#so the idea of her being on a vengeance quest against her ex is so funny like girl what are you gonna do?

[taashed]

i'm replaying inquisition with veilguard in mind so i decided that my inquisitor is going to be a solas romance for the drama and also be an absolute woman scorned about it, she's gonna be out to get solas if it's the last thing she does

[mustardyellowsunshine]

In today's episode of Shut Up Robin, Nobody Cares:

I finished Maison Ikkoku back in February, and I had a lot of feelings about the series. (It's good, do yourself a favor and go read it if you haven't.) As I read through it, I couldn't shake the thought: this is the caliber of romantic development Rumiko Takahashi can bring to the table?? We could've had this kind of relationship development in InuYasha??? 😭😭

The other thought I couldn't shake: InuYasha fans who still question the sincerity and depth of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome might benefit from reading Maison Ikkoku all the way to the end. They should read the final chapters of Maison Ikkoku, think for awhile about the blatant parallel themes found in InuYasha, and then try reevaluating InuKag's dynamic.

Now, I should clarify: I think the InuYasha series already makes it abundantly self-evident that the Inu/Kag/Kik "triangle" (🙄) is a complex situation that puts InuYasha in an extremely difficult position. (Well, it puts all of them in a difficult position, but you get the idea.) You just have to read the series with your brain on to see that. To review: teenage boy is tricked and terrorized by a demonic murderer; that demon successfully murders the boy's ex while masquerading as him; later his ex is revived from the dead against her will, wanders the earth as a vengeful spirit for awhile (who wouldn't be pissed about being brought back into that bullshit?), and is actively stalked by the demon who already murdered her once; teenage boy is falling in love with someone else when this happens, but he still wants to save his ex from being re-victimized by the demon who already brutally murdered her once. Anyone who sees that situation and describes it with a straight face as "InuYasha needs to make up his mind already" is probably never going to reconsider their assessment of InuYasha's character. They've already formed an opinion in defiance of the evidence. That ship done sailed.

But for some folks, I think experiencing the way Maison Ikkoku explores the same relationship themes—and particularly how it resolves those themes in the final chapters—could help them re-evaluate the emotional nuances in InuKag's relationship, and maybe help to re-contextualize the Inu/Kag/Kik conflict.

The parallels between Godai/Kyoko and InuYasha/Kagome are pretty obvious—Rumiko Takahashi consistently revisits this relationship dynamic in her work (it's present in Mao to a lesser extent). But I think Maison Ikkoku more directly confronts the emotional complexity of that dynamic. You can feel the difference in how RT more directly explores the messiness, complications, and pain of a) grieving a former relationship even while falling in love with someone else, and b) loving someone who is still tangled up in grieving their past. The InuYasha series obviously deals with those themes too, but Maison Ikkoku brings more focus and resolution to its exploration.

This may be for two reasons: 1) Maison Ikkoku had an older audience, as it was published in a seinen magazine geared for adult men between 18 - 40 years old, and 2) the relationship tension between Godai/Kyoko pretty much constitutes the main story of Maison Ikkoku; in InuYasha, the plot (such as it is) revolves around a vengeance quest and the monster of the week, and the relationship tensions between InuKag are second to that. Maybe that's why RT was more willing to get into the weeds with Godai/Kyoko and to more directly resolve the tension.

InuYasha does have some standout chapters where it explicitly deals with the tension of InuKag's situation (e.g., chapter 78, chapter 124, chapter 176, chapter 286, chapter 458, etc.), but there's this distinct hesitance in the narrative to resolve that tension in a substantive way. That's one of my beefs with the InuYasha series: it gives us moments of standout, concrete relationship development which then doesn't impact the future narrative all that much. The same relationship conflicts play out over and over again, well past their narrative expiration dates. See: Miroku flirting with women right in front of Sango after they've acknowledged feelings for each other; also the entire Kaō arc, which just... I do not understand the narrative purpose of that arc when it just exacerbates tensions that already existed and resolves none of them. Anyway. I digress.

You could argue this hesitance to permanently resolve relationship conflict comes from the episodic nature of InuYasha's storytelling. There's some truth to that, but that's not a satisfying explanation for why the main couple's relational status quo remains inert for the latter half of the series. Maison Ikkoku also does this to an extent—the "will they, won't they?" tension is strung along for as long as possible—but in general Maison Ikkoku does a better job of allowing relationship development to actually affect the narrative. Moments of emotional revelation and growth do change the relational status quo between Godai and Kyoko. They don't stay in quite the same relationship limbo that InuYasha and Kagome get stuck in for the latter half of the series. (It probably also helps that Maison Ikkoku is significantly shorter than InuYasha.)

All that to say: I think Godai/Kyoko is actually a useful mirror for examining InuKag, because they share the same themes and relationship dynamics without sharing the same narrative failings.

Okay, so: big time major spoilers ahead for Maison Ikkoku. Stop here if you don't want to see the conclusion of that series.

I want to look at how Maison Ikkoku's conclusion simultaneously revisits and resolves the main conflict between Godai/Kyoko.

Ahhhhhh my feelings!!! Man I love this series.

Okay, let's review the major takeaways from this scene:

• Notice how the tension between Godai and Kyoko—Godai's struggle with insecurity and Kyoko's feelings for her deceased husband—mirrors the tension between InuKag. And notice that the reader is encouraged to sympathize with both Godai and Kyoko. Godai is not "at fault" for struggling with insecurity and feelings of jealousy. That's a natural human feeling to have, especially in a relationship that hasn't been anywhere near secure until very recently. And despite whatever jealousy or inadequacy he may be feeling, Godai tries to see things from Kyoko's perspective. Part of Godai's struggle—the heartache of it—is his understanding that Kyoko is also not at fault. It's not her fault that she married before she ever met Godai, it's not her fault her husband died, and it's not her fault that she's struggling with the grief of that tragedy. She's trying to reorient herself to her new life after loss; she's falling in love with Godai, but she's also scared of betraying her husband's memory. (Let's hold that mirror up to InuYasha now, shall we? SHALL WE?) Moving on from Soichiro emotionally represents to Kyoko a breach of duty to a loved one.

• To reiterate: neither Godai nor Kyoko are "at fault" in this situation. That's precisely why it's a tragedy. They both have to process painful, messy feelings; both their feelings are valid and understandable. (Hold that mirror up to InuKag, girl. HOLD IT UP.)

• Notice how Godai explicitly acknowledges that loving Kyoko means loving the Kyoko who once loved Soichiro. "On the day I met Kyoko, you were already within her. That's the Kyoko I fell in love with." It's impossible to divorce Kyoko from her feelings for her former husband: that part of her life significantly shaped her into who she is. And I just love that Godai is hashing out his feelings at Soichiro's grave: it shows a sort of respect for Soichiro's memory, but more importantly it also shows that Godai knows his negative feelings can't ultimately be "fixed" by Kyoko. If she could fix them, he'd be having this conversation with her. (And by this point in the series they have had this conversation.) But Godai knows he's the only one who can truly work through/resolve his insecurity—especially now, when Kyoko has already assured him that she loves him—and I love how the scene's setting subtly demonstrates that. Soichiro's ghost is haunting Godai's feelings, not Kyoko's, and Godai is trying to work through that with Soichiro himself. There's no love triangle to resolve here: what needs resolving is Godai's own feelings of inadequacy which no amount of assurance from Kyoko can ultimately "fix." This is his ghost to fight. (We get an echo of this kind of inner conflict in chapter 458 of InuYasha: Kagome directly wrestles with the "ghost" of Kikyo and struggles toward some resolution of her own insecurities.... Only for the Kaō arc to come along later and materially damage that resolution and character growth for no clear reason, BUT I DIGRESS.) And this scene shows that Godai wins that fight: he comes to understand that loving Kyoko has to include accepting her past. Kagome reaches a very similar understanding in chapters 175 and 176 of InuYasha.

• To reiterate: Maison Ikkoku's conclusion is not the resolution of a "love triangle." It's the resolution of a series-long conflict, which is completely different. In order for love triangles to work—to actually function as love triangles—two competing love interests have to be viable options. This is quite evidently not the case in Maison Ikkoku: Soichiro is dead at the start of the series. It's literally impossible for Kyoko to choose him in any meaningful way. RT blatantly acknowledges this early in the series when Kyoko's father-in-law tells her she has to live her life. I cannot stress enough how self-consciously the series is not about a love triangle between Godai/Kyoko/Soichiro. (Mitaka is another matter entirely, for a different post.) Rather, the series is about the damaging power of grief in our lives, the rocky and painfully non-linear journey to healing from that grief, and how messy, fraught, and ultimately profoundly beautiful it is to love another person for exactly who they are — past pain/trauma and all. (Please for the love of heaven hold that mirror up to InuKag.)

• No, you know what? I'm not leaving that at a parenthetical. I'm just gonna say it: exactly as Maison Ikkoku is not about a love triangle, InuYasha isn't either. For the same reasons as stated above, the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is not ultimately a love triangle because Kikyo is dead at the start of the series. And while her spirit is magically revived—in an altered/diminished form—she is still not truly alive. The story conspicuously communicates this: her body is literally created from decomposing bones and cannot sustain itself (she needs to consume souls—other deceased spirits—to remain animated), symbolically suggesting she is of the dead even as she walks among the living. This is a facsimile of life. RT is not subtle about this. Kikyo is a tragic and complex character whose arc can be interpreted in many ways, but I think it's fair to say that the series self-consciously represents her as a past which can't be recovered. The damage has been done. She is dead, time continues to move forward, and there's no reversing that. (That's, again, why it's a tragedy.) Even her resurrected body symbolically represents this reality via death imagery. Ergo, from the very start of the series—just as we see in Maison Ikkoku—Kikyo is not a truly viable option for InuYasha. He can't choose her in any meaningful way. To "choose" her would be to essentially choose death—abandonment of life—just as Kyoko choosing Soichiro would make her "a wife who hadn't died yet." Kikyo represents an irrecoverable past just as Soichiro does. And the main thematic trajectory of each series does not suggest that Kyoko/InuYasha should give up on life by choosing death — it suggests they should choose life. Godai and Kagome conspicuously represent life, the possibility of living into the future. (Kagome is literally from the future, that's how unsubtle RT is about this.)

(A quick aside while we're here: no, Kikyo's not being a viable option does nothing to diminish the sincerity of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome. Kagome is not a "second choice," for the love of God the series blatantly addresses that very thing many, many times—like it's right there y'all—and I have already written a long ass post about why Kagome's insecurity over InuYasha's feelings for her shouldn't be taken as gospel truth.)

So, rather than being an actual love triangle, I think the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is a complicated emotional landscape that explores the same themes Maison Ikkoku does: how grief and trauma affect our lives, how painful and messy it can be to heal from that grief, and that loving someone—choosing to take that mutual risk with them—means trusting that they mean it when they tell/show us they love us, and choosing to trust them more than our own insecurities.

It's just that Maison Ikkoku explores those themes a little better. 😅 Which is why I think it makes a good mirror for re-examining InuKag: all the same themes without all the narrative failings and missed opportunities. ✌🏼

[aglitchysylveon]

Anyways here we go explaining the lore of my funny eldritch hedgehog mom.

She's somewhat like a mix between Toriel from UT, Sonic.EXE and maaaaaaaybe Monika from DDLC.

So Sari is a creation from another OC I made that's inspired from another EXE I saw called *coughs* Sark from I think.. Sonic.EXE Nightmare Version? Or Spirits Of Hell., But.. I basically just took his name and expanded on that. (His name unlike "Sark" is "Sarkar'thor", just know this doesn't mean they're the same person they aren't.) but this isn't about him (he's evil and we hate him).

Sari was basically created by him (Sark) as some type of companion to aid on his quest to take over humanity to turn it into his perfect playthings typical EXE antics (totally not just stripped from Lord X) and maybe be his female mate, at first he created her to be 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙢, egotistical, cruel all that bad stuff. And to really only love and care about him, he was very controlling of her existence and life (And mentally and psychology abusive) Really bad dude.

Eventually after years maybe even centuries of her life being controlled by this abusive tyrant.

The world or universe experienced a reset.

What's a reset? In the series (CoMaB) I made, a Reset is the last resort Sylvia (basically corrupted pokejesus) will do in this simulation and reset everything how it was from the beginning so the others can do other things to change their routes and destinies and not do the same thing again. The only people who remember their past from the resets are Sylvia, and unfortunately Sarkar'thor.

After this reset, Sari finally got a hold of her mind with the help of a few friends (mainly Sylvie) and managed to leave Sarkar. Vowing vengeance against him for his actions against her, and against anyone or anything that acts like him. So this is where her being an anti-hero comes in.

Instead of her targetting innocent humans and such to her game, her game is targetted to abusive people, or p3dophiles really bad people. Lustful monsters that prey on the vulnerable. And for the victims tries her best to help them to get help, without showing her form to them. She doesn't want to cause fear amongst humans. She just wants to protect and understand.

Sari has many enemies don't get me wrong, some of the EXEs don't agree with her actions, others hate her. Though some like her, or just don't care enough to be bothered. She just has a seething hatred against Sarkar for obvious reasons, he doesn't change. I don't think he ever will. Another Villain we have that goes against her is a demon queen from Hell who took her form via her shadow because she was interested in her power, and well "A Goddess that's mentally struggling with her past and identity is fun to toy with." This demons name is Xaenixia or just Xae for short. She's the exact opposite of Sari, in every possible way. I'll have to explain her too. Her main goal is to ruin this Goddess's status to the mortal realm and spread misconceptions about her. Well that's her goal towards her, her main one is just maintaining her kingdom in Hell (She's the Embodiment of Lust and Desire, Queen of the Lust Circle).

Bonus information bout Sari.

- Her original design was inspired by a FNF mod of "Too Slow" for a female Sonic.EXE, and honestly she was a joke character at first until I really liked her character and wanted to see how it would be like to have a total opposite of Sonic.EXE gender and intentions, everything.

- Sari was either born with gigantism or it's just her making herself tall, but her canon height is 9'6ft.

- She likes cooking.. Like it's one of her favorite hobbies when she's not saving victims from Sarkar or the other EXEs (mainly just Sarkar) or her Victim's victims.

- Sari is canonically Lesbian, after her ordeal with her past partner she shut herself off from men because of trauma, and realized how much she really liked woman and appreciated them. She doesn't hate men, or anything. It's just.. The idea of being appealing to her was ruined.

- Sari has a weird hobby to adopt children who have no family, or children whose families were killed, ect. Or redirect those kids to a better family. She currently has two children who are close to her and live with her in her dimension. And they are this series versions of Needlemouse and.. *coughs* Cesar Torres from TMC. (Basically, Mark gave Cesar Sarkar's disc, Cesar played it, and got sucked in by Sark, he was gonna get killed by him but Sari stopped and saved him from his demise of being his puppet, and since he was able to avoid his death from being an EXE she then let him go back to his world. Which.. He then got killed by and Alt, ect. She saw that, and checked on him. Then dragged him back to her world so he wouldn't cause any harm to humans and teach this "new" Cesar how not to.. Well be evil. Sari and Gabe also met, they hate each other) for Sarah (Needle) she just adopted her as her mother and tried to help her with her problems and give her some affection and love she needed. Since she can't move on to the afterlife, she's stuck in the digital world. Might as well make it comfortable?.

- Sari has a light British accent, I don't know why I just thought that would be nice so yeah. She's British, but she can change it, she was just created with one at first and she stuck with it.

- I usually think she can sing, and for that it's kinda like ethereal like music? Like.. Emma Shapplin or Artesia, or Enya. Ect.

- She one of the small handful of beneficial EXEs, like I said. She's also an Eldritch Goddess, like Sarkar'thor. Who basically made her to be just like him, a spitting image of him but female.

- Sari's age is currently unknown, but she's been on earth for about.. Around 400,000+ years, if that.

- I made Sari on Wednesday, December 29th of 2021, so she's a Sagittarius. But in lore birth date is also unknown, she goes by this so humans don't.. Get suspicious. It's also easy to remember.

So there's Sari, I might add onto more, there's so much information about her.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Jason Voorhees

(WARNING! He’s back! THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK!)

...ki ki, ki, ma ma ma...

The slasher subgenre of horror has plenty of villains, but the key to any great slasher movie (aside from quality kills) is having a memorable slasher who sticks in the mind of those who watch the film. You can’t just have some generic evil guy and expect the killer to be cool and memorable; you need to give them a fun gimmick. And in the scores of slashers who populated the 80s, there are few out there who are quite as legendary and iconic as Jason Voorhees. Jason is one of those few villains who, even if you’ve never seen a single one of his movies, you’d know on sight.

Even now, with him being absent from cinema for over a decade at the time of this writing due to legal disputes (though not from other mediums such as video games), Jason is still a household name, still remembered as one of the coolest, creepiest horror villains to come out of the 80s. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say Jason might be the greatest slasher villain of all time. So let’s take a look at the man behind the mask and see what we’ve got here.

Motivation/Goals: Jason as a villain is motivated by two main factors: a desire to make his mother proud, and a desire to get vengeance for how he was treated. The first few movies are all Jason taking out his anger over his mother’s death on anyone near Camp Crystal Lake. In earlier movies, he’d really only kill anyone who invaded his territory, but later sequels had him expand his killing range by going to Manhattan, Springwood, and even outer space. Basically, Jason is motivated by revenge against a world that persecuted him, and a desire to impress his mother. The simplicity of his motivations is actually a great strength, because it means there doesn’t need to be constant time in each new film adding on to Jason’s lore like they do with Freddy, Michael Meyers, and so on. Jason kills kids who have sex, that’s it. Simple, clean, effective, and a vehicle for cool kills.

Performance: There are a LOT of people who have put on the hockey mask throughout the franchise, but perhaps the most well-known name is Kane Hodder, the hulking actor who portrayed Jason in the seventh through the tenth films. He’s certainly the Jason that will spring to mind when thinking of Jasons, but he’s the obvious one. His actor in Freddy vs. Jason, Ken Kirzinger, was chosen because he had kind eyes and could tower over Freddy, and amusingly he actually appeared in Jason Takes Manhattan as a huge chef Jason tosses aside. Then of course we have Ari Lehman, the man who cameoed as Jason at the end of the first film in the Carrie-esque jump scare, most notable because he is so proud of his role that he named his punk rock/heavy metal band First Jason.

And these are just the few I wanted to highlight here; the original continuity is ten movies worth of actors playing Jason, and he even has multiple actors in some films.

Final Fate: It depends on the movie. His mortal life is ended by a young Tommy Jarvis in The Final Chapter, but then he comes back in Jason Lives as a zombie, a zombie who is only incapacitated until Jason Takes Manhattan where he is seemingly killed off for good by the nightly flooding of the Manhattan sewers with radioactive sludge (likely a safety measure against C.H.U.D.s). But then he comes back in Jason Goes to Hell where his original body ends up obliterated for most of the movie until the ending, but soon after he’s dragged right down to, you guessed it, Hell. But then comes Jason X, and he’s brought to space where he finally ends up obliterated for real by falling through the atmosphere of a planet and burning up. And this isn’t getting into the numerous deaths from games, comics, and so on; Jason is a man who is very hard to kill.

Best Scene: What does one pick for the best scene? His sleeping bag kill from VII? The liquid nitrogen kill from Jason X? The numerous amusing scenes he has when he actually reaches Manhattan in Jason Takes Manhattan? It’s a tough choice, but honestly. I might just have to go with his corn field rave massacre in Freddy vs. Jason. It’s just so damn cool.

Final Thoughts & Score: Jason Voorhees is one of the great early slasher villains and, most impressively of all, he managed a remarkable level of consistency until the very end, at least compared to some of is peers. Compare to Michael Meyers, who had to constantly be rebooted because filmmakers kept trying to find ways to humanize and explan his motivations to the point that franchise has a fractured timeline to rival the Zelda series, or Freddy Krueger, who deteriorated from a terrifying psychopath who treated killing like a game to a non-stop quip machine that spent more time slinging one-liners than kills. Jason, while certainly going through some odd phases – recall the time he was a weird demon worm that could surf between bodies, or the time he went to space and became a cyborg – never really lost sight of the things that truly made him effective as a character.

Yes, Jason is a silent antagonist, but he says a lot with his deeds and actions. He’s a killing machine, but he certainly isn’t mindless, and he usually seems to have some sort of ethics that perhaps we don’t understand, but Jason certainly does. For instance, in later films Jason does not hurt animals, and once he’s a zombie he doesn’t kill children either. A lot of this likely stems from Jason essentially being a child in a deformed man’s body, and this goes a long to making him an interesting, tragic figure. Jason almost certainly doesn’t understand what he’s doing is wrong, and if he does, he’s almost certainly too blinded by rage to care, especially after becoming a zombie.

I think the underlying tragedy of Jason simply being a monster who only wanted to please his beloved mother and violently lashes out at those he sees, through his warped perspective, as the ones to blame makes him an interesting and complex character… and here’s the great thing! Unlike other slasher villains, this is all established very early on, and rather than continue piling on more and more backstory, the series decides to throw Jason into interesting situations. This is a problem that befell his slasher sibling Freddy; as cool as Freddy managed to be, every new film added more and more convoluted backstory rather than trying to put Freddy into an interesting scenario he could have interesting kills in. And the less said about Michael Meyers, the better. But Jason? They gave him all he needed in the first two movies, made him a zombie in the sixth, and then spent the rest of the series getting weird and creative. Jason is a villain effective because his simple characterization and motivation means he can slip into any sort of situation, be it fighting a telekinetic girl, going to Manhattan, fighting Freddy Krueger, fighting Ash Williams, slaughtering camp counselors en masse, or going to space.

It should be incredibly obvious Jason is an 11/10. He’s a testament to what makes a slasher villain great and memorable: he has a simple yet flexible mindset that allows him to be thrust into a variety of situations, he has an iconic outfit, he has an awesome weapon of choice, and he is parodied, referenced, and known throughout the world to this day. He has killer video game appearances in the likes of Mortal Kombat X and his own Friday the 13th game, he has tons of comics including ones where he takes on Freddy, Ash Williams, Leatherface, and even Uber Jason, and despite the obnoxious legal battles currently keeping him from appearing in any media to any great extent, you’d be hard pressed to find a person without even passing knowledge of Jason.

Here’s a few interesting notes, though – a lot of shout outs to Jason have characters using a chainsaw, which as we all know is the tool of Leatherface. Jason uses a machete for the most part but is very versatile, but even so the closest he ever came to using anything remotely like a chainsaw was in VII, where he used a weed whacker. Jason also didn’t gain his iconic look until the third film; in the second movie, Jason wore a burlap sack over his head. And finally, there’s a bit of trivia I’m sure most are aware of by now: Jason was not the killer in the first or fifth films. In the first film, the killer was actually Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees, and the fifth film Jason was still kind of dead so a copycat killer named Roy Burns took his place. So hey, while we’re here, let’s talk about these Jason adjacent killers:

Pamela Voorhees is one of those rare female slasher villains, and the fact she is so absolutely amazing makes you wonder why there aren’t more. She’s basically to Friday the 13th what The Boss is to the Metal Gear Franchise – an all-important female figure whose actions completely and totally changed the course of history. Her quest to avenge her son’s death led to her slaughtering people at Camp Crystal Lake, which led to her death… but then it turns out her son had lived all along, and her death served only to make him into a violent, vengeful monster. Add on the fact that Pamela was using the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis on her son to empower him (supported by Jason Goes to Hell and Freddy vs, Jason vs. Ash), and Pamela is indirectly responsible for every murder in the series. Or perhaps even directly, if it really is her voice Jason hears in some of the movies and the Friday the 13th game. Betsy Palmer absolutely kills it in the role (pun intended), and it’s a shame she was annoyed by the role for years, though she apparently did eventually come around and embrace it. As one of the great ladies of horror, Pamela definitely earns a 10/10.

But now let’s take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum with Roy Burns. The idea of a Jason copycat killer is not entirely without merit, and for the most part, the movie is incredibly solid, with good kills on Roy’s part. The issue comes with the ultimate reveal of his identity, which turns the entire movie into an utterly convoluted mess that makes absolutely no sense. The lack of buildup of any kind, save for two brief scenes prior to his unmasking, makes the twist lack any sort of punch, and his reasoning for killing people is just absurd. Hell, he isn’t even targeting the one person responsible – that guy gets away with a jail sentence while Roy butchers innocent people!

 Basically, Roy fails at being an engaging replacement for Jason due to the film’s finale, which goes out of its way to undermine him and everything you just watched. It should come as no shock that he’s a 1/10. Still, unlike most villains with this rating, he does have a little bit of redemption due to being playable in the Friday the 13th game. You’re just controlling him as he kills without any worry about stupid backstory, so hey, I’ll give Roy that at least, and I can’t deny his mask is pretty sick.  

UPDATE: Ok, I was way too hard n Roy. Yes, his motivation is stupid and poorly explained, his killings are absolutely ridiculous and make no sense with his motivation, I still stand by all that... and yet, I’m watching this movie for creative kills, right? And boy does our boy Roy provide. He slaughters his way through these oneshot characters with gusto! I think I’m just still bitter he’s not Jason, but I like Season of the Witch even if Michael Meyers isn’t there, so maybe I’m just too harsh on Roy and his movie in general. I think his dumbass motivations hold him back, but I think the correct score for him is a 6/10. He is most certainly not abysmal enough for a one and I was really foolish to issue a score like that. Sometimes even I have trouble overcoming my biases.

It’s interesting, though, that both of these characters tend to be forgotten, overshadowed by Jason. In the intro of Scream, Drew Barrymore’s doomed character accidentally says Jason is the killer of the first film, rather than Pamela. And I think that while that is likely a common misconception, it’s less because Pamela is forgettable but more that Jason is so overwhelmingly cool that he overshadows anyone else in these films with few exceptions. Jason may very well be the greatest slasher villain of all time, and if you disagree, well, who won in Freddy Vs. Jason again, hmmm?

And more importantly, what slasher villain has an Alice Cooper song dedicated to him?

I rest my case.

[warsofasoiaf]

Hi again, just a friendly reminder for you about Disco Elysium. I played it myself 2 weeks ago and I thought it was a wonderful game, looking forward to hear your opinion.

Here’s the weekend reminder about disco elysium: at some point I’d like to hear your thoughts about Kim and the deserter, but I’m sure you have a lot of first thoughts about the game’s narrative and styles at large and the overall themes ?

Yep, I’ve got many thoughts on Disco Elysium. Overall, I found it an incredibly enjoyable throwback to the classic role-playing games of the old Infinity Engine in a good way. It’s dialogue-driven in the way Planescape: Torment was, but was confident enough to avoid the pitfalls of combat that punctuated the D&D games in favor of a mechanical challenge of skill checks. All conflict is done through dialogue, either through picking a dialogue choice or engaging in a skill check. The game also helpfully gives you feedback, not only in your skill totals, but in how your actions influence the choices you’ve made. Did you take the corrupt union boss’s check? He has you over a bit of a barrel so it’s harder to resist him. Did you impress Cuno with your marksmanship by shooting down the body? You have a bonus to impress him since you’ve already done it before. This sort of openness with the mechanics of the game helps smooth over understanding of the functions, as well as reinforce the themes. Since everything you do is in the dialogue trees, and all of these choices occur in dialogue, it stresses careful reading of the dialogue box as opposed to something you just blow through to get quest markers or goodies.

Alright, let’s talk about the plot. Since there will be spoilers and it’s a relatively recent game, I’m going to throw a cut in here.

One of the chief themes of the game is sadness and loss, it’s written all across the setting. Heck, it’s even written into the name. Disco is the archetypical music genre that is dead, despite its followers wishing that it could come back. Elysium, the afterlife of Greek mythology. It was a failed communist revolution followed by a failed monarchist rebellion followed by a capitalist invasion, and now exists as a pit of corruption, crime, and plenty of people within Martinase look back to the lost days by cleaving to the old political systems as a source of comfort. Communists and monarchists look back to the old communes that were established, capitalists look to the successful Coalition and the ability of capital to absorb its naysayers and failures into itself for success, and the moralists look at the other three and say “you extremists are absolutely insane!” and hold to their own centrist platform and the path of incremental caution. This is hardly unusual in our own history, with far too many historical examples to list here. There’s a longing there for something that is lost, the people you meet in the game are lost, even what seems to be simple comedic beats have their own secret wishes, like Cuno who ends up helping you in the final act if you lose Kim, and can even become a junior police officer once out of the thumb of Cunoeese. Harry can sing the saddest song about the littlest church, and it’s a perfect expression of his regret, as his reptile brain lets him know. The deserter is lost in regret, albeit an incredibly negative sort. He curses those who are not ‘committed’ like him, who aren’t willing to murder like him. He looks at the Rene, the old monarchist with his boule, and wishes only to pull the trigger and silence him. 

The main character you inhabit is a great twist on the blank slate character that dominates the ‘western RPG.’ The main character starts the game passed out in his own drug-fueled excess. Where most RPG’s either expect reading a large lore dump (this was the case with the Forgotten Realms Infinity Engine games, which expected people to know who Cyric or Auril was) or largely wave it off with bland exposition, this was a game that made what happened an integral part of your character. What drives such a man to try and destroy himself so completely? Going through the game reveals the answer: it’s Dora, your ex-wife. Before, your obsession with your job (your case load, as noted by Kim, is exceptionally high), seemed to be at odds with your character’s penchant for substance abuse and overall instability, but exploring the failed relationship with Dora sheds new light on Harry DuBois. Dora was a wealthy woman, and your character was clearly a member of the lower classes given his demeanor and salary. Your character tried to immerse themselves in the work perhaps to earn more money, or simply to earn prestige to help alleviate the mismatch. It didn’t work, Dora left six years ago, and the detective has been alone ever since. By calculating the ‘cop tracks’ that the character can be on, the game can populate dialogue with references to the behavior, allowing the character to fill out aspects of themselves in a character-driven way. Tyranny did this with its campaign character generation, and Disco Elysium does it here. Such things are always going to be niche in RPG’s, the driving trend these days is instead make a completely blank character and have them be built out from actions taking place in the game world, but this typically leads to characters who rationalize performing optimal paths and who do everything the game offers in the world, which translates either into a lot of time doing repetitive content (in order to built up other character builds to the same level of mastery to the original build) or leads to ludo-narrative dissonance at the ease of which the character plows through the content, like becoming the Arch-Mage in Skyrim without being able to cast a single adept-level spell.

However, that isn’t to say that Harry is alone. Instead, the detective is quite a crowd is his own head, with the 24 various skills that he has developed largely advising, suggesting, yelling, and talking over each other. This was almost certainly part of the reason the original name of the game was “No Truce with the Furies.” The Furies, in Greek mythology were embodiment of vengeance, primal feelings that sought out their goals. These 24 skills in your head almost cannot be compromised with, only accepted or rejected. They’ll yell inside your own head to listen to them. Electrochemistry wants its next fix, Volition is certain that Klaasje is trying to manipulate you and wants you to slap cuffs on her right now, Physical Instrument wants you to show everyone who’s boss with fists while Authority wants the same with words. This was almost overwhelming at first, 24 characters to figure out in addition to my own character as well as Kim, Cuno, Joyce, Everett, and the Hanged Man made me wonder what exactly I was going to do. What was the difference between Volition and Composure, or Shivers and Inland Empire? It helps on a replay once you figure out what the skills actually mean and can help shape your character into your preferred vehicle for exploring Revanchol West. Dealing with these characters can be fun, insightful, and incredibly heartwarming, as the player can understand when they finally find out that Reptile Brain and Limbic System are simply trying to help Harry out with the loss of his ex-wife by trying to get rid of the sad feelings as best they can. 

What helps with this though, is that failing skill checks is not a death sentence. One of the most annoying things in games comes when you depend upon success after success that is out of your control, it encourages save-scumming behavior. This isn’t to say that failure isn’t a valuable learning experience or that difficulty is something to be avoided; the enduring popularity of the Soulsborne genre suggests that difficulty is not itself a bad thing. But failure typically has to be fair. If instead a game drops you in a room with 25 gorgons, forcing you to roll 25 checks against petrification or die immediately, that’s not challenge, that’s just padding the length of the game by forcing repeat content. Disco Elysium instead makes failure, particularly of red skill checks, either entertaining or allowing alternate paths. I laughed with absolute glee when my character took off from Garte yelling at him about the trashed hotel room which ended up becoming a full sprint while flipping him the bird, causing me instead to run over the nice wheelchair-bound old lady, in true black comedy fashion, or that you can get into a nodding war with Kim that’s so intense that you actually break your neck. That the game offers so many different methods to the same path helps elevate the role-playing elements.

Similarly, one of the best moments of game design was when you looked at the billboard to find out where Ruby could have gone. It’s a difficult Shivers check, which might force people into an insurmountable wall if they haven’t upgraded their Shivers skill. However, doing stuff in the fishing village, from going on a date with the harpoon girl to tracking down what went on with the body on the boardwalk, gives you bonuses to the check, encouraging the character to perform the side quests and explore the bonus content. 

The game’s side content really does reward some more of the Dirk Gently type of character that sees connectivity in anything. The old lady reading outside the bookstore doesn’t have a missing husband only to later be the wife of the man who died on the boardwalk, or that a grounded character won’t walk out into the water to speak with the apparition of Dora as the mythical Dolores Dei (another great reference to what was lost, the lost wife seen as the lost mythic Moralist conqueror and crusader) means that the more grounded character does have the more grounded, less intense story. But the short length encourages replayability, and the idea that a grounded character has a more grounded story is in it’s own way a commitment to the game’s overall vision, even if it means you miss out on a key insight the first time around.

I’m incredibly impressed at how the developers stuck to their visions and the finished product that they developed. My hat is off to them.

Thanks for the question, Khef, the multiple Anon’s who reminded me, TBH, and everyone else who was looking forward to this essay.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[thewhumpstuff]

You and I, Me and You [28]

[CW: References to gore, leading up to some descriptions involving eyes, fingers and needles. References to an OC held captive.]

[Teaser and Master List] [Archives of our Own] (Lost and Found: Chapter 3)

[<– Previous] ~ [Next –>]

Eyeronies.

The carpet under her feet was so soft and still felt like a sheet of coals. This study… His study was a place of nightmares. She tiptoed in front of the bookshelf, fiddling with the book that held the slot for some sort of a key-card. Nova knew Zizi could not hear her and yet, illogically she spoke in reassurances.

“I’ll get you out. I will! You’ll be fine, I promise.” Nova was trying to latch onto her own dwindling sense of hope. The weight of one life lost had already been too heavy to bear.  ��... Can’t go to Aki or Jared right now…”

Nova had exhausted herself trying to access the room. It now presented as a dangerous conundrum. She paced and then curled up by the bookcase that stood propped against the heavy door to the hidden chamber. Despite its perturbed nature, slumber held Nova in its grips for the whole following day. She woke with a start. The room looked exactly like it had, but she could tell precious time had been lost. Unwelcome as it had been, the rest provided her with courage and clarity. No, I must do this on my own. I can do this. -

The advantage of being a sniper was knowing where to be, where to aim and when to shoot. Vivi sat in the pitch-black cell, out of her own free will in absolute silence, even her breathing mingled with the quietude of the night.

And it was that sound, of the inhale and exhale that divulged the location of the occupant in the cell next to her. She could hear the indignation in every draw of air that Ezekiel took. He was cornered, disgraced and resolute in his lack of protests. Perhaps, he was still in denial. Or maybe he thought active resistance was beneath him. This was somewhat impressive. For a whole night and a day, since Eze’s arrest, he had had no visitors. No one knew she was there, she lurked when she could, usually slinking into the cell, into her spot past sunset. After the arrival of Jared fanned the fire in the blonde and drove him to cross new lines, Vivi was left intrigued. It vexed her that she knew of the ex-second-in-command but had never bothered to know him.

Better late than never.

The sharp clanging of the bars had shattered the eerie tranquillity that was unwittingly shared by the free and the imprisoned, by the witness and the witnessed. And it irritated Vivi. But did not compel her to make her presence known. “I hope you’re happy Eze!” “Revenge is a petty look on you, T… But you wear it oh-so-often” The sniper could make out that Tariq’s quest for vengeance was rather hollow. It was his frustration and a keen sense of guilt that added an untrammelled ferocity to the way his baton struck the only thing keeping him from breaking his friend. He managed to speak over the din, “You best hope I don’t find a way in Eze...” The east-facing cells had painfully antiquated technology securing them. In Q.B.’s defence, a security upgrade was futile when no prisoner had attempted a breakout from these cells. There was nowhere to go from here, where they would not be found. Vivi could help Tariq find his way in with ease, a part of her was curious to see if his words were a bluff. But she waited. That lilt of betrayal that made Tariq sound so wounded, just made Eze scoff. According to him, Tariq latched onto being the victim of duplicity, so he did not have to face being the passive perpetrator. He had turned a blind eye too and conveniently; accepted too many things at face value. And acted upon them. Ezekiel felt safe behind the bars, safe behind the curtain of the title he once had, even though it was now lost. They can’t hurt the ex-SiC. “Why, do you miss it? Being in here? I’m certain you’ll do something to find your way back soon enough. Now that you don’t have me protecting you.” The bars were rattled. How dare he suggest that he was protecting me? And the rattling stopped abruptly. A lone figure approached, this one Vivi had not been expecting. She tucked a strand of her freshly dyed pink hair behind her ears and remained lurking in the safe shadows of her open cell. She sat up straighter as she watched the frail silhouette pass her. “Nova?” Nova had already noticed Tariq before he called out. The BioHacker was still in the black bodice and leggings. She looked like a lithe, black cat… carrying bad news and bad luck. She wanted to do this alone, but she could not turn tail now. This was a time sensitive matter. She would have to deal with whatever judgement followed when Tariq learned about Zizi. She swallowed and ignored the ex-squadron leader, her voice was a whisper and directed at the man in the cell. “Eze, I need to let her out.” The blonde spoke over her, deliberately. “Aww… My SuperNova, I expected you sooner. Are you enjoying having the house all to yourself?” His drawl had only worsened with his circumstance. He knew she was not alone in what used to be his home. She stiffened and cleared her throat.   Tariq’s confused questions found words. “Let who out? From where?” Everybody he knew was safe…  She ignored him again. “Please, just tell me how, Eze…” Even a state of disgraced imprisonment, her pleading, especially when it was so genuine, was like music. He teetered to the bars and hung onto them. If Tariq could not see the gravity of the moment and if he had not been distracted by the unanswered questions, his baton would have broken the pale clutching fingers. Ezekiel couldn’t help taunting her, she made it so easy.    “Do say that again, SuperNova… I so dearly miss you begging.” Two pairs of amber eyes pinned Eze, one set desperate, one livid, just like he liked them. He laughed, even with his back against a wall and in a cell, Ezekiel knew how to play them. He still had cards up his sleeve. The golden eyes averted and found each other instead. Tariq searched for an explanation in her features. Nova realised that there was no point in hiding it anymore. She looked at the floor of the cell as she answered, guiltily.   “He is keeping a woman in a hidden room against her wishes. I can’t find a way to let her out…” Ezekiel was smart to step away and take his hands off the rods, just as the baton clanged against where his digits had been moments ago. Tariq’s gaze darkened considerably. The blonde clicked his tongue and smirked. “I haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re talking about.” 

“She’ll die.” Nova stated, as though that would change anything. It did not. Ezekiel shrugged. “And whose fault would that really be?” Tariq gave up on the man he had once called a friend and offered a naive solution. “Why can’t we report this, Nova? I’m sure someone will find a way…” Ezekiel receded deeper into his cell, his voice echoed in the dingy room as shadows and soft light made his features appear more menacing than ever. “Yeah, SuperNova, tell him why you can’t report this. Because it was not me who used her for experiments now, was it? The same ones that allowed her to fix you and Kira by the way, T.”  I just wanted to find a way to help her before she was handed off to authorities. Nova did not trust Q.B. to be able to handle Zizi’s life with the sensitivity she thought it would require. But between life and discomfort, Nova’s choice for herself and for the people around her had always been obvious. Life. It’ll be difficult, but at least she’ll live…  I do not care what happens to me… Nova’s thoughts only served as a reminder that there may be no other way. Before Tariq could fathom the implications of what Ezekiel just shared, her clear voice cut through his thoughts like broken glass. “We can. We should just report it, we must, in fact. I don’t care what they do to me. I don’t want her dying in there. Who should I go to? Who would be able to help her best?” Nova seemed to have convinced herself already and now was bolstering her spirit and coming to terms with this being the only option if there was no way to make Ezekiel give up the information on how to get into the room. They will have to believe me if what I say implicates me and I tell them anyway, right? Nova had surrendered herself to this option in her mind, she needed to act. Zizi is not dying on my watch. I will find a way. Some way. Any way.   Tariq was certain that there was more to it than he knew. This was something she probably did not want to do. Nova was driven, but the tendencies Tariq had seen did not reconcile with the picture Ezekiel painted. You are not fooling me anymore, Eze. He knew Nova would willingly suffer for something she did not have to suffer for, just for the life that was at stake here. She shared that trait with him… Just like Akira did. “There must be another way.” The conundrum was infectious and now had its claws in him.   “There is.” Vivi’s voice startled both Tariq and Nova in equal measure, Tariq visibly recoiled and then drew himself into a stance to strike. The BioHacker was better at stifling the jump. He did not strike when he saw the bubble-gum hair emerged from the neighbouring cell, “What the fuck, Viv?” Tariq was ignored again. A trio now pooled outside Ezekiel’s cell. “Eze… This certainly doesn’t have to do anything with that private Biometric ScanLock you had me work on, does it?” Vivi’s voice sounded like she was reciting a moving poem. The Blonde’s absolute silence was an answer. There was no sneering now. Anna’s scalpel flashed in the pale moonlight as Vivi twirled it in her fingers. Only the sniper spoke and asked the questions now. “Nova, you do know where this room and the scanner is, right?” The medic wearily nodded. Vivi described the gadget she had created for Ezekiel a few months ago. Nova confirmed with another small nod, that it was the scanner tucked away in a book on the bookshelf that covered the hidden door.  “You can’t - you can’t get in here.” Ezekiel tried; his voice finally faltered. Vivi removed a small device from her satchel and let it snap onto the lock of the cell with a soft click. A few beeps followed and then another click - The cell door swung open. Ezekiel’s back was already against the wall—literally now, he had scurried to the very back of the small cell on instinct as he spewed the promises of unpleasant consequences. “They’ll know! They’ll know! You will all land up here for taking matters into your own hand.” “Well you did say I’ll wind up in here, anyways right? At least it’ll be worth i-” Vivi’s fingers found Tariq’s shoulder as he spoke and was about to step in. He shrugged her hand off. He had still not forgiven her for what she did to Akira. But he did wait. The sniper spoke exclusively to Nova in a whisper. The silence let Tariq catch a few of the hushed questions. ‘Iris… print... serum healing?’ Nova had resorted to using only nods.  “Then no one has to know…” Vivi finished. Uncharacteristically, she waited for Nova to confirm that the plan was fine. Nova’s eyes went wide, then narrowed… And then she closed them and drew a breath. As usual, when she opened them again, there was a newfound resolution in them. She stood up straighter, squaring her delicate shoulders like a warrior and she used words again.  “If it must be done and there is no other way...” 

The plan was relayed to Tariq in his entirety. The soft peal of Anna’s giggle haunted the man inside the cell as much as the dark gratification in Tariq’s amber eyes. But the sight that truly chilled him to the bone, was Nova’s indifference. She did not avert her eyes. Not as Tariq easily overpowered the blonde and held him down, not as Anna’s scalpel made the cuts. Three agents walked into the prison and came out with the things they needed to free Zizi. The night bore witness to the howls of a man who had taken so much pleasure in drawing them out of others in the past. - Much later that night, Novara carried a small silicone satchel, a couple of bottles of BuzzBo and a larger bottle of water to the cell. To his cell. He sat in a corner, slumped onto the floor exactly where Tariq, Vivi-Anna and she had left him. A roughly tied makeshift bandage futilely sought to wipe the tear of blood his wounded eye cried, it only left more red streaks in its wake. The wrapped stump was oozing its own share. His injured eye remained clenched shut and hidden behind the cage of the four fingers that remained attached to the hand. The left half of his face was shrouded in the streaks of crimson and the other half was graced by the soft pale light of the moon. The contrast was as striking as it was scary… And it did nothing to deter the BioMedic standing outside his cell.

“You… fucking bitch.” He spat in a pained hiss. She didn’t respond and crouched to carefully set the bottles she had procured onto the floor of the cell through the thin dark poles. He did not make any motions towards her. He could not, not with the intention to harm anyway. “Do you want them back?” She asked and pursed her lips. “You… you’re just burying evidence, you-” His curses were lost in a pained whisper. It was her turn to shrug. She did not care, a part of her wanted him to deny the help and reconstructive healing. She knew he would not. He cared about appearances way too much and cared about perfection even more. Now it was only a matter of time for him to decide what he was willing to endure for it. She repeated her question, slower. Her tone was ever so slightly patronizing. “Do you want them back?” She had already begun to draw the serum into the syringe. He swallowed and looked at her. Disgusted at the predicament he was in. “Yes.” He croaked. Perhaps, in some other universe, Nova would have found it within her to make him beg for it. The large needle glinted menacingly. She did not enter the cell. All the experiments had certainly allowed her to iterate things and learn. The method was mad, but it taught her to be precise, in practice and in instruction.   She did not need to instruct; he knew about it all too well, too. After all, he had made it a point to witness the process. After indirectly being the reason, it was required to begin with… Repeatedly.

For Zizi, for Akira and for Tariq… She did not need to instruct him, but she pointedly did. And there was something powerful in watching actions follow her words, for once. He slipped the bandage off and stumbled to the front of the prison. “C-can you s-ee?” Panic and uncertainty tumbled out of his lips. A trembling hand was hoisted up the horizontal spoke. “Well, Anna isn’t here… So, you’ll have to take your chances.” He did not call her SuperNova now, when she truly was being super. The needle teetered. “We should probably start with the eye; it’ll require you to stay… stiller.” The single eye that stared at her, shed a bitter, fearful tear. She stared on, almost like she could not see him. “Hold it open and try not to move.” The ruby eye squinted inwards, watching the needle as his thumb and forefinger, and hers (Nova’s work ethic did not allow her to be entirely irresponsible), held the other one open.  They had to scoop out his cornea and iris, the oddly reflective lens lurked behind the wound. Nova steadied herself, which was easier than she had anticipated. Carefully she inserted the needle into the pinked and bloody white, deep enough to reach the right targets. Once, twice and then another few times. Ezekiel had just become the first human subject to have the serum tried on his eye. There certainly was a poetic eyerony, to that. Hopefully, this works. Most probably, it will... There is a chance it may not. They both thought. Till the agony wiped any thoughts from Eze’s mind.

On this rare occasion, Nova didn’t care too much if she happened to fail. The only reason she wished it didn’t, in some capacity was not for herself, or for him... But for everyone else involved in helping her. They deserved better than to get into trouble for this. The gruff cry that his lips issued, rose to a screech then to a siren-like wail. It would only get worse. He fell to his knees, leaving crimson trails on the bars as his grip slackened.  “Please… please come back for the thumb… Please… I cannot take it. Please SuperNova.” He should have stuck to not calling her that. The name he had called her for so long and in such a derogatory manner, was spoken with sincerity, but that did not matter. It slipped out of his lips before he could stop himself, maybe if it had not, she would have found herself to be merciful. “I’m not coming back here, no one is.” She said that with a heartfelt conviction. “So, now, or never.”  Four jittery fingers rose to grip the horizontal bar again, pale and weak. A needle found its way into the stump. The night would continue to bear witness to the excruciating process required to fix a broken man.

[Category - 2] Tags: @lettuceknighted, @quirkykayleetam, @straight-to-the-pain [My attempt at eye/finger stuff is back!]

[woolishlygrim]

Winter Weebwatch #4

This was … not a good week for a lot of the shows I’ve been reviewing. It wasn’t bad either, necessarily, just a solid two stars almost all the way across the board (and, like, two three star ratings).

We’ve also dropped another show this week, bringing our count down to five. Amazingly, the dropped show isn’t Darwin’s Game.

In/Spectre

★★☆☆☆

Episode three, and we’re straight back to the tone/genre problem from before.

The first half of this week’s episode finishes up the story about the snake deity and the swamp, with Kotoko giving her final hypothesis to the snake and successfully arguing in its defence. In the aftermath, she admits to Kuro that while the series of events she put forward was plausible, it’s actually a lie: The first theory she proposed, which the snake shot down, is actually the truth, but since it wouldn’t accept that, she had to come up with something else. This actually caps off that storyline in a pretty interesting way, and it tells us a lot about Kotoko’s character.

Aaaand then the story timeskips forward two years for no apparent reason and introduces us to Saki, Kuro’s ex-girlfriend. The timeskip seems fairly pointless, but Saki actually is pretty interesting: We get to see the reason she broke up with Kuro from her perspective, namely that, after an incident with a kappa where it fled in fear from him and where he seemed to be in some kind of trance and daze, she abruptly became acutely terrified of him without really knowing why, to the extent that just thinking about him makes her violently throw up.

That’s … really potent horror-writing right there. The idea that you can know somebody for years, and then one day a switch is flipped and you realise that there’s something unnatural and terrifying about them, and there always has been, is a legitimately horrifying one.

The problem comes back to tone and genre, because this isn’t really a horror show. It’s a romantic comedy, and while there probably would be mileage in ‘Kotoko is the only person not instinctively terrified of Kuro’ as a concept in a dark romantic comedy, we haven’t seen Kuro interact with anyone other than Kotoko and Saki, and there’s been no suggestion that people are instinctively frightened of him. The fact that immediately after this moment, the show resumes being a comedy, doesn’t help.

Darwin’s Game.

★★☆☆☆

I actually kind of remember most of what happened this time! I have to think really hard to remember it, it’s still foggy, but I do know what events took place in this episode.

Aaand because this is part of a longer arc and I haven’t remembered any previous episodes well enough to describe them, if I do any kind of synopsis in this review it’s just going to sound like utter nonsense.

But this episode was okay. Not amazing, not bad, but plenty watchable. It even introduced a semi-interesting idea, as Tech-y Information Broker Girl revealed that her Sigil, the ability to calculate the immediate future, is named after Pierre-Simon Laplace; setting things up for the  main character -- whose name is still a mystery to me -- to later have a vision of a mysterious blacksmith with his face, the apparent source of his own Sigil.

That … presents an intriguing idea that all the Sigils in Darwin’s Game might be in some form manifestations of historical figures. As an idea, it’s completely out of the left field, and it may end up not being the case at all, but it’d be an interesting little twist if it was.

Either way, this was an okay episode, I liked it.

Pet.

★★☆☆☆

We’re handing out a lot of two star scores this week, aren’t we.

I did enjoy Pet, and it probably wasn’t helped but how damn tired I was when I watched it, so this may not be a fair score. What bumps it down from a three last week to a two this week, though, is that this episode doesn’t introduce a whole lot that’s actually new. Hiroki is still in an abusive relationship with Tsukasa (who I think I called ‘Tsubasa’ throughout my review last week), and he still sort of realises that, but is so codependent that he can’t get out of it, Katsuragi is still talking a big game but the weakest one amongst them, and Satoru is still a cinnamon roll who keeps getting unfairly cast as the romantic rival by Hiroki, despite his demonstrable lack of interest in Tsukasa.

Instead of building on its character dynamics, this episode of Pet instead reintroduces us to Satoru and Tsukasa’s mentor, Hayashi, and it starts laying the groundwork for what will probably be an interesting romantic subplot in future: Satoru and Tsukasa both indicate a certain amount of romantic interest in Hayashi, with Satoru even drawing a parallel between Hiroki’s feeling of abandonment by Tsukasa and Tsukasa’s feeling of abandonment by Hayashi -- but Hayashi, meanwhile, seems to barely acknowledge that Tsukasa exists, and while he’s very invested in Satoru’s wellbeing, his interest is more filial than romantic.

Also, Katsuragi’s still a jerk and is still the least competent character around, which is fine.

Anyway, this isn’t a bad episode, but since it doesn’t really deepen our understanding of these characters (except maybe Tsukasa), it’s gotta get only two stars.

ID: Invaded.

★★★☆☆

I wavered on this one, I really did. In a week where every show seems to be doing worse in these reviews, ID: Invaded is unfortunately no different, and its streak of four star reviews has finally been broken.

But that’s … sort of fine, actually. This is very much a bridging episode, the middle part of the Gravedigger arc, and being the middle episode in a three episode (I suspect, it might be more) arc isn’t an easy position to be in.

Picking up immediately from last week’s episode, Hondomachi quickly realises that the fellow Perforator survivor who kissed her is actually the real Gravedigger, present at the crime scene to check out his imitator’s work, and that the reason the team haven’t been able to form a Well out of his killing intent is that he has brain damage, causing his killing intent to manifest as acts of love and his love to manifest as murder.

The plotline ends up not being as simple as all that, with the episode throwing three curveballs at us close to the end, but this is nevertheless very much a bridging episode, and it’s obvious in how relatively low effort the Well in the episode is.

Still, it sets things up nicely for the next episode, and I’m intrigued to see where this arc goes.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

★★☆☆☆ (DROPPED)

I think the pace of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is just too slow for my short attention span.

This week’s episode opens on another flashback, and when it became very apparent that a) The entire episode was going to be a flashback, and b) That flashback had no real momentum and not a lot of plot relevance, I just kind of decided enough was enough and that I should drop this show.

Unlike Plunderer, though, I’m not dropping this show because it’s bad or horribly offensive -- for viewers with a little more patience than I have, I think Orphen is the kind of series they could really enjoy, a light-hearted, somewhat retro fantasy story with some fun characters and a potentially interesting plotline.

It’s just a little too slow to keep my interest.

Infinite Dendrogram.

★★★☆☆

This week’s episode sees the gang starting on what should be a routine quest, only to run into a wandering boss monster, an ogre with poison and fire powers. The task of defeating it becomes a complex interplay of strategies, as Ray and Rook attempt to work around its ability to stack status effects on them and its potent fire powers.

So, this episode is pretty much all one long fight, and honestly, it’s not a bad fight at all. The main grit of it is Ray trying to juggle all of his abilities and advantages while trying to stay alive -- he has to stack up damage to use his Vengeance Is Mine ability, which adds damage he takes to his own attack power, but he also has to not die, and he has a limited number of uses of healing, and while he’s been given an elixir to protect him against the ogre’s status effects, it only lasts for a limited time, putting everything he does on a time limit.

The show does eventually pull a little bit of an asspull, as he discovers a new form for Nemesis that lets him offload any status effects he receives onto an enemy, but that’s kind of par for the course with shonen shows, to be honest.

One thing I do wish, though, was that the cast had a little more characters in it. At the moment, it’s very much just The Ray Starling Show, with Rook as a supporting character who doesn’t get to do much, and I’d like to see a proper party.

[nidhoggssoultrap]

My "Headcanon" (Nidhogg, Louie, and Yvette. Mostly Nidhogg) Part 1

This one is a long one, so I'll be splitting it into parts. I don't think I have ever had a headcanon list this long. Jesus...anyway,

I ship him with Louie shamelessly and without apology. I know that they are adopted brothers, but well, it doesn't stop me, and I hope you don't read Game of Thrones or Angel Sanctuary because BLOOD incest is CANON in both. Anyway, I started out shipping them in a "bitter ex" sense, but it quickly became a situation where Nidhogg wanted more than being a "brother and a friend" and Louie did not and it's unlikely that he ever would. This leads to a lot of heartache for Nidhogg, but he loves Louie very much and while he has attempted erotic things with him, he backs off when Louie refuses. The fact that Nidhogg is unwilling to set aside his feelings for Louie has actually saved him.

The outcome? While they do eventually reconcile, Nidhogg accepts the fact that they will never be anything more than brothers/friends. Louie ends up with Yvette. Nidhogg? Well, I dunno. Shade, for some reason, is creeping up.

Plotbunny: Louie visits Nidhogg at a base and tricks him into thinking that he has finally "seen the light" and it willing to not only side with the Dark, but to become lovers like Nidhogg wanted. They do what is known as a "grudgefuck" with Louie in control (alternate: Nidhogg tries to kiss him but Louie rebuffs him). Either way, Louie grabs Nidhogg by the chin and says, "There'll be a chance for 'us' when you bring Lunar back to me." (Alternate: After they kiss/grudgesex, Louie stabs Nidhogg in the heart and gets shot in the heart by Nidhogg. They die in each others's arms. "As it should be..." (well, according to Nidhogg).

2. I DO NOT ship Nidhogg/Yvette. She deserves better. That being said, she was never interested in him in THAT way. She only liked "the idea of him." In reality, while she did admire him and legit like him, she had no romantic/erotic interest in him at all. Nidhogg also was not interested in her in that way as well, in my headcanon, "he prefers the company of men." He viewed her as someone who was not only an image, but someone to "vent his spleen on". He did, however, come to view her as a friend, sister and maybe even a daughter. It's why he ended up getting "cold feet" and chose not to keep her and send her home. She was supposed to be sent elsewhere as part of a "quest" in order for Nidhogg to gain even more power. If he fails, then he will be "doubly cursed" with both the Blood Curse and a "Fail Curse."

He figured that there is still time and when he is on the losing end of the war, he kidnaps her again which leads to a very long and intense car chase between him and Nikki's group(Louie driving). This is basically a Louie vs Nidhogg and due to Yvette's actions at the end(she bites Nidhogg and tries to fight him, not caring about the blood curse or dying as she DID not want to end up "in a box" for the rest of her life), the car chase ends and a knock down drag out fight between Louie and Nidhogg begins. It ends in the latter's defeat, and he ends up "doubly cursed", humiliated by Louie(needlessly), and banished out of Miraland through a "transport tree". At least for awhile.

3. Speaking of kidnapping, I honestly believed that he actually drove out of Lilith with her. I thought that he "kidnapped" her because someone was after them and he took her to protect her. Hehe...yea, right. Still, I kept the idea that he drove her out of Lilith to the North Kingdom. As for kidnapping, I cringed how it was handled in canon, so I decided that he would be the one to knock her out with a sleeper hold and that kidnapping was 100% his own choice. She "knew too much" and well, see above.

4. Interesting to see Yvette as a "White Knight" because before I saw that, I did decide that she would become something like that. Like Louie. Nice coincidence. :)

5. Nidhogg speaks in a tenor with a soft-spoken tone. He has a tendency to whisper the final parts of his statements and is capable of sounding very sharp. Some say that he does that as a form of control. Louie says that he has always done that and admits that it sounds good. Nidhogg was a wonderful voice. When he actually sings(and in my headcanon, he does lolol), it's a high tenor range. Louie also sings, but it's lower.

6. Nidhogg drinks vodka/vodka drinks and Jaegermeister. It's one of his few "poisons/weaknesses". He does not, however, smoke or do any other kinds of drugs, except caffeine and vaped nicotine/cbd. He vapes though, but not heavily and it's not common to see him with any kind of mod/e-cig.

7. He has a tarot deck which people think odd considering his attitude about destiny(that, ftr, I generally agree with), but he does not view the tarot as destiny, but only guidelines/advice/warnings. The forecast is like the weather to him. Either way, it's not etched in stone. He likes the art anyway. His tarot deck is military themed. He does NOT overindulge in them as to him, such a thing is weakness that needs to be fixed. He is like that with a lot of things.

8. Like Louie, he can drive/fly anything. Louie is a better pilot/biker, Nidhogg is a better driver. Nidhogg drives a sleek, black, powerful, manual shift sportscar. I want to say BMW, but it could just as easily be a Jaguar. It's the car he was driving when he kidnapped Yvette both times. FTR, Louie was chasing him in a white Porsche. Okay, my biases/kinks are showing, but whatever. :p

9. I hope that Nidhogg ends up like Shield Anvil Itkovian (I highly recommend Memories of Ice and the Malazan series entirely):

"We are all pushed into a world of madness, yet it must now fall to each of us to pull back from this Abyss, to drag ourselves free of the descending spiral. From horror, grief must be fashioned, and from grief, compassion." - Itkovian

Itkovian was a warrior who served a war god. He was a mercenary and he was also the Shield Anvil. He fought in war as one of the leaders, but he also took the pain and suffering from others, took it upon himself and gave it to his God. When his god disappeared, he chose to take the pain of thousands of souls into himself. Because he is THE SHIELD ANVIL. I'd get more in detail, but I don't want to spoil too much. Itkovian is a cinnamon roll. Nidhogg is more of a "problematic fave", but still...

Anyway, I say this because I am aware that Nidhogg willingly took on the Blood Curse and refused to dull it. He, like Itkovian, knew that war causes suffering. The Shield Anvil alleviates that suffering and I suspect that Nidhogg would not mind doing the same thing:

"I did it. I should be the one to undo it." In my headcanon, Nidhogg wants to try to bring Lunar back. Yes, he has ulterior motives(See: Louie and he readily admits this), but he wants to do it anyway as it is still the right thing to do.

10. Nidhogg loves the moon and prefers silver over gold. He LOVES Onyx. He had his ears pierced since he was a teenager and got it done at a tattoo parlor. He tends to wear boot jewelry too.

11. His "animal totem" is the wolf. His temperament is similar to Griffith's of Berserk. However, there might be disagreements about dreams, depending on what one means by dreams. In Nidhogg's mind, ambition and dreams are two different things. You want to compare bad deeds? If you've read both Berserk and Love Nikki, then I think you can take a few guesses. To put it simply, externally, both are cool, calm and collected. Internally, there is a great deal of intensity that only shows in certain circumstances. Otherwise, they are both very laser guided and "tight-vested" with their hearts.

12. He has issues with Locco due to her well basically saying "If I must choose between being weak and being dead, I'd rather be weak for the dead have no dreams." She has her own "Fountain Scene" with Yvette. Nidhogg did not like this but he chose to leave it alone. He found it amusing when he found out that she suggested that Yvette make a "March Hare" design. He found it even more amusing when Yvette won an award for it.

13. After Yvette returned home from her first kidnapping, she developed a Jesse Pinkman attitude towards Nidhogg. What I mean is "HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!" Breaking Bad fans will know what I'm talking about. So, I wasn't surprised when I later found out that Yvette did want him brought to justice for pretty much ALL of his actions, but especially against Lilith Kingdom.

14. Nidhogg has a foul mouth, especially when stressed. He is, however, no match for a sailor, but he can try. Heh. Obviously, as Prime Minister he is a lot more "clean."

15. His interests are actually similar to Yvette's but they have different tastes. Example: when it comes to say, the fantasy genre, Yvette prefers the more light-hearted fantasy in general. Nidhogg, otoh, prefers "darker fantasy" that is more rooted in reality.

16. He does not hate the clothing he designed for Lilith, he just does not generally wear them himself unless it's modified to his actual preferences.

17. I call his real name Heinrich, which is the Germanic version of Henry. FTR, I cannot stand the name Henry and prefer the NON-English version of the name. And really, I think Henrik is more suitable anyway. FTR, the name means "Ruler of the home." Nidhogg means "Curse-Striker." The name definitions are rather fitting for him.

18. He has a "Victory not Vengeance" philosophy(check out vnvnation.com) mentality. This means : "One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret." He has lived by this all of life. One of the reasons why Louie is not dead.

19. Nidhogg is his "second name" that his parents had given him because he would suck on "Ygdrassil" licorice when he was a baby. He loves licorice and most often eats that brand. He also loves butterscotch, coffee(of all kinds), and peanut butter. He does not, however, have much of a sweet tooth beyond that.

20. Nidhogg was blamed for the death of his adoptive father. Not by Louie, but by other rumor mongering sorts. Reality: He had nothing to do with his adoptive father's death.

And yikes...I think that'll do. I do have more, but I can just make another post.

[thecoolkidsbasement]

The ‘Could Have Beens’ Post

Late celebratory birthday post for Winona’s birthday incoming!!

It was July 13th but, as with everything else, I’m late and lack any sense of time management </3 I’ve always wanted to post about the things that almost made it into Inventor’s Absolution, or how the story differs from my first posting of it like 8 years ago/my original ideas for the plot!

Some spoilers inbound, so read at your own risk! (Also, very long post ahead, sorry <3)

in the first telling of Inventor’s Absolution (AKA: A Trial of Risk and Fall blech), Winona’s full name was Winona Aurelia Parker, back when I had ‘unreasonable Mary Sue name’ syndrome LOL as Aurelia is Latin for ‘golden’. For IA, I changed it to hope because 1.) it sounded more like something James would name her, and 2.) I wanted it to tie back into Purity and the struggles the team had at the time of her birth. It felt much more meaningful that way!

on the topic of Winona’s name, in my first playthrough of a brainy inventor with a mean batting swing and a penchant for sticky fingers, Winona was almost named Eleanor! I wanted her name to be sophisticated yet fun (in a way), but ultimately decided Eleanor was too matronly. Luckily I came across 'Winona’ and felt it was a fresh and unique name that catered to what I wanted

if ‘Eleanor Parker’ sounds familiar, it was said by James in Chapter 17, in the “Bonding Time” holotape, that Eleanor was his mother's name and he wanted to name Winona after her. This holotape was not only to show how James ultimately granted Catherine’s name in her passing, but to also pay a small homage to the name that almost was!

in AToRaF, Winona’s eyes were originally purple, not hazel. Since we don’t see Catherine in game little 14 year old me thought that I could get away with claiming Catherine had purple eyes and passed them down to Winona. For IA I decided to go for a more realistic character design and changed her eye color to James’ hazel-green, since she looks so much like Catherine already (being biracial with her mom’s dark skin and black hair)

Sumner originally was going to have a sword! Just a straight up sword, like the Chinese Officer’s Sword in F3 (because knight aesthetic and 14 year old me had no self control). This was changed because it wasn’t a realistic weapon or great tactical choice for a solder/mercenary

Sumner’s augmentations in IA are also a revamp of his new character design, inspired by finally getting the chance to play F4 and encounter a certain faction. He originally was all human

Glasgow was planned to be a cannibal! I originally wanted his tendencies to be reawakened by the events of Andale, which would result in him planning to attack and eat an unwitting settler when they arrived back to Megaton in Chapter 39

his victim, you ask? Lucy West. I wanted to play to a tragic yet darkly ironic death for her, given what happened to her parents and brother, Ian, at the hands of the Family and Ian's own blood-thirst

this idea was cut in the end in favor of Glasgow torturing Martha Wilson the chapter before, and to highlight more of Winona’s trauma after the events of Andale, as talking about her PTSD was more important to the story than Glasgow’s cannibal past

in AToRaF, Harriet was Japanese, not Chinese, with her surname being Takanawa instead of Zhang. Her teammates would mainly refer to her as ‘Tak’ throughout the story

her race was changed to highlight more of a Chinese presence in the Capital, especially if I wanted to show Wastelanders showing distrust over Chinese/Asian settlers because of the Great War. This is shown slightly in Chapter 43, when one of Peter’s Boys calls her a racial slur

in Chapter 44, a much different ending was planned for Harriet concerning her past with Katie—instead of Harriet coming to terms with her death, she was going to find out that Katie was still alive. This was so Harriet would be faced with her betrayal of Katie, to see that she survived the night they tried to escape together and endured many more years of Niklaus’ torture before escaping successfully, and this was going to drive her to seeking vengeance against the Animals of Philly

this whole idea was scrapped in favor of Harriet having her peace arc and being able to let go of the pain of Katie’s death and forgive herself for it

it was never planned (in both AToRaF and IA) for Three Dog and Winona to meet. I always felt James traversing the mutant infested ruins on his own just to talk to a radio DJ about how the Wasteland changed in the 20 years he was gone was unrealistic. I fixed this glaring oversight in the main quest by making Moriarty James’ source of information. Coupled with Winona already being aware of Purity and Madison’s location before even leaving the vault made any meeting between her and Three Dog especially useless

she’s actually heard Three Dog’s broadcasts before, though! In Chapter 12 she hears his broken transmission coming through the radio her ex-boyfriend, Freddie Gomez, gifted her

Paul’s crush on Amata (and his confession of his feelings for her to Butch) was a new addition to IA. In AToRaF, Paul and Wally both had a lot less screen time, but as I developed them for IA they took on a life of their own. I mention Paul’s feelings for Amata because it was an important device to his character and his brutal death; I felt that his love going unrequited would make his passing even more tragic

Wally wasn’t originally going to be a secondary antagonist in IA but simply fight with Butch and then sort of... fade into the background until the vault took sides and their opposition came into central focus, as Butch became a Rebel and Wally became a Loyalist in game. When I recreated his character to show more of his intelligence, ego, pride, and his ability to hold grudges through the story, I found that it’d be a crime to not utilize him as a friend turned enemy—especially since his twist into an antagonist all started with Butch befriending Winona behind his back

Whew that was a long post, so thank you to anyone who read the whole thing!! You’re a saint <3 and I hope this ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse was enlightening, or at least fun to read!

Happy reading, happy writing!

-Faerie

[whatdoyouthinkmyjobis]

Hunters on the Hellmouth

masterlist

first chapter

previous chapter

AN: Inspired by events in BTVS 7.15 “Get It Done.” This chapter references events that happened in GND 14, mainly, The First tricked a Potential into being his vessel and she later exploded. Here’s a cheat sheet for keeping track of the Potentials. Oh, and sex below.

Chapter 34: F Is For

Buffy had wracked her brain for hours before resigning herself to the hopelessness of her situation. Her head was still pounding when Willow handed her a large caramel latte. “I may have blanked on pretty much everything, but I’m sure I could persuade Professor Yardy that coffee is part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.”

Willow nodded. “I’d put it in the safety level. Could you imagine people driving without coffee?”

“This entire semester was a failure. Again. I don’t think I’m college-girl, Will.” Buffy enjoyed her classes, if not the homework and papers. But a deeper worry than grades churned inside of her. A college degree was a key to certain futures, and lately, Buffy felt her desires for her future and the reality of the Slayer crashing against each other.

“Don’t be discouraged!” Willow said. “School has ups and downs.”

“Like that time you got an A minus?”

“Dark days, but no. Take this semester off. Deal with the literal Devil incarnate, and try again next semester.”

The next semester started in nine months, an incomprehensible time frame when Buffy could barely wrap her head around the events of the week.

“Besides,” Willow added, “you spent your big study day dealing with Astrid and Jada.”

After notifying Astrid’s Watcher that she’d been killed by The First, helping Sam’s (ex-)girlfriend and her addled aunt escape to somewhere safer had been practically relaxing.

“That's the problem though. When have I ever had a semester without a Potential-killer or a Professor Frankenstein or a super vamp? A smooth semester is practically Bigfoot.”

As they walked on, Buffy put thoughts of school aside and focused on what she could handle -- grocery shopping for the packed house, the upcoming birthday she hoped to ignore, her newly human ex now crashing in her basement.

“Why so glum, chum?” Willow asked.

“I keep thinking about Principal Wood,” said Buffy. She’d tried to avoid him in the week since he beat Spike. “I can’t imagine spending my life on a Mel Gibson movie-esque vengeance quest, only to discover the bad guy is in another castle.”

Willow scrunched her face and asked, “Is Mel Gibson playing Mario in this analogy?”

“Kinda picture him more as a Luigi,” Buffy sighed. “At least Wood left Spike alive.”

Willow threw disapproving side-eye over her coffee. Spike living in the basement was awkward for everyone. The main argument against him had been his attack on her months prior, but Buffy was certain that monster had been exorcised.

Then there was the lack of space and food. As it was, bedtime changed the living room into a sea of army cots and blankets. And it was a struggle to make sure dinner was something more substantial than cereal.

“How many did Giles say he was bringing back today?” Buffy asked.

“You know how there are numbers the human mind can’t comprehend, like the age of the Earth, the number of atoms in your body, or how many people are living in our house?” Willow sounded tired.

“Xander said he could take a few. We just have to decide on who to move.”

“What about Gabi?”

“Gabi’s growing on me; she’s just...Gabi. Besides, we can’t move her or Cloé will go back to crying all the time. I’ll probably move Naomi,” Buffy added.

“Aw, but she’s sweet!”

“She’s also avoided the porch since Annabelle. She’ll be more comfortable at Xander’s.” Buffy glanced at her friend and asked, “How about Dani? Stay or go? I may be crazy busy, but I’m not blind.”

“She’s not subtle either.”

“Are you crushing, or is this a one-way street?”

Willow sat down on a bench at the edge of campus where they watched pigeons fight over a half eaten bagel.

“I know it was Lucifer, not Tara, but it was still her face. Her voice. I’ve been dreaming about her ever since. The way the sunlight would hit her eyes and make them glow, like she was some sort of sea goddess. I keep smelling her sweater, and I’m worried the scent is going to fade. And if my memories of Tara slip away --”

Holding her friend’s hand, Buffy grasped for words. “Sweetie, you’ll always have those memories. Tara was -- is -- a huge part of your life. But I don’t think she’d want to be mourned forever.”

“I don’t want to mourn forever, but how do you know when the mourning is over? It’s not like we have some calendar of crying with coordinating clothes like in ye olden times.”

Buffy’s worst breakup had been Angel, her high school sweetheart who guided her into Slayerdom. And she’d had to kill him. She still thought about the kiss before she ran a sword through him. She thought about it, but she didn’t cry. “I think mourning is over when you feel it’s over. Do you feel like moving on?”

“The idea kinda makes me woozy, and it’s not the good wooz. Even if I did feel the good wooz, I don’t know if it would be with Dani. She’s okay, and she’s here, but what I had with Tara was more intense than ‘okay’ and ‘here.’ I mean, she was my first…” Willow took a deep breath, then a smile bloomed across her lips. “The thing is, I loved Tara, but I also loved Oz. All of this death aside, I have a lot to sort through before I even know which way to move.”

“As long as all juicy details are provided, I’m there for you.”

Giles sat on the basement stairs with a well-earned mug of tea warming his hands. In the last few weeks, they’d added over a dozen more girls to the house, including the crowd of six he’d arrived with that afternoon. They were currently making themselves comfortable on the training mat while Dawn and Andrew set up their presentation.

The pair was becoming fluid in welcoming new girls and acclimating them to the house. Repetition would do that. Just as Giles was becoming comfortable with altering parents’ memories and ignoring the tears of children whose lives he’d saved by ruining them.

“Hi, I’m Dawn Summers. My sister is the Slayer. You’ll meet her later.”

“And I am Andrew Wells,” he said in an affected accent, “hero-in-training and resident chef at the Summers house.”

“You have a chef?” asked Ju, whose face was mostly obscured by thick, black bangs.

“He likes to be useful,” Dawn sighed, annoyed with already being off-track.

“Anywhoodle, we’re gonna make this quick so you can get on with your jet lag and culture shock,” said Andrew. “There are a few simple rules. One, don’t leave the house at night. The city is infested with vampires and The First will send them after you.”

Bianka, a pale Polish girl with strawberry blonde hair, raised her hand. “Are vee not safe here? Girl upstairs say you kill First.”

“You’re safe inside the house,” Andrew clarified hastily. “All those marks on the doors and windows keep out demons and vampires. As far as The First goes, we cooked some Storm Troopers, but the Dark Father is still very much alive.”

“Vot?”

Dawn jabbed her elbow in Andrew’s ribs before he could add to the confusion. “We’re working on it, which is why you’re here. Safe inside. Speaking of The First, remember that it doesn’t have a body, so it can’t physically hurt you. So that’s a good side. But in horror movie twist, it can appear in the form of any dead person. So if you see someone who you know is dead, tell someone.”

“The list of people who’ve died includes Buffy, Dean, Sam, and Spike,” Andrew added, pointing to three photographs and a stick figure drawing of a blonde in a black trench coat. The girls started to whisper. “Short story: they died and got better. None of them want to talk about it, so don’t ask for more details.”

Ginika, a girl with tiny knots of hair dotting her head asked, “These people are regular to the ‘ouse? How do we know if they’re real or not?”

“If you throw a pencil at them and it goes through them, they’re The First,” Dawn said with atonal brightness. “If they tell you bad stuff like, ‘You’re a loser’ and ‘Why don’t you give up?’, they’re The First.”

“Throw things and be positive,” Andrew repeated with a big smile and rainbow hand gesture.

“The rest of your safety stuff will be covered in training--”

“Hold up!” said a dreadlocked girl in overalls. “I came here for protection. Mr. Giles said I was in danger, and I already knew something was watching me. What the hell you talkin’ ‘bout training?”

Giles had told all of the girls about their calling as Potentials as well as the danger that awaited him, but at his current break-neck speed, he couldn’t promise they’d all comprehended his information dump.

He cleared his throat. “Rona, you are in danger because you are a Potential. You may become the next Slayer, so you need to be trained accordingly.”

“But I don’t wanna be no Slayer. I got plans, an’ they don’t involve vampires.”

“I’m not arguing that the system is fair. I’m simply saying we want you to be prepared,” Giles replied.

Shaking her head, Rona stood up and hoisted her duffle over her shoulder. “Nah, you promised me an’ Gran I’d be safe here. Now you’s sayin’ it’s too dangerous to be out after dark, but you want me to bust up that danger? With what? You want me to poke it with a damn stick? Man, I’d be better off back in Flint.”

Giles scratched his chin as he considered the frightened girl before him. “If you want to catch a bus back to Michigan, you may, but you should have all of the facts first. For example, nearly all of my fellow Watchers are dead -- blown up or cut to bits. As I’ve traveled the world picking up Potentials, I’ve been too late for over a dozen of them. A couple were still warm as they lay in pools of their own blood. The last Potential who decided to leave the safety of the house was returned by The First with her throat missing. Just yesterday, The First intercepted another Potential at the bus station. She died. Now, would you like me to get you a bus schedule?”

Rona sat down.

Dawn tried to salvage her presentation. “Um, Buffy will be back by dinner to talk training with you. She may even take a few of you out on patrol tonight.”

Andrew lit up. “Now let’s talk about my favorite thing: The Wheel of Chores. Me, Dawn, and Willow put it together, so be nice to us.”

Buffy’s afternoon walk with her best friend had relaxed her, but the knots in her muscles returned the moment she and Willow entered the backyard. Where she’d expected to see her three squad leaders -- Grace, Dani and Gabi -- drilling the girls in combat basics, she instead found three Potentials smoking and laughing with Spike. She was only half surprised. New arrivals always seemed to throw off the schedule. Plus, she’d heard the girls whispering about the mystery man downstairs; she hadn’t had the time or energy to explain him to them yet.

She certainly didn’t have the energy or patience now. Buffy marched over to Kate, a sarcastic eye-roller from Ireland, and yanked the cigarette from the girl’s mouth. “Ever heard of cancer?”

“No, but I did hear a story about how we’re all fooked, so why’s it matter?” she asked, smoke curling around her glossed lips. Kate had been high on their success after rescuing Sam from The First, but Astrid’s death had sent her back to her neutral state of doom and gloom.

“You’re not fucked,” said Spike, apologetically.

Buffy grew hot with anger. “He’s right. You’re not fucked. I am. Have you noticed how there aren’t any full-grown, know-what-they’re-doing-with-life, briefcase-carrying Potentials here? Because you phase out. I stay alive, and you get too old to qualify for the Slayer Happy Meal. And I’m a bitch to kill, aren’t I, Spike?”

“Like a cockroach,” he muttered to the ground.

“You die,” said Eva, a pixieish blonde who’d arrived from France a week before.

Tucking her green hair behind her ears, Lys asked Eva, “Étiez-vous en train de lui dire de mourir ou de demander quand elle est morte?”

“Le petit homme n'a pas dit qu'elle est morte?”

“Andrew told us you died once,” Lys explained.

“Twice.” Buffy squeezed her fist and released, regretting her anger. She didn’t need to add her tension to theirs. Calmly, she said, “I don’t want to catch you smoking again, got it? Not a great habit for people who have to run a ton. Now get your butts inside.”

Buffy watched the girls slink back to the kitchen and huffed, causing her bangs to flop into her eyes. “What are you doing out here, Spike?”

He raised his hand to his lips, then dropped it. He hadn’t been smoking with the girls. “Enjoyin’ the sun.”

“Really?”

“Inside’s a sardine can. Given the ‘eightened fear since that girl exploded at the ‘igh school, I thought I’d chat up the mini-yous out ‘ere.”

“They’re not me,” she said coldly. “And they’re also minors.”

Spike stepped back, hurt in his eyes. He peered at her, into her, in his familiar, intimate way. “Test didn't go well then?”

How did he know? How did he always know? Buffy bit the inside of her cheek, ashamed anew at the way she'd lashed out. “I'm just going to pretend F stands for footloose and fancy-free.”

“Or fighter.”

The anger rushed out of her. He was right. She had passed greater tests than Developmental Psychology or a packed camp of teenagers.

“Or flirt. As in don't. The girls don't need you distracting them.” The venom in her voice was gone. Some of the girls, who were otherwise good fighters, were hopelessly boy-crazy. Having the Winchesters as trainers had drawbacks.

“Don't worry. I think we both know Angel’s the vamp into shagging teenagers.” Spike smirked.

“You were all with the sweet a moment ago. Where did William go.”

Spike laughed, low and rich. “William is gone, love. Good riddance. My demon, too. Still sorting out who’s left.”

Spike had been met with trial after trial since getting his soul back. He had been unfortunate enough to be the first creature Lucifer encountered when he rode the angel wave to Sunnydale. He’d become a cosmic punching bag, but she knew another, grander side of Spike.

“You want to help? I need leaders, fighters, people who can train teenage girls to kill vampires. You in?”

“Damn right, I’m in.”

“Be ready at eight,” she said before heading inside.

In the kitchen, Dawn was arguing with Willow about Ella, a techno-pagan from Australia who’d arrived a week prior. Since a few of the Potentials showed magical prowess, Willow was giving them additional tutoring. Ella was gifted beyond all of them.

“I don’t care if she doesn’t want to cook. It’s her turn,” Dawn insisted.

“If she says she can’t, then give her something else to do!” Willow replied, loud enough to draw the attention of several other girls.

Buffy’s stepped in between them spoke quietly so the other girls couldn’t hear. “Infighting is not on my list of needs, like, ever.” She looked over Willow’s shoulder, where Ella stood, arms crossed. “If you don’t know how to cook, Andrew can teach you. We can get another person to help, too. It’s just really important that everyone pitch in, you know?”

The girl sighed. “I know how to cook, but I can’t help with a big meal. Can’t clean up after it. Probably can’t eat it.”

This rang a bell. Buffy had noticed her sneaking away when the other girls were eating, but had yet to ask her about it. “Why? You have to eat to stay strong.”

“I eat! I eat my own food. Your food is too dangerous. I’ve killed two vampires in training no problem, but peanuts or dairy? That’s the end of me. If that means I clean the loo twice as often, fine. ”

Dawn turned away, embarrassed.

Buffy nodded. “Thanks for the compromise, Ella. Dawn, will you rearrange Andrew’s chore chart for Ella’s allergies?”

Buffy pointed at a pale strawberry blonde. “You, newbie, help Andrew.” She left before she could get angry again. Hopefully Dawn and Willow could make up without her.

In the living room, a group of girls were teaching each other their favorite dance moves. Buffy noticed Grace sorting out a squabble between Lili (always Lili) and Verusha over whose shirt was whose. Leticia, Cloé, and Gabi, giggling so hard tears streamed from their faces, bounced on the pillows and blankets piled on the couch. In the corner, Dani whispered with a pretty new girl. The girl (woman? She looked older.) had an explosion of dark curls and a small toy in her hand.

The dining room held a stack of folded cots that reached Buffy’s shoulders. Despite the cramped conditions, three girls were squished in at the dining table attempting to do homework.

Heading upstairs to find Giles, Buffy practically tripped over Mio, Jabulela and Naomi folding laundry on the steps.

“Bathroom’s busy,” Naomi said cheerily. The bathroom was alway busy.

Buffy nodded, catching a glimpse of the two girls from Mumbai, initially chilly towards each other, doing each other’s hair in the bathroom.

Giles was on the phone, pacing in her room, the one place off-limits to the Potentials.

“Miércoles, si. Gracias, Padre.”

“Padre?” she asked when he hung up. “Have you been keeping secrets?”

“No,” he said, swapping the phone for a file, “it seems I need to fly to Spain tonight. Three girls managed to make it to an abbey outside of Barcelona. There were five of them originally…”

“Oh.” Much as Buffy hated being trapped in a house overrun with strangers, she didn’t envy Giles for his nightmare.

“Anyway, I should be back in time for your birthday on Sunday.”

“Shh!” She grabbed the file from Giles’ hand. “We’re keeping that one super secret. No way it won’t add to the weird.

“Tell me about the new girls.” She flipped through the notes. Ginika from London. Ju from Toronto. Bianka from Wroclaw -- the strawberry blonde she’d told to help with dinner. The dossier said her English wasn’t the best. Good luck, Andrew. “Training?”

“Ginika has several year’s worth. Julia, Holly and Rona were completely in the dark, while Ju and Bianka have over a year between them. Julia, at least, runs a dojo with her husband--”

“Her what?!”

Giles gave her his grave news face.

Buffy flipped open Julia’s file, and was greeted by the face of the woman who’d been whispering with Dani. The Potential was twenty-two, married and -- Buffy’s heart skipped a beat -- Julia had an infant. A little girl.

Julia had the life Buffy could never have.

Snapping the folder shut, Buffy swallowed hard. “Spike’s joining my pod tonight.”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“What else are we going to do with him? I’ll take Bianka, Ginika, Kate, Kimberly, Shakti, Wook, and Udoka. We’ll put our Spanish-speaking girls with Sam. Except Gabi. I need her and Dani to get the latest newbies up on their weapons training.”

“Didn’t Fernanda go out the day before I left for France?” Giles asked

“And she nearly got herself killed. Gotta get back in the saddle or on the bike or whatever non-motorized travel you chose.” Buffy was suspicious that Fernanda had a little crush on Sam, but with the language barrier, he was the best suited to train her. “I know I should know this, but I’m totally fried. Who speaks French?”

“Natively: Jabulela, Lys, Eva. Violet and Shakti speak it as a second language. Ju speaks some, but I doubt you want her out so soon.”

“None of them are Molly-levels of boy crazy, are they?”

“That would be difficult,” Giles sighed. “How is she doing, by the way?”

“At least a week in the hospital. Maybe two.” Buffy hoped Molly’s Potential state would speed her recovery from her burns.

She ran through the names in her head again. “Okay, leave Ju for weapons training. Put the French-speakers with Dean; Vi can translate. Give him Shakti, too. Voila! Three functioning squads.” Functioning felt like a stretch.

Buffy tossed the files on the desk and headed for the door. “You can give the others the destiny speech again, right?”

“Buffy!” Giles called out before she left. “How was your day? Did your examination go well?”

She watched his mouth move but had to hear the words a few times before understanding she needed to respond. She’d already shut the door on school. “Uh, I guess. I have to get downstairs, meet the new girls and all.”

Buffy had only wanted one thing for her birthday, private time with Dean. Instead, they’d spent the weekend moving ten girls into the Winchesters’ apartment and another half dozen to Xander’s. At least it was easier to get time in the bathroom.

As promised, Giles had returned Sunday night with three emotionally -- if not physically -- scarred Potentials. He had forgotten it was her birthday.

Monday morning started with tears. The last time someone had cried so much in Buffy’s makeshift office, it was because their parents were divorcing. Starting a new school barely ranked by comparison, but Magda’s big tears probably had less to do with math class than survivor’s guilt.

Buffy handed her another Kleenex. She’d thought putting Magda in school this quickly would help her, give her something to think about other than the slaughter on the train. Now she wasn’t so sure. “Listen to me, you did the best you knew how to do. It’s not your fault no one from the Watcher’s Council found you. It’s not your fault you were picked for this. Most importantly, it’s not your fault that those other girls died.”

Magda, who had just arrived the night before, was untrained. The only reason she’d survived the Bringer attack was because the girls she was with, Betje and Sophia, had eight years of training between them. Betje and Sophia’s Watchers and two Potentials had died in the attack.

“The-they were def-f-fending me. I do not know f-fighting.”

“But you know surviving. That’s all you need to do today: survive. You have all the same classes as Dawn, Cloé and Sophia, so you won’t be alone, okay?”

The girl nodded and wiped a black streak of mascara under her eyes. “Sophia is nice. She share with me candy bar.”

“If you need anything, I’m here all day. Now, go wash your face, take a deep breath, and go pretend Algebra makes sense.”

Once Magda was off to class, Buffy pulled out a worn journal Giles had brought back from his travels. It was his first journal as her Watcher, and he’d been hesitant to let her see it.

“There’s very little about you I haven’t changed my mind on,” he had explained, “in some cases a few times. Please, do not think this is the entirety of my view of you, Buffy.” She’d taken the journal with a smile, vowing to cry into her pillow and hold every word against him.

She’d asked to see it because she wanted to know how spun always-together Giles had been when he’d started as her Watcher. There were obvious differences. She was already the Slayer by that time, and her first Watcher, Merrick, had been murdered. Most importantly, there had only been one of her. Even so, she felt the journal would give her a peek into Giles’ mindset and methods that memory couldn’t provide.

The first few pages were Giles’ gleeful anticipation of her arrival. He had assumed the Council had been in touch since Merrick’s death, and that she knew he had been assigned as her new Watcher. The day she started school in Sunnydale, his journal read, “I had been lead to believe the Slayer is a paragon of discipline and duty. She is at peace with her destiny and gives herself over to the cause no matter the cost. This is not the case.

“I have spent the entire day surrounded by teenage girls. The Slayer is a teenage girl, a mystifying sort of creature who varies from age to age, continent to continent, culture to culture, and apparently hour to hour. No amount of destiny and duty will change this overnight.

“Though a gifted fighter, Buffy seems wholly uninterested in training. She would much rather run off with her friends in childish pursuits of what they refer to as ‘hang time.’ This adherence to friends and the social structures of the natural world is highly unusual.”

“That’s me, Unusual Girl,” she muttered.

She was deep in the journal when a voice interrupted her. “Miss Summers, may I see you in my office for a moment?”

Buffy looked up to see Principal Wood leaning against the edge of her cubicle, jacket unbuttoned, as casual as a person who had recently beaten an ex-vampire to a pulp could be.

Journal still in hand, she followed him into his office.  

“Coffee?” He gestured to the chair across from his desk.

Having been up most of the night with Magda and company, she desperately wanted another cup. “No, thank you.” Though Wood’s story was no longer a mystery, she still found his piercing, dark stare unnerving.

“Two more new girls today,” he noted.

“Three. We have three, but one has already graduated.”

“Ah.” He leaned back in his chair and stared at her as if he was regarding a complicated piece of art. “How many started at Sunnydale last week? Six? Eight?”

“Fuzzy vagueness sounds right.”

“We certainly have the space,” he said. Several dozen families had moved out of town over winter break. “Buffy, do you know why I hired you?”

“You believe I can make a difference? I’m too tired to cliche.”

“I hired you because you’re the Slayer, and Sunnydale High’s death rate is the stuff of legend. In these few months, you’ve saved several students both from the typical evil creatures and from the everyday pressures they face. You’re good at this, at guiding kids.”

All this time, she’d been flying by the seat of her pants, doling out advice with no knowledge of its impact. “You think so?”

“You’re a good leader, which is why I’m firing you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You have a houseful of Potential slayers who need guidance. You can’t give them what they need if you’re here all day.”

“But most of them are here during the day. And you know what teenagers love? Eating. How can eating happen if work isn’t happening?”

“You’re resourceful. Besides, with the sudden downturn in legit enrollment, I can’t justify keeping you on.”

“But I need --”

“You need to be the Slayer.” He opened one of his drawers and handed her a purple sack and three small books. “Speaking of, my mother’s Watcher gave her these when she became the Slayer. I guess technically, they belong to you.”

She opened the bag and pulled out a small metal figure shaped like a man either dancing or writhing in pain. “Modern art? Great,” she muttered.

“I’ll get you a box,” he said, opening the door for her to leave.

Buffy, box at her feet, was sitting on a planter near the parking lot when Dean pulled up. He rolled down the passenger window and called out, “Hey sexy, need a lift?”

Her face flicked between amused and upset as she climbed in with her box and slumped against his shoulder.

“Is that a fired box?”

“Yep.”

“Want me to kick Wood’s ass?”

“Yes, but don’t,” she sighed. “Can I hang out with you today? I don’t want to go home.”

“Do you want a frou-frou coffee before or after you tell me what’s up?”

“Before.”

She barely looked at him as she sipped her latte, her frown sinking into her skin, her bones. He didn’t press. For once, they had hours alone, so he held her hand and waited. By the time they pulled up to his work, she’d filled him in on the details.

“Now do you want me to kick his ass?”

“No,” she said, this time with a half smile. “He’s not wrong. Slayer comes first, but it’s not like being the Slayer means I’m ready to run Buffy’s Halfway House for Protected Teenagers. The electricity and water cost money. They need food and blankets and soap. And dear God, they need deodorant! Did you know that’s not a thing in some countries? Not to mention, some of them have nothing. Last night’s arrivals? Literally the clothes on their backs. And Lili is from, like, the armpit of Estonia and keeps stealing from the other girls because everything she has fits in a backpack. Jabulela washes the same Catholic school uniform every night and wears it again in the morning.”

Dean had grown up poor, poorer than he’d understood as a child, but some of the Potentials were lucky if they had enough dirt to rub together. Not for the first time, he felt being the Slayer was less of a superhero calling and more of a crapshoot punishment.

But anger would have to wait. “Didn’t Giles say some of the Potentials’ parents offered to help?”

“Yeah, and they’ve been sending money, but it doesn’t come close to covering everything.”

“Can you ask for more?”

Buffy sighed. “‘Hey! It’s that stranger who has your daughter. I’m going to need more money for pizza rolls.’ No way that doesn’t sound like a terrible ransom note.”

Dean shrugged. “Pot pie instead of pizza rolls? It’s a comfort food.” A plan to hustle pool in LA all weekend half formed in his mind. “Anyway, I got it covered.”

“Legally?”

“Legally.”

“Safely?”

“Beggars and choosers, babe.” If Sunnydale’s citizens shifted from trickling exodus to pack-and-grab panic, looting would become too easy of an option to ignore.

He lead her upstairs to a recently vacated apartment he’d spent all morning painting. His boss believed all the people leaving town were merely a winter trend, and by spring people would be looking for places to live. Dean disagreed, but he was paid to paint.

“Maybe we could key his car?” Buffy pondered, tossing her purse and coat in the middle of the room.

“What?”

“Wood. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I don’t need him to look out for me. If work and slaying was too much, I would have said something.”

“No you wouldn’t,” he laughed. “You’d just keep wobblin’ with that globe on your back.”

“Not like I can put it down,” she grumbled. “Besides, if he wanted to help, he could have -- crazy idea -- volunteered to help. But nope. He jumped straight to a backhanded firing.”

“Flaming bag of dog shit,” Dean said as he poured the paint.

“Is that your new nickname for Wood, or your suggestion for swift retribution?”   

“Both.”

Loading his roller, he started the second coat of paint. “Can I help?” Buffy asked.

He smirked at her khakis and black turtleneck. “Not really dressed for it, Girly.”

She cocked her head to the side -- her signature I don’t like what I’m hearing move.“Got another roller?” A moment later she was painting beside him, stripped down to only her black panties.

He managed to resist for half an hour before they collapsed into a pile of paint-flecked limbs, their sweat-slick bodies cooling in the afterglow.

Spreading her fingers over his chest, she purred, “Being unemployed isn’t so bad.”

“Told ya work was overrated.”

Before the priest stood a young brunette -- fourteen, on the cusp of womanhood -- with a crushed windpipe and a handprint-shaped bruise on her throat. A handprint that fit the priest perfectly.

Caleb picked up the leftover wine from communion and guzzled it. Some Catholics believed the wine turned into the blood of Christ. He liked the idea of the blood of a deity running down his throat.

He smiled, slick and satisfied. “She was the first little whore I killed. You got a point in showin’ me this?”

“You have a long history of doing God’s work, Caleb,” said the specter.

Caleb pinched out the candles in his sanctuary, enjoying the sizzle and hiss of his flesh. “Keepin’ the world clean of uppity women is God’s highest calling. And who are you, ghosty?”

“I’m one of God’s angels. He has a job for you. There is a houseful of uppity women who need to be put in their place.”

The killing visions had been flooding his dreams. Girls screaming. Crying. Blood soaking through their dresses. He’d wake up from them hard and aching. Surely, this was a sign. “I am a willing servant if you will but show me the way.”

I have a slight plot hole regarding The First and "Amends." I was going to fix it in this chapter with a phone call between Angel and Buffy after she's read Giles' journals, but I feel very crunched for time. Being a new mom (and being sick all the time, thanks winter), I don't have as much time to write. I'd rather get you this chapter with a minor plot hole than hold on to it for another six months.

next chapter

[kingsofchaos]

Even in a world of heroes Los Santos is too corrupt for any true good to prosper. The Supers who come to fight the good fight soon fall, retreating from an unwinnable battle, being brutally murdered and made public warning or, worse, plunging fast and hard into the ever growing ranks of villainy that rule the city. And really, is there anything more dangerous than a villain with a cause? A baddie with all the self-entitled righteousness of a former hero, the taste for glory, for public deference, for power. It’s not like there are rules, no handbook for the Powered to follow, checkboxes for being good vs being evil, no set destiny determining that one must be one or the other but things always seem to play out in the same way. Humans aren't half as complex as they'd like to believe, all follow the same broad paths sooner or later; the ones who hide themselves away, the ones who take what they want, and the ones who think to stand up and protect their idea of justice. When the Powered came into the public eye there was fear, jealously, there were calls to register, to lock up the powerful, demands to go to any extreme to ensure the protection of the Non-powered. Not all Powers are equal, for every terrifyingly notable gift there are dozens of negligible abilities, little more than party tricks or cosmetic changes, but most Non-powered didn’t care to see the difference. The lack of rhyme or reason scared them, the fact that unknown powers may have manifested in anyone from a childhood friend to a nephew, a nun to a super-max criminal, newfound supremacy with no regard for class or wealth. Many of the Powered were talented beyond belief, some stronger than anyone could deem reasonable, but the Non-powered would always have numbers and the ever reliable quality of hating anyone who was different. Overall it was handled poorly, even in areas not screaming for imprisonment or execution, places where Powers were seen as gifts, amazing and awe-inspiring, society simply lacked adequate infrastructure to support so many new abilities. Prison cells were no longer adequately applicable to all people, some were now immune to necessary medicines, the limits of human weight and strength had gone out the window and airspace no longer belonged solely to machines. Worse though was the fact that there was nothing in place to protect the Powered from the hateful masses, nothing to help identify and channel the newly Powered into appropriate support and education programs, nothing to mitigate the growing tensions and unease. And, yes, nothing at all which could combat the inevitable pushback, fight off the onslaught of Powered coming for law-enforcement and society alike, not just actual criminals but also mismanaged children and the inescapable furious retribution from regular Powered when it all goes wrong. It was a dark time, Powered persecuted without cause or mercy and Non-Powered constantly looking over their shoulders lest they be the target of rebel vengeance, a world-wide uproar which eventually gave rise to the Supers. Because there were of course Powered who believed in justice, who wanted to help, who stood up to stand up against their own kind when things got dire and led the charge to bring peace and understanding between Powered and Non. So things eventually settle, an uneasy truce, but there will always be those who use their Powers for their own benefits, society be damned, just as there will always be the do-gooders using their Powers to police how others behave. It of course takes the general public no time at all to start referring to them as Heroes and Villains, the comparison too close to ignore despite the general lack of spandex, but there was never going to be such a clean division. Clearly those who think it’s simply black or white have never had to define the Powered who were scouted for shady corporations or government wet work, never had to draw the line between political or military ‘heroes’ and vigilante ‘villains’. Clearly those people had never been to Los Santos, where the heroes could be just as bad, could be far, far worse, than the villains had any hope of being. It’s all well and good for the villains in Los Santos, at least a while - better to have the heroes get on board than have them chasing you down and ruining your every plan -  but it’s getting a bit crowded to be honest. It's hard to stretch your wings as a bad guy when there's no one left to push back against, when on every job you trip over half a dozen bozos running their own gigs. When the levels of depravity some of these assholes stoop to start giving all the regular villains a bad name. So, something has to be done, and if the good guys can't hack it, the bad guys are going to have to. Or at least that’s how Ramsey sells it when he’s dragging a pack of semi-reluctant crooks together, cherry picking powers and personalities to build what will be an undeniably formidable crew so long as he can get them all onside. Considering Geoff’s gift of telepathy and thought implantation, limited though it may be, getting everyone to sign up and play nice with one another isn’t quite as difficult as one would expect. Some of his choices are crooks he’s already worked with, Powers tried and tested, those who Geoff trusts more than anyone else on earth. Most notably of these are his ever faithful right hand, Jack, who manipulates wind and weather, and the ineffable Lindsay with her flaming wings. Then there’s Matt Bragg’s technological genius, Trevor’s ability to defy notice and walk unseen, Steffie’s unearthly level of multi-tasking and information analysis, and the host of loyal Powered friends they bring to the table. Even the ringers who Geoff’s not actually trialled have been vigorously investigated, carefully selected from the hundreds of possible Powered criminals in Los Santos. He’d built up some rapport with the foreigner, Free, who’s been running with two other Powered, a little crew he won’t leave behind, not that Geoff actually wants him to. He was after Gavin’s power, inherent luck and the manipulation of probabilities an indispensable quality in his endeavour, but he’d be a fool not to snatch up Gavin’s friends while he’s at it. Jones with his control of heat, of fire and ice, and Dooley’s ability to change his own density at will makes the pair near indomitable in a fight, an unquestionably powerful duo to have in your corner. And last, but by no means least, was the terrible Vagabond, the corrupted healer who takes people apart from the inside out, a living nightmare even in Los Santos. Ryan was by far the hardest to win over to the cause, but once he’s in Geoff knows they’re golden. It’s quite a line-up but even with that security there is no scattergun approach, Geoff’s done his homework, has villains and ex-heroes categorised by the danger their powers pose and the difficulty in taking them down. The first few jobs are so quick and ruthless the targets have no time to see them coming, to prepare proper defences, no chance to combat the array of abilities they’re faced with. From there word gets out, but while they lose the element of surprise they’re still in the unique position of being united; it’s so rare for those who are Powered to truly combine forces, rarer still in a group of more than two or three, and without any backstabbing or infighting Ramsey’s collection have found themselves to be near unstoppable. Between them they have the best plans, horrifyingly efficient fighters, have infiltration, manipulation and extermination completely covered. Hell they even have a preternaturally skilful wheelman to get them all the hell out of dodge when things take a turn. Perhaps best of all, though, is the fact that to some degree they have the support of the city; law enforcement, struggling Supers and civilians alike, who’ve noticed this new group shaking up the powers that be in the underbelly of the city. Who might not all be actively helping but certainly aren’t hindering, stepping back and giving Geoff and his people free reign to finally fix up the wicked city. So for a moment they are beacons, a spot of light pushing back the darkness in Los Santos, persevering where others have been crushed, relentless in their quest to take out the worst elements of the city. It is, of course, difficult to be swayed from the right path when you were never on it in the first place, can’t fall from grace when you never had any to start with. Ramsey’s gang seem invulnerable to the filth and corruption of Los Santos simply because the darkness was in them all along, their goals have never been anything close to altruistic. Some still believe, see only what they have intentionally been shown, think Ramsey’s crew vigilantes, perhaps too harsh, too violent, but only out of necessity, the strong hand of justice the depraved city of sin has been crying out for. They think the attacks will cease once the city has been cleansed, cheer on their counterfeit champions right up until the moment they finally realise that they’ve been played, that Ramsey and his gang of reprobates will never be the good guys. Because no matter what the idealists would like to believe, no matter what other crooks might sneer and spit, no one who’s paying attention could truly think Ramsey’s crew had gone light side, not by a long shot. They take down other villains, yes, but not in ways the so called good would approve of, not peacefully, not humanely, not even remotely quick, clean or painless. They take down other villains, sure, but for their own benefit, for their own power and greed, their own amusement. They take down other villains but they don’t spare the cops. They take down other villain’s but they aren’t saving civilians, aren’t restoring peace, they don’t return stolen goods or misappropriated funds, don’t seek to inspire children or bring safety back to the streets. When all the Powered formidable enough to have half a chance of beating them have been overthrown, Ramsey and his crew are right there to see their plan through. They’ve not been cleaning up Los Santos so much as they’ve been claiming it, taking full control over the city that has been thought for so long to be utterly untameable, all the while ensuring there will be no one left to challenge them. An empire built on fallen bodies, tacitly approved by the masses, a violent take over sold under the guise of justice. And in that they have found a whole new way to be devious, a fresh take on villainy, giving hope to those who'd thought themselves hopeless only to dash it all away again. Those false heroes, those reprehensible Fakes.

Main Crew Powers | Support Crew Powers

[pangeasplits]

I have read your works! And I love 'The Stars Incline us, they don't bind us' so muuuuuch. If this is not too much to ask, can you make cherik fic rec? Thank you! Keep writing, awesome!

thank you very much, i’m glad you enjoyed my stuff! :3 

since this blog is exactly 5 years old today, what better occasion is there to do cherik fic rec post, as lurking around cherik fic rec tumblr posts waaay back in the day is actually what originally brought me to tumblr in the first place. the following list is in no particular order, and odds are i like multiple fics by the authors included but i was determined to limit myself to one from each (though in some cases, this was a veeeery close call, haha).

anyway, the actual title of this list is coincidentally the main criteria i used in the interest of not having it stretch on for miles, which is to say:

Cherik Fics Pan Has Reread An Embarrassing Amount Of Times Throughout Her XMFC Fandom Tenure:

Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage by MonstrousRegiment

Erik Lehnsherr is a spy in the SS, and his British liaison is strategist Charles Xavier. Their relationship from the moment they meet to a year after the end of the war.

“You’re the only person in the world who knows what I am.”

Boden’s Mate by kaydeefalls

“Shaw has information that we need, and we need him alive to extract it,” Moira says, and there it is: the job is on the table. Extraction.

XMFC/Inception fusion AU. Erik is an extractor, Alex is his point man. They’re assembling a team to go after the most dangerous mind in dreamsharing: Sebastian Shaw. But unless Alex and the team can keep him in check, Erik’s desire for vengeance might just rip the whole job apart around them – and then there’s the shade that haunts his dreams…

Malastare Racer by ikeracity

Ignoring strict instructions from Master Emma to stay hidden, Charles and Erik decide to enter themselves into the Gorian Podracing Classic. Because they’re idiots like that.

Star Wars AU!

The Secret of the Knights Templar by madneto

Erik is a CIA agent who has been tracking down black market dealer and occultist Sebastian Shaw for the past ten years with no real end in sight. When he stumbles upon an unexpected lead that will put him one step ahead of Shaw at last, archaeology professor and Templar enthusiast Charles Xavier becomes unwittingly entangled in the fray, and Erik suddenly finds himself with a brand new partner who is the only one who can truly help him on what’s become a quest to find the Holy Grail. But Charles is even more than Erik bargained for, especially after they’re forced to pretend to be a married couple as a cover while racing to find the Grail before Shaw does, and both Erik and Charles find they’ve possibly bitten off more than they can chew.

Powered AU vaguely inspired by Indiana Jones and James Bond movies.

Their Mouths Always Lie by keire_ke

Charles adheres to most police protocols like they are a personal code of conduct. Erik gets things done and over with, for better or worse. Raven knows what she’s doing, most of the time. The serial killer kills, regardless. Police AU.

Try, Try Again by and_backagain

Except that this has happened before, he thinks with a start, and something in his throat closes up as he revolves on the spot, already knowing what he’s going to see. Charles’ back is arching as he falls, his eyes wide, and the crumpled bullet falls to the sand beside him like a calling card. X-Men: First Class Groundhog Day!AU.

The Courtship by dvs

A story about a courtship that began five hundred years ago.

Beloved of ravens by khaleesian

978 A.D. Charles never uses his power, Erik never hesitates. Can a man be both the void and what fills it?

Limited Release by rageprufrock

When Alex Summers broke out of supermax to rescue his stupid kid brother, he had no idea it was going to be so fucking complicated.

A Curious Carriage of Crystal and Cold by Etharei

Charles, a miner from a poor village in the countryside, saves the life of Erik Lehnsherr, scion of a successful business family and the richest man on the planet Eisen. Charles is a telepath and somewhat anxious about it, while Erik abstains from relationships because the lights flicker and doors open and electronics vibrate when he gets too excited.

Also featuring a long-suffering sister, a foul-mouthed bodyguard, and a best friend with a heart that is definitely not gold.

In which there are princes, spaceships, long journeys, and old secrets uncovered. (An AU sci-fi fairytale)

The Tower and the Hurricane by dreamlittleyo

(Post-XMFC AU.) Five years after Shaw’s death, Erik’s predictions prove painfully accurate. Violence rages on both sides of the human/mutant conflict. In a world ravaged by war, it doesn’t really matter who’s more at fault. Charles struggles to teach his students a better way, but what choices will he make when peace really isn’t an option?

The Masked Man (Who Has Everything) by Traincat

The one where Erik is Batman, and Charles is kidnapped roughly once a week.

At the End of Day and Night All We Want is More by cm (mumblemutter)

It’s already too late. (Alien/Prometheus AU)

If You Liked The Book, You’ll Hate The Movie by paperclipbitch

Modern-Day High School AU. It’s not until Hank realises half the class are glancing towards the back of the classroom with something like nerves and something like schadenfreude that he finds out Alex Summers is back.

Pantheon by Yahtzee

In the year 96 AD, all Rome is aware that their gods have begun to Mark certain people with their gifts – the healing power of Apollo, the metal control of Vulcan, the deathly touch of Pluto, or the mental powers of Minerva. When those gifts fall to slaves or barbarians instead of the Romans themselves, strict control is necessary.

Then a gladiator from Judea meets an enslaved scribe from Britannia, and the repercussions will shake the Empire itself.

Swimming with Sharks by Not_You

Erik used to be a shark. Now he’s not, and has to figure out how to be a good human father to his twins. Charles is willing to help.

To Do List by Black_Betty

Somehow, Charles and Erik have become one of those couples who rarely see each other because of their busy schedules. They’re SO busy, they haven’t had sex in weeks. Erik has had enough, and forms a coordinated plan of attack. Charles is less than helpful.

On Hearts and the Finding of Lost Treasures (The Tombs and the Raiding Thereof Remix) by luninosity

The first time he met Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr was—reluctantly, angrily, and decidedly against his will—impressed. This may’ve had something to do with the fact that Charles had just given him a sunny smile and somersaulted a foot over his head.

Watching the Stars Slide Down by groovyphilia

Seventeen-year-old Charles Xavier is ridiculously wealthy, and is used to being paraded around for show at his mother’s high-society Christmas parties. He’s always been rather sporting about it, and dutifully rubs shoulders with the elite every year in the glitz of the mansion ballroom.

This year, he meets a man by the name of Erik Lehnsherr.

Utopia by Takmarierah [Note: WIP but I had to include this fic]

It’s been five years since the beach, and four years since Charles was captured by the Brotherhood. Since then, he’s been kept in a safe house while Erik finally achieved what Shaw failed to do.

Now that most of humanity has been eradicated, Erik’s summoned Charles back to his side, promising a cure and political influence in exchange for Charles’ help - but Charles knows it’s only a matter of time before he asks for more.

Neither Rhyme Nor Reason by unveiled

Charles liked to tell people that the first time they met, Serik punched a kitten. (Or, the one where Erik is an angry Vulcan, Charles is still a telepath, and grief still shapes their lives.)

Incy Wincy Spider by Tawabids

Erik Lehnsherr is a renowned homicide detective, with his husband Charles at home and his partner on the job, Moira MacTaggert. When a twisted serial killer starts targeting mutants, Erik and Moira are the perfect team for the job, especially since Erik himself is the mutant poster-boy of an NYPD trying to improve their image.

But what they don’t yet know is that the serial killer is an old soul out of Erik’s past, and his next move is to pull Charles into his web.

The Amazing Adventures of Cat-Man by so_shhy

Charles is the non-powered, butt-kicking, high-tech teen sidekick of a cheesy superhero. Erik is the sidekick of the corresponding cheesy supervillain, and makes Charles’s life even more complicated than it already is.

Spy Games by manic_intent

Burn Notice AU, with Erik Lehnsherr as the spy and Charles as the trigger-happy ex boyfriend. Erik is burned for unknown reasons in Mexico and wakes up in New York City. Somehow, he needs to raise $500,000, in order to find out -why-.

Aaaand a shameless plug, since you brought it up, and since to this day ike and i still look at this fic and ask each other “wtf how” (and also we reread each other’s bits and yell at each other):

The stars incline us, they do not bind us by ikeracity, Pangea

Intergalactic Federation pilot Lieutenant Charles Xavier is assigned last-minute to a high profile mission: transporting over two thousand prison inmates from an old and overfilled prison complex to a newer, higher-capacity prison stronghold located on the outer reaches of the galaxy. Just as he’s settling down for a long and uneventful ride, things take a turn for the worse after the inmates riot and stage a hostile takeover of the ship, leaving Charles to find himself at the complete mercy of cold-blooded killers and facing the chilling prospect that he might not ever make it back home alive.

[throwingideasatthewall]

Clone Wars       Massacre

Oh, wow is that what     we’re really going with,

  Don’t get me wrong     the tone has been better     but are you sure you want to take on something       like a massacre?         (Sla-very-            Kinda-

   Aight,

  Start,

 (Also yeah whatever did happen to Ventress because she screwed up in attempt at Dooku’s life*, backing   down, and I thought she had just    cool-ed from the whole revenge thing-      -    *Not killing him        voluntarily   when she had the chance,        -          No

   Lightsisters? 

   Did I-       hear that      right?

    Yeah,

       It honestly sounds like they’re saying                “Lightsisters,”                        Instead                     of                  night sisters                     as                    previous,

Also yeah going back to the people that encouraged your toxic behavior and are toxic enabling generational breakers

Also, they don’t recognize      her?

I do have to admit I never got the idea of     plasma arrows,

   Or possibly     coming to hold someone accountable,

   That expression really      doesn’t speak of flee  

   Ing

  Also I’ve vented my emotions and I’m going to go kick the        unaccountables to the curb

   (With maybe        one more ro        -ast       before I do          so-)

   Point being, she seems a lot more stable          (And center     -ed)

   Uhm

     ?

   What,  

    Ok there was a small       modicum of change            in the emotions,

     Hid-ing

    Hey, that’s good

    Much

    Hey there’s some accountability there,

    Has forsaken

    Okay never mind       it’s spiraling             downward           -s

     N-othing

     Sisters

     Kinda the weakest relation of all 

       but this is actually pretty on top

      Just replace sister with a “friend,” or “generation,”     and you’ve got a good idea

        At least it wasn’t             “me”,

        Yeah,

        Sith

      Okay, that’s some good    advice,

        Us       That’s a bit of thought assuming,

        Ordered about

     Ah, lady that includes you          you know,

       Sisters

       Ok you know I’m all about loyalty to generation and humanity,          But this is feeling kind of supremacist right now,

     Like

       Maybe        a bit jumpy,

  Okay this is a relatively validating       talk

   Never mind it just got tox and         over involved,

     Gosh darn it

   The Bean wanted some actual non- over- involvement       affection/in     valid          ation-            And you turned it           tox,          Oof,      

    Ships

                           There are                           lots of ships, by the way

     Yeah, is this back to hunting down savage line or did          I just-           Oh,       Well this is an odd conversation

     Grievous just bounding up

           Not actu                     ally the relaxed or cordial meeting

           You’d expect from two people of      evil,

         Two that know the location of each other’s               lair,

         ...summon

   Pretty much out of nowhere because Dooku usually uses the       hologram, so far as we’ve seen,          And there hasn’t been any real big set up          to any sort of major event          That would require the           amassing of the                droid army,    Or an        in person      audience,

 Seriously,   you called him here for       that?

  Look my apprentice        tried to very weakly kill me         Pretty much up and           gave up near        the end,

      But I’m still sore,

    So I’m sending             you

Grievous; (internally)        I am a general         how would I be any          help in tracking down         one person, with            my pro-             fess            ion            in        Military,             A category so broad and       general (Area of            effect) that I would be          near to absolutely useless              in this quest,           Which boils down to very             specific              pettry

       Again how is     Grievous going to be at all helpful in this?            -              Like that’s a small ragtag team of          rebels,

         That is way below            his area of affect,

          He’s more likely to bungle it up on the basic concept of it’s             really outside his thing,    

 Also yeah let’s send the one lone person to a place most known for its        gaslighting,

     I know grievous is robot       but he clearly has emotions like a human          (Or any sentient)         Requiring/desiring stimuli            and companion                  -ship,

               (As                  seen                  previously)

                 Really this quest is really outside his       mode of    operation,

   Like he’s used to strictly logical widespread     warfare, against multiple moving shapes           (large vessels)

     And you’re sending him in to close range   restrained targets using emotional manipulation, at       high sp-        eeds-           -           (Similar to guerrilla warfare)

   You’re setting this dude up for failure

   Yeah he might succeed by numbers alone

    But you’re going to lose a lot just           based on wastefulness and           just that not being his mode of operation    (Noting particularly the expedition where he crash landed on a planet and barely made out with his skin)

-abandoning     hundreds of         troops   -         (I’ve already talked enough about how this                 just doesn’t work                            and     how this should be seen as a stupid move)

    And should be seen as more of an insult.

     Bent         Back

      Blue            Robe-                -             To         Battle            . . .           Against a small group of          rebels

(Like   seriously,)

Buddy, you can stop with the epic music I know that’s a lot of ships but there is nothing epic about this,

   Any way..

    Okay, never mind this got really tox,

    I do

  Loyalty is always been a weird concept to me because yeah it always changes because there’s so much to see and do

   The only loyalty should be to the concept of    account-ability

  (And not    being a dick    ,)

Ven -tress joins a death cult

  [Seriously blood oaths and              life oaths               are cre                ep-

People and things changed and no amount of oaths or       false promises are going to             fix that,

   It’s just something you have to except             or manage, correctly

You can’t control    other people.

Whelp she drank the whole thing of Kool-Aid,

(Also didn’t they just go over the con-   - sequences of messing with the stuff,”

Also guess he’s going to need a new name because     Ven-tress given to her by    her abuser      (Or was    so implied,”       )

?

Also I’m supposed to view this as advanced gaslighting      right

What hap-pened?

 Her eyes?

Night

“M       -other,”            Yep she’s drinking that Kool-Aid

     F-east

   Oh it was going to be used to introduce us to anyone else because we know literally no one and everyone else seems to be just   extras,

Bo-nding     is    nice,

  Will    ing        ly,         -      W-h         -        This is going      on-

    ?

   Thank you          p-erson I barely know          -            Also Dooku coming into ruin good times                   -           Buzz kill             -              Droid                . . .                  You know if it’s been time building up their                 bond,

           This might’ve been more impactful-

           [ It still works but       the weird creepy in humane behavior before hand doesn’t really help,”  

    ]

    Any way,

    W-ar

   So much for your plan

  [oh so yeah attacking random [Neutral] planet just because you have a    hate bo      -ner

     ?         -?

   You know this would be better if           it had occur-            red like right     -after,

    Like, Dooku, was like;        Okay, well that plan went horribly,           So now I know that Ven-           tress and all of          Dathomir hates me,

    Let me send someone        stealthy to do the job

     You’re telling me Dooku doesn’t have anyone           Besides like the main three            four-            Bad guys?             -             Like this is chain of command where are the         gimmick minions?

   [Besides evil, vengeance        And t    -ech,”           ]

      ?   Oy why do you have the Clankers  and the tanks    marching next to each   other?

  Like what do you want the    heavy artillery in the back,

  Yeah I get this gives them better   range but wouldn’t you want some    pro-tection            -             ?

   Also yeah what happened to all the       males?

   Like I know Ven-       tress       beat a couple of them     up,

    But,

     ?      -       No, they’re here because      Dooku is an ass who doesn’t understand   strat-egic     planning,

And also he sent   Grievous,

 Like you’re the     (Ex) concept of vengeance

     -          The confidence   alone        -    you should kick his ass

Also,     sense it?

 There was only four guys     to your entire   operation,      like 1/4         Chance..

W-h

 That suck         -ed

  Also   good job not dodg-        ing,

 Seriously that was pure     rock that she could      see coming,

Okay, there’s no way     -she’s dead,

    ?

  Okay?

Also where are the lines because you really didn’t have        her plan for this shit,

   [Also this would be a really great moment right now Ventress to go to Bez-er-ker mode and get some revenge on her ab-       us       -er          -       I know this whole things theme     is “letting go of the past,”        Which you do,         after you get the past somewhere          where it can’t constantly            hurt you,

  And pose      a threat            (Or          stress,     )

Point being emotions have a      reason as well as      (a time and a Place)       And while venting is fine           murder is not,            Don’t      conflict        the two        . . .   [Also     they’re just clustered together,”

   also how is your        gaslighting         magic going to         work against robots?

  [also is Ven-tress going to die because her arc is pretty much over and the only way I can see this ending is via redemption equals death

    (Seeing as she’s around Obi-Wan’s age (or at least an adult around          Sky          -walker’s) so her window of absolute redemption and accou-         ntability is      pretty much         over..

     Also,          Ok, I guess it’s against droid it’s not too much out of her       range,

     (Though if it’s actual people she would probably         be dead,)

    Or     daca?

  At-      tack-

  Also I guess she’s      lead-              er now,            (Also that line was a little        emotionaless)

        Trees

     Makes sense for the ar-           -chers     -use the surroundings,               ?

           Did she just            fall off a tree,              ,                    Good for                 Them,

         A-ight-

             ?

[so yeah sending the robots to deal with these sentient     person 

 least to say it’s no surprise that ended up terribly,

           ?

        Witches

        Again sending the tech guy was pretty much       guaran-      teeing failure,

      As in any older Gen          -younger Gen        fight-

   Metall

      ?

   Cave?

    Holo-    

    ?        ?

   ?  

[again    I’m putting that down to gaslighting          magic,]

     ?

   Why the look back?

    Or is that just showing us the magic cave 

     (for future reference)          -            ?

     And apparently the attack just stopped 

   (or maybe it’s on a different front)

    Point being those guys want needed and Mother needed two people to get the thing,

    ?

  What          ?

   Ser-iously there’s just someone       be-hind there?

   What’s the point of the            metal?

     Not,      even the same species

   (I think)

  Also, resurrect-?

   Look lady I don’t know what you know about resurrection but it doesn’t work like that,

  Definitely not something              a boomer can perform,

   Also,        Ah, movie you might not want to do that considering bringing people back from the dead tends to break any kind of tension,  or suspension,

   And she was presumably         an adult,

    So yeah      that shouldn’t be possible,

      ?

 Okay,  you do not really       want to go there,

    Ok yeah I’m going to have the bitch...   out about now

       (I don’t there’s anything particularly tox         or that I should know any of that info-             rmation,

      This is generally supposed to be some divine          zombie bullshit,

       Which,              Is just a nope for me          personally,

[Honestly this episode is completely fine, clearly meant to be some kind of  Grievous vs Ventress thing, and so long as the bring things back to the dead pothole gets closed up by the end of it      ,I’m not too mad

  (Otherwise the galaxy is pretty damn       screw.         -ed        [Quick.       Reverb]         Scan