You have everything--the crown, the power, the support of the people, and it’s still not enough. You won and you still feel like you’re competing.” 

“You don’t know anything,” he seethes, practically growling. 

I shouldn’t press him, but the more he reacts, the more weaknesses are revealed. “I know what it’s like to have a sibling that’s the sun, and no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you’re always trapped in a shadow.” 

The lighting makes his eyes look almost glazed over. “My mother will be here soon and the truth will be revealed.” 

He can run from me, but not the truth. Cal has nothing, he has everything--the father that never cared for him is dead, and yet he’s still trapped. Our similarities hurt me more than my physical injuries. 

Maven turns, his gaze moving off of me feels like the removal of heavy shackles. “It would do you well to not press me. You’re worth as much whole as you are broken.” 

There’s the strangest hint of something more to his voice. I wonder if he’s speaking to more than just me. “You haven’t won until that voice in your head telling you that you’re not enough is silenced.”

“You’re a powerless girl who isn’t even wanted by a dying cause and couldn’t find a husband to drag her above the poverty line. You know nothing about me, and if you keep pretending I’ll slaughter you in front of your dear friend.” 

He leaves without another word. I fall asleep with my back against the wall and my ribs aching. 

[sineala]

Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you  would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good. 

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference. 

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

[ask-the-clergy-bc]

what did our ghoulies do for the clergy before they became band ghouls and why were they picked out?

Ooooooh, love this!! Love getting to explore different clergy roles! I love getting to play with the origins of Era IV!

Since I also make a LOT of references to my ideas of leader ghouls, I'm gonna go ahead and link that headcanon here to avoid confusion! --> [Link]

Era IV Jobs Before the Ghost Project

Aether: Aether was summoned when the ministry decided to start training successor ghouls to the current ghoul leaders. Air had finally stepped down as Beta ghoul, and the ministry was afraid others would do the same. Ather was summoned specially to become the next Omega ghoul. While Aether has his own powers of healing that took over as his main duties, he mainly shadowed the head quintessence ghoul. This included a lot of traveling, learning about Earth and human culture, and working with many different types of ghouls. There was also a lot of personal assistance to the Emeritus line, as aether ghoul healing is more effective for demon blood than normal human medicine.

When Omega was on his tours, Aether took care of his business in his stead to test how close he was to being ready. Aether was never originally meant to take part in the Ghost project until a few albums ahead. But with Omega’s sudden departure and being needed back in the Clergy, Aether was once again tested by being a band substitute. Luckily, he was a natural and has been proving himself as the next head ghoul! Handling both responsibilities and the pressure of being the Omega Ghoul.

Cumulus: Cumulus has been around for a few decades and has served enthusiastically. Her first decade was as an assistant to Papa I- her summoner. Namely as his ritual assistant and with his paperwork. She has always had a good eye for detail and organization, with a queenly air of authority about her. But Papa believes in letting his ghouls flourish to their strong suits. Until Copia’s ascension, Cumulus has been the lively and loyal personal ghoul to Sister Imperator. Serving as everything from bodyguard, personal confidant, and even enforcer to the Mother Superior. Cumulus was the very first selected for the job of band ghoul when it was Copia’s turn to head the Ghost project.

Imperator wanted a ghoul who was smart, capable, and with a good grasp of leadership to help supervise the other ghouls. Cumulus was also vouched for by Air. Her and Cirrus were both personally trained by the older ghoul when he was looking for a successor for the Beta ghoul position. While neither were chosen for that particular duty, Cumulus is happy to be a part of the band. She still keeps in touch with Imperator and sometimes acts as though she is Copia’s manager. If something goes wrong or needs to be done, Cumulus is the first to know.

Cirrus: Cirrus has gone back and forth between two duties. Serving the current Imperator and studying under the former Beta ghoul, Air. Cirrus is a tough cookie and has been a ghoulish enforcer for many abbies. Essentially keeping ghouls and siblings in line when it comes to fights or rule breaking. There are always ghouls who make sure the will of the clergy is followed and those who commit crimes are punished. This was her preferred job, rather than work with Air. Who tended to find stuffy, traditional research more important. Cirrus, as calm as she is, prefers hands on work. She’s also worked security detail for all of the Papas but most importantly, Grand Papa Nihil. Cirrus is a long time bodyguard (and baby sitter) for the Grandpapa and Sister Imperator.

Cirrus was recommended by both Cumulus and Air- since they were both practically raised by Air to be potential leader ghouls. Nihil was particularly sad to see Cirrus disappear from his entourage, but agreed she would be a wonderful fit. Also Nihil and Imperator can agreed that Cirrus keeps Copia in line by her sheer intimidating presence and powerful aura. Cirrus would be lying if she said she didn’t also enjoy the chance to do something more fun and get away from the clergy for a bit!

Mountain: Although Mountain was summoned by Papa II, he was never strictly a ghoul for the Emeritus. Personally summoned ghouls tend to be bodyguards or close entourage for their Papal summoners. For a couple of decades Mountain was an effective and reliable body guard for Papa II. But Papa eventually realized his ghoul’s talents were being wasted. Stone ghouls have been shown to have natural strength beyond most ghouls and a good eye for architecture. Mountain has been responsible for helping build new cathedrals, quarters, and even clearing land. His level headedness and bluntness have also been excellent when working with Papa II, who has supervised many of these new buildings.

Mountain being assigned to go with Copia was actually a sort of ‘good faith loan’ from Papa II. Don’t get me wrong, Papa II does NOT like Copia. He finds him opportunistic and a usurping leech… However, Copia IS chosen by Lucifer. Papa II cares about his ministry MORE than he hates Copia. Since he hasn’t had Mountain as a bodyguard for years he decides to recommend him. After all, it also looks good on him for being generous enough to support the newest singer of the band. The Ministry was happy, mainly to let the Cardinal practice working with ghouls of different types and skill sets to delegate. On tour he was accepted and chosen for both his natural talents but to help balance out all of the incredibly strong personalities of the current ghouls.

Rain: Rain was a very behind the scenes ghoul, and rarely worked in the public congregation. He was the archivist assistant to the current head water ghoul, Delta. Delta is one of the oldest serving ghouls who now takes care of the Ministry’s protected collections of records. Rain has happily kept a quiet existence processing old and new registrations for the entire ministry. At one point Rain had studied directly under Delta with Water and Mist- all powerful water ghouls who are being trained for greater works. Rain loved playing music but never considered himself one to be ever picked for anything but reorganizing entire archives and dusting off old books.

Rain was recommended by Mist after her short stint with the Ghost project and Papa III. While she wanted to go on tour, she was needed elsewhere to train. She could vouch for Rain’s hard work and need to open up and embrace his potential. Copia was happy to take the water ghoul, as was shown to have indelible talent and an agreeable personality. The touring has definitely made Rain want to be more active in the ministry and with his fellow ghouls.

Swiss: Swiss was actually pretty high ranked before he became a band ghoul! While not part of the leader ghouls for the entire ministry, Swiss was the top ghoul in one of the main cathedrals outside of the head abbey. This meant he directed, advocated, and watched over all of the ghouls a part of the cathedral. Making sure all duties were done and all ghouls were taken care of. Swiss is a pretty strong ghoul in his own right. While he is fire he was born from two mixed ghouls of different elements. So he is well versed in different elemental energies and knowledge. His easy going nature and quick wit makes him a favorite among siblings and ghouls alike. Higher Clergy also worked with him to make accommodations and holidays for the ghouls.

Swiss was hand picked by Copia who worked with him pre Ghost project. Copia has always valued Swiss’s hard work and ability to get along with everyone he met. Swiss was agreed by Imperator and the ministry to be a great ghoul. Not just in vocals but bringing everyone together and interacting with the fans and staff. Swiss accepted the position with glee. He loves doing ceremonies at his home abbey, and a Ritual is nothing different- just bigger! Plus, Swiss will never turn down a chance to sing.

Ember: Ember has been strong but an entire pain in the ass of the Ministry for a LONG time. There have been many times he was almost sent back to Hell because he was difficult to control. Ember has calmed down in recent years, but he can still be a bit of a thorn in everyone's side. But he has so much potential within the Ministry, he’s too valuable of an asset. At first he was summoned as the potential candidate to be the next Alpha ghoul, for when Alpha eventually steps down. But to help him adjust to the responsibilities he had been shipped to many places with many duties. He’s been everything from a guard, to ritual assistant, to attack dog.

Eventually he found a spot with Papa III right before he went on tour as his bodyguard. Their energies actually worked very well together and he was one of the few before Copia who was able to give him the right outlets he needed. Ember was hand chosen to be a bassist by Papa III when Alpha had to return with Omega to the Ministry. Ember had originally asked to be guitarist, but the Ministry was interested in testing Ifrit to be the next Alpha ghoul. Ember was just happy to play but was absolutely thrilled when Copia asked for him to play head guitar.

[rachetmath]

Favorite (Characters)

Ruby: *barges in* RatchetMath!

Me: What is it Ruby?

Ruby: You’re showing favoritism.

Me: Okay. And?

Ruby: You need to stop. Why not draw us for once?

Me: Hm, maybe because I like Jaune more. Hell I like Penny and Neo more than you or your team.

Ruby: Why?!

Me: Because your team is horrible.

Ruby: So is team JNPR!

Me: Yeah, but only because they have to follow you. They have some individuality but we don’t explore that as much. Plus, your team would be dead without them. But you know what Ruby, I would rather draw Yang, Blake or any other character except Weiss than you right now.

Ruby: What?! But I’m-

Me: The main character that barely does main character things. Woman, Salem was in Atlas! Why was she not your top priority? Why was James your problem?

Ruby: Um well…

Me: Ruby, she knows your mother! She might know what happened to her! I get Yang was some levels your mom but shouldn’t learning what happened to your actual mom be just as important? Especially after that dark memory.

Ruby: That is true.

Me: You have silver eyes but you still don’t know how to use them. There was army of grimm around Mantle and that would have been good practice. And a better solution than Ren.

Ruby: But then I be overpowered.

Me: No. Ruby your silver eyes only work on one person. If someone sneaks up on you or doesn’t care about that light you give off then, you’re dead. Maria is proof on that.

Ruby: Um..

Me: Plus, the question that everyone in the audience could have an answer to is whether your silver eyes can even work on Salem. In all honesty, it proves the writer don’t keep track of the characters and their personalities to where they fit together in story. You know what I have been making skits, trying to be funny but… the jokes died. Look guys I-I’m sorry but… let me explain.

1. Ruby and Blake should have stayed in Mantle. Why?

1. Salem is the main villian. She knows Ruby’s mother. You know the same mother who left for a mission and didn’t come back. The same mother, who Ruby knows nothing about while everyone seems to have different perspectives of her. Or has a better clue on who she is, than Ruby herself. Plus wasn’t Salem after her too? She basically would be killing two birds with one stone by kidnapping Oscar and giving Ruby a reason to see her. That way Ruby isn’t assuming what happened to her mother. Let Salem antagonize Ruby. (Question: Can silver eyes work on Salem?)

2. Perfect training for silver eyes. Let’s face it, Ren proved to us he can mask a bunch of people without Jaune’s help. All he needed was concentration. However, Ruby is more effective because silver eyes seem to be able to destroy multiple grimm on sight. And with lives on the line that gives Ruby plenty of reason to start using them.

3. Ren calling Ruby out on her issues. Look I loved how Ren was willing to tell the truth, but him revealing Jaune cheated Beacon was… weak. Reason being it relates to Jaune’s character and Ren still follows Jaune’s orders. However, Ruby, who is supposed to be a prodigy because she came to Beacon two years ahead of her class, has not proven once that she is worthy of such praise. The only reason-The ONLY reason Ruby was enrolled into Beacon was her silver eyes. Ruby even in volume one has been nothing but liability. Initiations, she almost dies from a Stinger. Stake out, she almost got run over by a truck and it ended in failure. First mission, she gets kidnapped and almost destroyed a city block. Roman, a man with no semblance or aura continues to beat her four times in a row. And it gets worse. Ruby almost got her uncle killed. She was the first to get knocked out by Emerald. Almost dies by a robot and Godzilla. And the moment she arrived in Atlas her first move was to lie to James. She didn’t even try to stop Tyrian when she saw him. She had her gun with her too. Ren is not her sister, he might as well tell her the facts so she can do better.

4.  Blake is Faunus. Mantle hates faunuses. Why not have Blake help them to prove faunuses are people too? Let Blake represent her people. I mean Velvet and Sun represent faunses more than she does her whole existence. Blake also can relate to Ren’s problem. How? Blake was a part of the White Fang, so there were expectations she had to fulfill. Especially when trying to measure up to Adam. However, she explains the longer she was in the White Fang, the more she found out how messed up and extremely bias it was. Including with Adam to the point she decided to leave. She even states she was lucky that Yang even forgave her after all the trouble she caused her. Blake challenged her bias nature, and it made her stronger for it. Blake would be basically telling Ren the more he tries to live up to someone else’s expectations, without seeing their flaws, the more he loses touch with himself and everyone around him.

5.  Oscar shouldn’t have been able break out of Salem on his own: I’m sorry but… Oscar got beat up. Took a magic beam to the chest. Had to switch between him and Ozpin and mind you he had no aura to help him. He should be tired and unable to move. (In my opinion, this kid was given too much screen time. At first I was worried about him but now I’m wondering why was I worrying at all.)

2. Jaune and Yang should have gone to Atlas.

1. Penny is basically Pyrrha in the opposite light. Penny’s special because she’s a robot with a soul, a mind of her own and an attitude to prove it. She is just as human as everyone else, but no one seems to treat her as such. James only sees her as something of a weapon. Pietro treats her like child even though she’s more mature than the rest of the female cast, except Maria. And now with maiden powers, everyone is out casting Penny even more. Jaune is perfect for her because he has experience with this kind of issue. However, he would’ve had to take different route to the situation considering his failure with Pyrrha last time they had discussion on maiden powers or responsibilities (Destiny.).

2. Jaune already has been a part of maiden business since volume three. His reason to be with Penny would be make sure she doesn’t meet the same fate as Pyrrha or Amber. Not just for himself but for others around him. Especially since Cinder was in Atlas and is willing to hunt her down for the maiden powers. And James was willing to turn Penny into a soulless machine to follow his every command. (Actually, Watts is more a fault considering he hates Pietro.). James and Cinder are also opposite to Jaune in some ways.  James earned his position and earned respect from his military. Jaune on the other hand cheated, and unlike James might not have everybody’s respect. Cinder treats her allies like tools. And with power she just consumes and gives nothing return. Jaune however treats his allies like family. And instead of just taking power he gives power to others around him. He’s the reason Cinder has maiden powers. So, him making it his personal mission to make sure Cinder doesn’t get more power only increases his resolve to protect Penny. (Especially since he already had to kill her in the canon finale.)  In other words, James and Cinder purposed a challenge to Jaune. Can he pervert history from repeating itself? Can he really protect the maiden powers? Is he truly worthy of being a huntsman? What is he willing to risk in achieving his goal? (Also let’s be clear. Hazel beat Oscar down for the password to the relic. James shot the kid and was willing to let him fall to his death. Qrow intentionally punched the kid.  I don’t care if it was for Ozpin, he still punched Oscar. Lion before even knowing Oscar was Ozpin reincarnation was already about kill him anyways. All Jaune did was push him to a wall. Yes, Jaune still would have hurt Oscar, but he didn’t. He walked away.)  

3.  A lot of the situations could’ve been avoided or mattered if Jaune was there. Don’t believe me? Well let me explain. Was Ruby the only option when sneaking pass Central Command? No, because they had Weiss, Nora and Penny. Weiss could have done a freezer burn like in her fight with Marrow. Or Nora could have thrown her grenades and Penny just shoots them before the hit the ground or damage anything. Both causing a smoke screen, so no one sees them. Plus, they were already caught by using Pietro credentials. Did Nora need to get knocked out for the team to escape? No. If she had Jaune with her they could’ve one caused an EMP wave being Jaune has gravity and Nora has lightning. Or two, if Nora still went through with it, Jaune would have healed her immediately. Penny lifting and keeping the arena in place. If Jaune and Weiss were with her then once Amity was in position, Weiss with Jaune’s assistances can keep it place so Penny can come back inside and the whole video could be played. Also, Pietro would know what was going on with his daughter and can properly explain how to fix her. (Better than Jaune healing her.)

4. Nora’s whole character is knowing who she is without Ren right? Then why not just have her lead the evacuation once she’s done with Atlas? Why not have her and Yang work together along with the happy huntress to evacuate Mantle? Especially if their friends disappeared to save Oscar. (And before ya’ll tell me they can’t do it….. Yang, blocked a punch from a mech, held off a Manticore, and has a semblance that literally lets her take damage and dish it back five times harder. Nora who literally crushed Weiss and Yang in a food fight. Knocked a giant horse down on its knee. And knocked Hazel away.  Are you seriously saying these girls are not enough to take on a few little tigers? Come on!) If the whole point of Nora’s character development was finding out more about herself then let Nora try something without Ren. Let her call the shots. Let her take charge. Give her a character. (Hell don’t stop there. Have her interact with other characters. Like Jaune. Yang. Weiss. Or anyone other character than Ren. Let them tell her what they think about her. Let Nora be a solution to a character’s struggle. Ya’ll make it sound like Nora has no friends.)

5. All Yang needed was a break from Ruby and Blake. In all honesty Yang should have been the one to see the hounds face and kill it. Why? Well Ruby is Yang’s sister and only reminder of her nonblood related mother. And Blake is her girlfriend. And if we saw the hound’s face, we know it’s not just a silver eyed person. It’s also a faunus. This will give her a reason to protect both her loved ones because by seeing the hound she knows Salem intention with Ruby and want to keep her, and Blake from meeting the same fate of being turned into monsters. Yang should’ve been the 2nd to 4th member of team RWBY to fall. Why? One, a Yang vs Neo fight. Two, Cinder and Neo both wanted Ruby dead. So why not get rid of Ruby first? The fights would have been more thrilling and seeing the character, the show is named after, presumed to be dead would have added stakes and tension to the fight. (Also let me say this. Why is it, that the only great display of the maiden powers I’ve ever seen, was from Amber and not the maidens, as of now, Winter, Raven, and Cinder? The maiden powers are basically magic right? Why isn’t Cinder using any other element than fire?)

6. Weiss was completely useless. Look, as the saying goes, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” And when it came to Weiss and family, she has little to no clue of what it is nor deserves it. Weiss should have been more of an inspiration for Whitley to do right. How? By simply talking to him. What reason would she have other than Mantle? Simple, he’s her brother and she started off like him. Beacon, she was a brat. She was arrogant. And more importantly a jerk. Blake ran because of her racist attitude. Ruby literally had to impress her to prove she can be leader. Even though Weiss is not leadership martial herself.  Plus, hearing May and how she and her family never resolved their issues should inspire Weiss to not repeat that mistake. And guess what, her mom, Willow, the drinker of the family, wasn’t wrong. Both her and Winter left Whitley alone. Klein wasn’t there for him either. All Whitley had was his father. So Weiss, actually acting like his sister and trying to help him allows him to feel less alone. Instead Weiss was complete Jacque through out the entire volume.  

And that’s all.  Look I know I should have seen this coming but I had to say it.  Volume 8 could’ve been good. The problem was.

1.       Characters are not placed well within the story.

2.       We lost track of who said characters are.

3.       The ships are in the way.

4.       Being dumb for the plot. (Sometimes it’s necessary.)

[rumblelibrary]

Back at it again with mysterious anon,

Could I request some Niki angst? You've done one where the reader cheats on James to be with Niki so maybe reader cheats on Niki with James 👀

Muted [Niki Lauda x Reader]

Word count: 2k

Warnings: angst

A/N: This one makes no sense, I just wanted to break my own heart. Little narration, a lot of feelings.

Niki wished to be able to tear his ears off when he heard James sweet talk to you after a pre-season testing. He whispered sweet nothings to you, telling you how he would sweep you off your feet, bring you away to his house in England.

Then things got heated, he started mentioning how he wished to do you this and that. He didn't need to be specific with his words, Niki could easily understand the situation by how y didn't even flinch or tried to deny yourself.

He knew you, he knew you too well.

With him you have always been protective, jealous, proud of your relationship and there was only one way he could imagine you giving in.

You already gave up. He already lost you before that very moment, you slipped through his fingers like water through wood, following every curve and every wrinkle, weakening it from the outside until you got to the inside, opening it up, exposing it.

His jaw clenched, he pulled his cap over his eyes as he marched away.

There was no time to regret, no time to think twice, he had only one thing to do.

Throw the soaked wood away.

You were speechless the moment you came home to find your stuff already dislocated outside the door, your keys completely useless in the brand new locker.

Very Niki: efficient, resolute and without looking back.

You knocked at the door, you waited but there was no answer.

Your eyes darted down onto the simple and effective doormat you brought, or was it already there when you moved in? As you wondered why it had to end like this, you didn't even act surprised, you knew perfectly what you did and you took full responsibility over your actions.

You were no saint in this situation and maybe it was bold of you to just expect confrontation from Niki.

You considered to just leave, even if pained you to go like that, but you were temporary bruiselessp, you knew actions weren’t the most painful weapon in Niki’s arsenal, it was his cut throat way of speaking and in particular when it came to you.

Before you could have the time to realise that it wasn’t a punishment but a chance the door opened. Wild curls and beaming eyes, simple home clothing and steady hands.

He was everything you ever wanted and all you could never achieve.

“Niki” you murmured as you looked at him “Listen”

He looked at you eyebrows up “Oh, no I think I heard enough today between you and Hunt”

“No, no, now you’ll listen”

You paced inside the house quickly to stand in front of him, a visible frown over

your features.

Don’t do it, you ket telling yourself, just leave, just go, don’t confront him, you can’t win.

He was right, you cheated but it was’t pure lust, it wasn’t like you enjoyed to hurt him and hadn’t felt a single beat of guilt, you just wanted him to know that.

“Tell me the truth, were you even serious with me?”

You asked him and the question made him cringe.

“Like what? The doubt made you wish to make sure you will always have a bed to sleep into? We lived together, sounds pretty serious to me, evident if you apply a bit of brain power in it”

You frowned as he was hurt and he was attacking you but he saw you wanted to talk and he smirked shaking his head “What are you doing? Finding a way to put the blame on me?”

“I just want to talk Niki” you groaned but he rolled his eyes

“No, you just want to tell me why you did it”

He was stone cold, maybe you hoped he’d react somehow, maybe a bit, maybe just a bit. And now he was just humiliating you even more. No matter the pain of being cheated on, he wouldn’t let you win that either.

In that moment you realised that your gut feeling was right, you should have just disappeared.

“Go on, how bad can I have been to make you decide it was better to fuck James Hunt?”

“You never cared about me”

It was dry as an answer, you hated yourself forn ot being able to express all you went through now that it was the time, his eyebrows shot up in disbelief and a bit of

sassiness. He was mocking you.

“Didn’t I?”

“No, not when you’re constantly dismissing me, telling me anything I say it is stupid or judging anything I do from your superior being. Anything I did was poorly done, or not the right moment or just not enough for you”

“You’re not stupid, but clearly you need to see everything through your heart shaped eyeglasses, right? You need confirms and words and speeches and big excitement. Well, go play the princess somewhere else, what I offered you will be the only true relationship you’ll ever have, and you know it. I never lied to you, I never cheated on you, I tried to better somebody that liked to stay as she is, that’s my only fault”

“I didn’t want to be somebody else, I just wanted you to care about something, anything that was not your job”

“So fucking around was a better choice to keep your ego up”

“No, but at least somebody would gave a fuck about me”

You snapped back immediately to him, you couldn’t remember the last time

you and Niki had sex, maybe a little shag in the middle of the night but it

felt more like trying to get rid of the tension to fall asleep.

He rolled his eyes like little he cared, his hands opening like you just stated what you had to do:get the fuck out.

That always hurt you: the fact that whenever he seemed driven to you, he would pull you into amazing kisses and heated love sessions but always at his time, his desires. If you ever leaned to kiss his neck or reach for him when he was busy or doing something more important, which was most of the times, he would shrug you off, literally closing the space between his neck and shoulder, stretching his back to get you away.

Not now.

Stop it.

Don't be like this.

You really aren’t good at picking timings, are you?

Those words hunted you day by day, you felt like he didn't need you, like anything you did was wrong, flawed, helplessly meant to annoy him one way or another.

You always seemed to organise dates in the wrong days, to wish to stay lazy at home on the wrong day, to pick the wrong moment, the wrong occasion, the wrong words, the wrong topic.

There were times you even woke up with him, you would sit at the breakfast table with him, not knowing if to engage a conversation or just trying to show him your support. You just wanted to see him even if you didn’t know if he would stay outside for the night or leave for some business meeting or whatnot.

But it was never worth it, it was never enough.

Every time you engaged him for confirms or any kind of formal commitment you always were out of place, out of time.

Your touches denied, no sweet words for your ears. You felt like a shadow beside him, you weren't there for the good and neither fo the bad. You weren't into his thoughts and not even into his hopes.

You grew detached from him, angry, you wished to hurt him even though every time you found yourself staring in his eyes you felt bubbles in your stomach and an happy feeling. A voice in your chest telling you how much you cared, how dear he was to you.

And yet , no fondness was reserved to you, no tender touches or gentle words.

It was just the bare minimum of a relationship.

So it felt natural, terribly natural that when somebody, it was James but you know anyone could have worked it out, gave you the backhand of attention you felt loved and blessed. Did your heart flutter when you saw him? Probably not, but he held your hand, he wanted to spend time with you, he stayed in bed after sex with you, he held you and not just dealt with you. You didn’t feel dumb every second of your day with him.

Because that's how Niki made you feel.

Like you were a burden and you'd gladly relieve him now from that, even if you never wished for it to happen this way.

Not reducing it all to the unstoppable drive of sex, your pain was discarded, once more.

You probably deserved it, you got it in the moment you admitted your weakness to him, the moment you slipped into some other man’s bed instead of facing him.

Or maybe, admit it, maybe you just hoped that he would lose control.

Just once, just one time he would have to put the rest aside and focus only on you.

"Now that you wasted some more of my time" he held the door open and waited.

You felt anger and sadness mixed up, the realisation that even now you couldn't win against him.

You'd never get your point across, you will just be the cheater and he would be right.

The loud slam followed your exit as your eyes dropped onto the couple of luggages belonging to you, all your stuff. You never realised it was so little.

You didn't feel like seeing James, let out friends and family that will give you random hypocritical phrases to cheer you up.

Maybe you'll go to an hotel, maybe you'll just leave.

You wished to change your name, change yourself.

The instinctive thought that crossed your mind made you gag, because for a moment, just a random malicious moment, you imagined how beautiful it could be to start from the beginning with Niki.

And maybe you won't do the same mistakes, maybe you'd be better.

James told you many times that you didn't have a reason to feel less than Niki, but the truth was that after hearing to be wrong, do wrong and act wrong, you begun to believe it.

And as you dragged your stuff t the car and drove off you begun wondering what life could be without Niki and while watching you and your little suitcases he wondered why you have such a small amount of things. He wondered if you have always looked so frail, he wondered if there will ever be an after you.

Or maybe, all hope was leaving with you, you were his Pandora’s box, a box full of all the feelings he prohibited himself to distract him and the hope was leaving with you, hidden tightly in the perfect cage of your chest.

Far from him, safer.

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