#teenage superspy tag

[tyrannuspitch]

if mi6 doesn't give you your mission briefing within 15 minutes* you can legally** go home

*of kidnapping you

**but not plausibly. good luck lmao

[natty-light-of-my-life]

chuck versus the broken phone

Summary:

Your stagnating life as a college dropout turned retail associate is turned upside down when an international superspy turned fro-yo vendor asks you to fix her broken phone.

Notes:

Loosely based on the television series Chuck. By loosely, I mean I kept the general premise of the show but I don’t remember any details of the actual episodes. It’s more fun this way!

The Buy More. Located in sunny Burbank, California, the Buy More boasts a two-star review on Yelp and is a one-stop shop for all your electronic and everyday needs. This includes you, and your rag-tag band of Nerd Herders, who work the slightly less terrible two-and-a-half-star repair desk.

Today, after your heroics of helping an elderly man plug in his laptop charger, you stood at the help desk, bored and counting down the minutes to your federally mandated lunch break. In comparison to your slouched posture and resting bored face, the teenager next to you was nearly buzzing in the air. Peter Parker was a recent hire, and his unfounded enthusiasm would be cute if it weren’t so terribly sad that he would soon find out how utterly ridiculous the job actually was.

Unwilling to crush his optimism quite yet, you handed him the next device in the queue. It was an iPad that the owner claimed needed a battery replacement. You had noted the dust ball in the charging port and nodded dutifully. 

“Here, Peter,” you said, nodding towards the back room, “take this into the shop and clean out the port. Then run the battery test on it.” The “shop” was actually just a dusty storage closet that your manager, Tony, fitted with an overhead light and an extension cord. Yet, the man insisted that it be called the “shop” for all on-duty Nerd Herders. Your new boss was a bit of a pretentious asshole, but he signed your paychecks and gave you overtime when you asked. What more could a girl ask for?

Peter grinned and nodded happily. The boy was practically glowing. A bit of an overreaction to the task, in your opinion, but you smiled at him anyway. As he happily ran off to clean cat hair out of the iPad, you sighed and rested your cheek in your hand. Twenty-six minutes until lunch.

A new fro-yo shop popped up on the other side of the shopping center a few weeks ago, and you realized that you could go for a scoop of sherbert. Peter was hired around the same time, and you didn’t think he’d left the Buy More for lunch since then. You’d take the kid out, you decided. It was bad enough that he lost his internship with Stark Industries over a funding technicality. As a fellow, former wiz-kid turned Nerd Herder, you could relate to the sting of disappointment.

“Excuse me, can you fix my phone?”

You felt the individual vertebrae in your spine snap to attention at the stranger’s voice. The texture in her voice was smoky, contrasting with her bright red hair and startling green eyes. Eyes that were looking directly at you. She was wearing a simple black T-shirt and dark-wash jeans with a soft, grey flannel tied around her waist. A pair of modest black chucks completed the look.

You’d never seen anyone more striking.

“Chuck?” Was she looking at your chest? Oh god, was there a stain on your shirt? 

And the ethereal being in front of you said something that sounded suspiciously like your nickname.

“...Can you help fix my phone? Chuck?”

Oh. Oh! She was talking to you! You brushed your palms nervously on the side of your worn chinos. The cheap, slick fabric not doing much to dry your clammy hands.

“Yes. Yes! We can fix phones. We can fix all sorts of things. But I suppose you don’t really care about what we can or cannot fix other than your phone. I mean. Yes, of course, we can take a look. And probably fix it. That is.” You squeezed your eyes closed and willed the warmth in your cheeks to dissipate.

“What appears to be the problem with your phone?” you tried again.

The goddess in front of you smiled and slid it over the counter. “The screen won’t turn on.”

You frowned at the offending device. How dare it not turn on for her. You were very-

Blinking twice, you mentally shook the wayward thought out of your head and went to grab your electronics toolkit. Your hand paused briefly. Nerd Herders were supposed to fill out an intake form on every repair and send it to the back of the queue. But there were at least three more furball-stricken iPads already in the queue, and Peter still wasn’t back with the first repair. It wouldn’t hurt to take a quick look at her phone. To diagnose the issue. For the intake form.

Pleased with your rule-bending justification, you picked out one of your tiny screwdrivers and plopped down at the counter.

“When did you notice that the phone screen stopped turning on?” you asked the woman in front of you. You felt her amused gaze on the top of your head but you kept your focus on the work in front of you. The screwdriver made quick and efficient work of the phone chassis. The back cover clicked open easily under your fingers.

“This morning,” she replied. “I was late to work because I took a few wrong turns without having access to Google Maps.”

“Oh bummer,” you hummed, tracing the circuitry on the board with your eyes. Everything looked intact and in great shape. You’re surprised the phone seemed to be failing already. “Did you get here okay, then?”

“Yeah. I actually work here in the shopping center.”

Maybe there was a god. “Oh for real?” you looked up to her, making eye contact with a spectacular forehead, “I haven’t seen you around before.” 

That was lame, you thought. “I mean, I’ve worked here for a really long time and-” 

Nope, that wasn’t it, either. “So which shop do you work in?” 

Better. Not insane.

“Fro-yo Mama.”

“Excuse me?”

She laughed and brushed a beautiful strand of scarlet out of her eye, “The frozen yogurt shop. Fro-yo Mama.”

You must have made an unpleasant face because she nodded in agreement. You recovered quickly though, “I was actually meaning to go there for lunch! I love frozen yogurt!”

“Please don’t” she waved off.

You slumped, “Oh. Okay…”

Realizing how that must have sounded, she quickly shook her head and put a hand - a beautiful hand - on your shoulder. “No not like that! The fro-yo tastes terrible. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

You were glitching to a different plane of existence. Tied only to the mortal realm by her warm hand on your shoulder. The inner workings of her cell phone were forgotten.

“You should take lunch at the hot dog place next door. The best option by far.”

“Yeah?” you croaked, “How so?”

She leaned down and whispered conspiratorily in your ear. Her minty breath left goosebumps in their wake. 

“Actually yeah, a hot dog sounds great. I love hot dogs. Hot for hot dogs haha haa…” 

Your head flopped down in shame. Studying the cell phone screen intently, you then tried to hide your flushed cheeks under the guise of digging around in the drawer. You weren’t actually looking for anything. You didn’t know what was wrong. Her phone looked fine. No cracks. No dirt. No burnt display chips. You really were going to have to fill out that intake form. The teenager in the back would probably figure it out before you did.

Your hand knocked into a bundle of wire. Ribbon wire.

Wait.

You carefully plucked the phone to eye level and squinted. 

Chuck, you thought to yourself, you are a certified dumbass.

You pulled slightly at the phone screen. It was loose. Too loose. You pinched the screen with two fingers and pushed the ribbon wire harder into the LCD display. The pins clicked into place. 

This is why the cashiers get paid more than you, Chuck. You sighed deeply.

Dutifully, you replaced the small screws and re-assembled the phone. You felt the warmth of the woman in front of you as she slid closer to see what you were doing. As you powered up the device, you held your breath.

The screen lit up.

🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭

The beautiful woman - Natasha - invited you out for shopping center hot dogs. 

“Least I could do,” she insisted, tapping her credit card at the kiosk, “since you fixed my phone for free.”

“Don’t mention it,” you replied, “Literally. In fact, if you ever see a dishevelled forty-year-old man with a goatee walking around, please refrain from mentioning it.”

She smirked, “What should be my cover story for taking you out to lunch then?”

“Uhh,” you buffered.

“No really,” she said, pointing over your shoulder, “because here comes a dishevelled forty-year-old man with a goatee.”

You almost gave yourself whiplash with how quickly you turned to look. Unfortunately, the man had spotted you and started making his way over. 

“Chuckles, what are you doing not at work?”

“It’s my lunch break, Tony.”

“Then who is working the Nerd Herd desk? I only scheduled you and Parker today.”

“Peter is.”

“He doesn’t know how to work the desk.”

You nearly rolled your eyes, “I trained him last week.”

“Ah, okay,” he rubbed his goatee’d chin, “Well. Get back to work soon, Chuckles. The kid is probably swimming in anxiety without a supervisor nearby.”

You bit back a remark about Tony technically being the only supervisor on staff today since you haven’t gotten promoted since you started at the Buy More. They even had you stacking CD’s the other day. Supervisors definitely don’t stack Charlie Puth albums. 

“Don’t worry, Tony,” interrupted Natasha, placing an arm around your shoulders, “I’ll get Chuck back before her lunch ends.”

You swooned.

“Who are you? I didn’t hire you.” 

Natasha had no qualms about eye-rolling. “A friend of Chuck’s,” she replied simply. She turned to the freckled teen assembling your hot dogs, “Adam, we’ll actually take that to-go.” 

Adam nodded as he wrapped up the hot dogs in foil and handed them over the counter to you. You barely had time to give him a grateful smile before Natasha laced her hand with yours and started walking. You nearly tripped over your feet as they blindly followed her. 

���You have thirty-seven minutes, Chuckles!” came the grating voice of your manager before the glass door slammed behind the two of you, courtesy of your new friend.

“God,” complained Natasha as she shook her head, “what an idiot.”

“He is an idiot,” you agreed, “but he’s an overqualified idiot. I looked him up on LinkedIn when he was hired, and he has two masters in Engineering and half a dozen active patents on the market. I think he may be in a midlife crisis or something, so I cut him some slack.”

Natasha hummed, “Or something. It’s not that bad working at the Buy More though, right? I considered applying for the employee discount but the fro-yo position has a better dental plan.” 

You glanced up from the half-eaten hot dog in your hands. The two of you had sat down at a bench tucked between a T-Mobile and a pawn shop. “Fro-yo Mama provides dental insurance?”

Natasha grinned at you with perfect, pearly teeth. “Ironic, right?”

Mirroring her smile, you laughed, “We should get the Buy More to start stocking anti-capitalism literature next to the People magazines. Really play into the shopping center irony angle.”

“So?” She asked again, finally unwrapping her hot dog. You noticed that hers didn’t have any condiments. 

“So?” you repeated, confused. Natasha dug into her pocket and retrieved a small packet of… hot sauce?

“So,” she asked again, biting into her hot sauced hot dog, “do you like the Buy More?”

“Oh, sure. We get a five percent store-wide employee discount. No dental, but Kenny in the warehouse has a guy that can extract a wisdom tooth on the down low. Peter is really sweet. Love working with the kid.”

“Probably shouldn’t mention the black market orthodontia to a stranger,” she laughed, wiping her fingers on a napkin that appeared out of nowhere.

You pouted, “I thought that we’re friends now.”

“I could be a fed.”

Natasha’s eyes glittered in the afternoon sun. Her red hair, cut to a bob just above her chin, swayed in the breeze. A faint perfume of citrus and sandalwood tickled your nose.

“You?” you remarked, giving her an exaggerated once-over, “not a chance.”

She laughed, “I guess you don’t meet many federal agents that scoop dairy on the side.”

Your smile died a bit. There had only ever been one person that you knew of who grew up and went into law enforcement. You hadn’t talked to him in person since college. But the email he sent you a month ago sat heavy in your inbox. You gripped the bundle of tissue and aluminum foil in your hand harder.

Natasha noticed. “Chuck, are you alright?” She gently tugged the wad of trash out of your fist, brushing the pads of her fingers comfortingly against the back of your hand.

You managed to relax your palm and smile slightly, “No, yeah, I’m good.”

Natasha turned her body to face you, fully. “Yeah?”

Taking a deep breath, you nudged her shoulder. Best to forget about old friends and focus on making new ones.

“Yeah. I just hope our government pays its agents enough that they’re not scooping out orange creamsicle cups to make ends meet.”

Natasha just laughed, shooting you an amused grin before getting up to throw away the detritus from your lunch. Stranger things have happened.

[firelxdykatara]

This is for the ask meme, but how about top 5 underrated characters or movies? (also your blog has easily become one of my favs, thank you for existing and for your excellent commentary/takes!!!

kjfdgkdjfg well thank you! i’m glad you enjoy my ramblings

TOP 5 UNDERRATED CHARACTERS: UHMMM this is hard, cause some characters are underrated by the show but loved by the fandom, and sometimes the opposite, but these are the ones that come to mind:

1. Tyler Lockwood, from The Vampire Diaries. In the first two seasons of the show, he had a pretty fantastic ‘jerkass jock to decent human being’ character arc, and his relationship with Caroline was beautiful to watch. In season 3 Forwood lost all of the emotional depth it’d had and became almost entirely about sex, and then Tyler got put through the absolute ringer and then... kind of vanished? He came back every once in a while to get shit on by everyone (I will never not be pissed that Stefan punched him in the face for daring to be upset that the woman he loved had slept with the man who murdered his mother and slaughtered his pack--he had every right not to want to be around her after that, and to get upset when she refused to back off), and then got unceremoniously killed at some point, I think over on The Originals. I don’t know, cause I stopped watching TVD after season 6. Anyway, Tyler Lockwood deserved better, and that is that on that.

2. Wells Jaha from The 100. It’s been, what, five years since season 1 of that show? And I’m still fucking pissed about the way Wells was unceremoniously killed off in the third episode, and barely referenced again. After having been Clarke’s best friend for most of her life. Meanwhile, the ghost of Lexa, Clarke’s two-week fuck buddy (god, ok, before anyone comes to yell at me, I’m sure they were in love and it was longer than two weeks, whatever, I never cared for the relationship and I didn’t buy it in the slightest) has been haunting the show ever since she died, turning up every season like a bad fucking penny. But Wells who????

3. Alistair Theirin from Dragon Age. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the fandom loves him, but I see a lot of that love centering on like... cheese jokes and ‘lol he’d be a terrible king he’s a fuckin dork’ and like, I get it, but also??? This man has been through some shit. He was abandoned by his mother, his father dumped him on Arl Eamon’s doorstep where he grew up feeling lonely and unwanted because Eamon’s wife thought he was Eamon’s illegitimate son and treated him like trash because that’s the kid’s fault of course, then he was shipped off to the Chantry because said wife was sick of having to look at him--and he didn’t even fit in there, it wasn’t until he joined the Grey Wardens that he finally felt like he had a place in the world, and he had a family he loved, and he lost literally all of them. Including the man he’d grown to care for as the father figure he’d desperately wanted all his life. And it of course depends on the choices made, but Alistair can be a damn good king if given the chance, and sometimes I get tired of people acting like he’s some helpless fop who exists to be the butt of jokes.

4. Clint Barton from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m sure I don’t have to go into detail regarding how he was criminally underutilized from the very beginning--he was taken out of half the action of The Avengers via brainwashing, and it only got worse from there. A family was dropped on him out of nowhere, effectively cutting off any potential development and growth he had via any other relationships. And all of that aside, there is a wealth of potential characterization and personality in the comics that MCU!Clint just... doesn’t get. There are glimpses of it, and Jeremy Renner absolutely could’ve pulled it off.... but nope. And I don’t even want to get into what Endgame did to him. But basically, he was written off as the ‘boring human’ (where even Nat got to be The Gorgeous Superspy) from the start, and just... never got to grow beyond that. And it was incredibly frustrating to watch.

5. Luther Hargreeves from The Umbrella Acadmy. I’m still mad about the way the fandom treated Luther and his trauma vs how they treated Vanya’s (and there are exceptions on both sides but you still can’t throw a stone in the general tags without seeing some anti luther crap), and how it’s totally ok and understandable that Vanya slit her own sister’s throat because she couldn’t control her emotions or her powers, but Luther was evil incarnate for believing she was dangerous and trying to keep her contained until they could figure out how to help her without risking her destroying the planet (remembering that he had no way of knowing what a trigger that room would be for her). Anyway, Luther deserves better and I hope season 2 treats him well.

TOP FIVE UNDERRATED MOVIES: Probably won’t get as detailed here but!

1. Aquamarine. I actually wrote a post a while back about this movie cause it’s??? So good??? And such an amazing take on how love is important in all forms, not just romantic, which is pretty rare for a romcom, and I just really love it.

2. George of the Jungle. There’s a post floating around out there about why this is such a great movie, and how it flipped the ‘sexy/objectified female love interest’ trope on its head, but I don’t see this movie talked about enough and it should be. (The first time I saw this movie, I was six years old, it had just come out on VHS, and my father laughed so hard he fell off the fucking couch. It was the kind of thing that can only happen once, the first time, because after that you know it’s coming, but it’s still great on rewatch and I just. It’s such a good fucking movie ok.)

3. Sky High. Why isn’t there more of a fandom for this movie. It was great, and I’m still mad it didn’t get a sequel yes I still ship layla/warren don’t judge me, but it had so many great comedic beats and had a great take on superhero school and breaking down the superhero/sidekick dichotomy and they’re still teenagers with teenage problems but that won’t stop them from saving the day. And also Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, was absolutely fucking priceless.

4. Cinderella (2015). In fact, Cinderella herself routinely gets a lot of flak just in general, I guess because people can’t understand why someone in her position wouldn’t just stand up to their abusers and leave (and where the fuck would she even go?? it’s not like she had anyone she could trust to take her in, and being treated like a servant in her own home was better than starving in the cold), but I just... love so much that the live action remake focuses on her kindness and her courage and just... Have courage, and be kind, and she offers forgiveness to the Lady Tremaine, even if she didn’t deserve it and wouldn’t take it, because that’s who Ella always was. There was no room in her heart for anger and bitterness, and that’s not to say that anyone who is angry at their abusers is wrong for it, but that’s not the only way to cope. And Ella got her happy ending because she never stopped being true to herself, and it’s just. So very beautiful.

5. Enchanted. It was a really cute movie but also a great look at the typical Disney Princess formula and turning it on its head while still showing such a deep love for the source of that formula and I just love it so much. Plus Patrick Dempsey. A+++

[pendragonfics]

The Immortal

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words: Chapter One | Chapter Two

Paring: Loki/Reader

Tags: female reader, reader is a painter, based on a tumblr post by @lokiprompts+ set after Thor: The Dark World but in Hell’s Kitchen (your neighbour is Matt Murdock), origin story, road trips, fluff, angst & humor. Also credit to Yeva_Stark on Wattpad, who let me use their comment in the fic, which can be found here. 

Summary: An artist in NYC's recently uncovered talents flag her interest into her own unspoken backstory.

Word Count: 1,821

Current Date: 2017-07-30

The day after you started your search for your long-lost father, your paintings sold for enough money to allow for an all-expenses paid trip around the country in your Versa. It turned out that Loki’s money was only an illusion, and as the sole breadwinner, you threw the both of you into your car, told your neighbour Mr. Murdock that you were going on a road trip, and went off on your way. Of course, the whole time you were just hoping that all the ideas in your head of who your bio-father was weren’t going to be a major let down when you got there. And what (what? is that even a PC term for your species?) you were.

“Would you still stick around me if I turned out to be a microwave dinner experiment gone wrong?” you asked Loki, your arm out the window as you drove down the freeway to Washington D.C. where Loki’s sources said they’d be. “I could be literally the toe cheese of humanity.”

He shook his head. “That wouldn’t change what I think of you.”

You raise your eyebrows. “So, you think there’s a possibility I’m a mutated Mac & Cheese?”

“Perhaps not…maybe a burrito,” Loki laughed. “No. I think highly of you.”

Just crossing from Maryland into D.C., you let out a breath you hadn’t been aware that you’d been holding. Your natural suspicion had never led you this far before, onto a paper trail to find the man who’d helped bring you to life. But when one begins to paint pictures of things that are from other people’s past, perhaps long-destroyed, the intensity tends to crank up. But natural suspicion or no, when you parked the car in a bay nearby the Triskelion, you straightened your back, locked the car, and marched off toward the customer service counter on the lower levels. It was still in construction, after the recent mess the HYDRA people.

But before you could even walk inside the building, two security guards had approached the pair of you, and escorted you to a separate entrance, their faces set into most defiantly not smiling, their suits looking more on the Men in Black side of the scale than Mall Cop. You thought not much of it until they walked you and Loki to an elevator, and pressed a button you couldn’t see.

“Excuse me, I –,”

Loki’s hand wrapped around yours, gently squeezing. In the reflective surface of the elevator, he looked more worried than pensive, but still appeared to know what was happening. But, after all, he was the God of Lies. He could do and say things to you, and they could be the opposite, for all you knew. But right now, was most certainly not one of those moments.

You had taken some time staring at the contact on your phone before dialling. In almost three rings, your mother picked up, her cheery greeting, and spiel about her week so far almost making you forget all the troubles that were on your mind.

“Baby? You haven’t said a word, are you okay?” Her voice always made everything better. You loved the big city more than Portland, but you loved your mother more than all combined. “Come on, it can’t be bad enough to not talk about it.”

“I – I love you.” You stammered.

But your mother saw through the façade. As a child, you’d say those three words to cover up things you weren’t brave enough to talk about, or wished to get out. It was almost a code she knew all the ciphers for.

“Yeah, I love me too,” she joked, “but please. I’m here for you, you know that.”

You bite your lip. “I’m going down to D.C. for the weekend.”

Your mother made a delighted noise, “Oh, is this for one of your art projects? No, don’t tell me…you’re catching that exhibit in the Smithsonian before they end it, about…er, Captain America?”

“Something like that. I, just wanted to tell you.” You swallow. “I miss you, Mom.”

She laughed. “Don’t miss me! Enjoy D.C.!”

You were freaking out when the elevator dinged to the top floor, and you all stepped out, but when you saw the million-dollar face of Mr. Stark? You almost* wet yourself (*but didn’t, thank the lord).

“Thanks, Happy, Grumpy,” He nods to the guys who practically manhandled you into the Triskelion. “Good afternoon, Ms –,” Mr Stark stopped himself, looking to Loki, “…wait, you don’t wear the horns everywhere?” He asked.

“Only for special occasions.” Loki held onto his eye-roll particularly well.

You step forward. “I’m here to see my father, Mr. Stark. Unless he’s not – are you planning to threaten us?” You ask.

The genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist shook his head, “Uh, actually, I’m here to appeal to your humanity. Agent,” he pointed beside himself, to a door painted red. On the door is the words Phil Coulson, “is in the next room. Go for your life.” You’re speechless, until you remember to thank Mr. Stark. “Loki…I say this in the sweetest way possible, but next time you want a reference…don’t put me down. I mean it. Still a little hurt about you throwing me out my own window.”

Snickering, you move toward the red door, leaving the Avenger and Asgardian God to their devices. As you move into the room, you notice it’s well-lit, with a wall to ceiling glass window overlooking Washington D.C. There’s a writing table in the corner, but the laptop is abandoned, desk chair empty. Instead, there’s an occupant in a red couch which faces an identical one. At the sight of you, he stands, a soft smile on his face.

“I guess you’ve got a few questions,” he straightens his tie, wiping his palms on his pants before offering you a handshake. “It’s good to see you.”

You frown, shaking your father’s hand. “…I suppose everything I know about myself isn’t as I think it is,” you clear your throat, and take a seat. “Mom thinks you’re dead.”

“To keep her safe, I thought it best to be that way,” Your father, Phil Coulson, nods. “But she knew that information before the Incident in New York, where your,” he takes a deep breath, “roommate killed me.”

You blink. “Well, you’re not dead, and I’m a freak. Sounds like we are related.”

Phil chuckled, leaning back in his chair, “Freak? Is that what the kids are calling them these days?” He shook his head. “You’re not a freak.”

“So, what do you super-secret secret agents call people who can do things they can’t explain?”  You huff, and conclude, “I’m a freak.”

“You’re 632P18,” Phil’s voice is barely a whisper. “At least, that’s the code they call you by, after what Dr Connors did to you.” He can’t seem to look to you while he speaks, “While you were unborn, Audrey was subject to illegal experimentation. I was in Hawaii, had no idea. Nobody did, not until that Parker kid fought the guy after he turned into a lizard.”

You’ve been silent the whole time. “632 –,” you repeat.

“P18,” Phil whispers. “Every powered individual is classified on a database. You showed signs of being powered when you were nine, in that art competition you won.” You remember that competition. You had done a painting of a park bench, where a man and a woman with a cello sat under lamplight. You had won first place, and the hearts of your teachers who had urged you to follow the path toward being an artist. To think, it was because of some asshole playing God with you as a foetus. “I wish I could have done something.”

You lean forward, placing a hand on his. “It’s not your fault,” you whisper. “It’s just great to hear that I’m not going to spontaneously transform into a Ninja Turtle on the full moon.”

“I’m sorry I missed being with you, growing up.” Phil cracked a smile. “You’re most defiantly my daughter.”

You grin. “You’re not bad, yourself, Dad,” you swallow the lump in your throat, and add, “Wait. Does this mean I could be an Avenger?” From the next room, you hear something breaking, and a shout that sounds most defiantly from the mouth of Loki.  You wince. “I think I should –,”

Phil nods. “I think that’s best.”

As you move to leave, you turn to your father. “Is it okay if I see you again?” You wonder.

“I’d love to,” he nods, a smile taking over his face, and adds, “You can even bring your boyfriend in next time. I’m sure we’d be on better terms now he’s not under the influence of an extra-terrestrial cube.”

“Boyfriend?” you gape. “I mean – he’s – we’re –,”

“I’ve been here before,” Phil Coulson grins. “You’ll work it out.”

The radio plays a mix of Elvis Presley and Tina Turner on the drive home. It takes almost four hours, with the traffic. You’d turned down the offer to take a plane home, because even if your father was some kind of superspy, his daughter was just a broke artist painting for a living, and the idea of flying with the Iron Man seemed a little daunting. Especially with Loki in tow.

You drive, listening to the radio, Loki scrawling over the newspaper crossword, and soon enough, you’re back to the apartment in Hell’s Kitchen.

Home.

“You’ve been awfully quiet on the ride home,” Loki comments, unlocking the apartment door. “I think I can guess it.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Go on, shoot.”

“You’ve turned out to be mutated macaroni cheese,” Loki tosses the keys into the pot by the door, flicks the lights on, along with the television. There’s a rerun of Sabrina the Teenage Witch on, which Loki has seemed to take a liking to. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

You shake your head, joining him on the couch. “Nope, just someone’s science experiment. But that’s not it. I’m…I don’t really know what to say about it. I’m still me.”

Silently, Loki turns the TV off, facing you. “If that’s not what’s bothering you, then what is?”

“Don’t laugh,” You take a deep breath, “Okay, I’m just going to go and say it. Do – do you want to be with me?”

“I am with you. On a couch, in Midgard.” He pauses, and adds, “Oh, you meant like courting. Yes. I’ll Netflix and chill with you.”

You can’t help it, but burst out laughing. “I’m not sure you know what that means…”

“I think I do.” He grins, “I do not mind whether you are a scientific experiment, a human, a hero or the artist you are now. I think I have caught feelings for you, and if you’ll have me, I’ll be yours until the end of time.”

You flick the TV back on so you can both watch the rest of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. “I love you too, Loki.”

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[samurai-esquire]

Get to know your character

GENERAL:

NAME: Simon Blackquill,  ALIAS(ES): Twisted Samurai, Mr. Blackjack, Mr. Blackhead, Your Darkness, Black-eyed Samurai, Dread Pirate Nostache, Prosecutor Nostache, Mr. Samurai, Mr. Birdman, Mr. Jailbird Prosecutor, The Rogue Prosecutor, Head Honcho Among Delinquents, Simon the Psycho-Slasher, Barber Blackquill, Reverse Panda, "Ridiculous Prosecutor who wields a samurai sword" (you think i don't know justice-dono you thiNK I DON'T KNOW--) AGE: 29 DATE OF BIRTH: April 26, 1999 PLACE OF BIRTH: London HOMETOWN: London SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English and Japanese fluently, a bit of French that he’s largely forgotten SEXUALITY: Biromantic bisexual OCCUPATION(S): Prosecuting attorney

APPEARANCE:

EYE COLOR: Gray HAIR COLOR: Black with one streak of white HEIGHT: 6′2″ SCARS: Several. Most notable ones in main verse are just below his ribs, from a stabbing in prison. In Actual Samurai verse, his back is almost completely covered in scar tissue, the skin having largely been flayed off from regular lashings during his time as a prisoner of war. In Seafaring Samurai verse, he has a scar on his back from where the Phantom stabbed him. BURNS: One on his shoulder. An inmate put a cigarette out on him. 8,) OVERWEIGHT?: No UNDERWEIGHT?: No FAVORITE COLOR(S): Black, white, grey. FAVORITE HAIR COLOR(S): Light purple black FAVORITE EYE COLOR(S): No preference. FAVORITE SONG: Any number of enka songs, though he’s very fond of Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyugeshiki. FAVORITE MOVIE: He says that it’s Seven Samurai. It’s actually one of the Steel Samurai movies. FAVORITE TV SHOW: Steel Samurai FAVORITE FOOD: Soba FAVORITE DRINK: Sake FAVORITE BOOK: Hagakure Kikigaki. He’s read his copy so many times that it’s starting to fall apart. 

HAVE THEY…:

PASSED UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE?: Yes HAD SEX?: Yes.  HAD SEX IN PUBLIC?: Nope. GOTTEN PREGNANT?: Nope. KISSED A BOY?: Yes. KISSED A GIRL?: Yes. GOTTEN A TATTOO (OR MORE THAN ONE)?: He has a small one behind his right ear of birds in flight that’s usually hidden by his hair.  GOTTEN PIERCINGS?: No. HAD THEIR HEART BROKEN?: Haaaaaa yep. BEEN IN LOVE?: Does it count when the person you loved turned out to be an international superspy impersonating that person? STAYED UP FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS?: Oh yeah.

ARE THEY…:

A VIRGIN?: No. A CUDDLER?: Yes. More than he’d like to admit. A KISSER?: Yes. SCARED EASILY?: No. JEALOUS EASILY?: Yes. TRUSTWORTHY?: Absolutely. DOMINANT?: Yes. SUBMISSIVE?: He has his moments. IN LOVE?: Verse dependent.  SINGLE?: Verse dependent.

RANDOM QUESTIONS:

HAVE THEY HARMED THEMSELVES?: Getting into fights deliberately probably counts to some extent. HAVE THEY THOUGHT OF SUICIDE?: Yes. His goal of bringing the Phantom to justice before he died was probably the major reason he didn’t. HAVE THEY ATTEMPTED SUICIDE?: No. HAVE THEY WANTED TO KILL SOMEONE?: Yes. HAVE THEY DRIVEN A CAR?: Yes. He owns a motorcycle. HAVE THEY HAD OR HAVE A JOB?: Yep. DO THEY HAVE ANY FEARS?: He has things that make him uncomfortable, certainly, and a number of things that can trigger some pretty extreme flashbacks. Blood is a big one. Masks are a huge one. But I think more than fearing those things in particular, he fears the possibility of losing control--having one of those flashbacks and having people notice. 

FAMILY RELATIONS:

PARENTS: His mother, Kasumi Blackquill, lives in London. His father, Henry Blackquill, passed away when he was a teenager. ADOPTIVE PARENTS: N/A. SIBLINGS: Aura Blackquill PETS: He would object to Taka being called a pet. ETC.: N/A

TAGGED BY: I honestly don’t remember who’s tagged me at this point, but a few people for this specific meme. XD

TAGGING: @verumdignitas, @modusoperandi, @overlordatwork

[fereality-indy]

10 Ships

PICK YOUR TOP 10 SHIPS WITHOUT READING THE QUESTIONS 1. Wendip (Wendy Corduroy & Dipper Pines) 2. Kim Possible & Ron Stoppable 3. Ash Ketchum & Misty 4. Crimson & Ennui 5. Jesse & James 6. Starco (Star Butterfly & Marco Diaz) 7. Robfire (Robin & Starfire) 8. Negi Springfield, Nodoka Miyazaki,  & Yue Ayase 9. Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy 10. Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge DO YOU REMEMBER THE EPISODE/SCENE/CHAPTER THAT YOU FIRST STARTED SHIPPING 6? First episode. They were just so cute fighting the monsters together and then the hug when he finally decided he didn't want her to go. YOU EVER READ A FIC ABOUT 2? Several. For years it was my go to fic selection. HAVE A PICTURE OF 4 EVER BEEN YOUR SCREENSAVER/PROFILE PICTURE? Yeah, they're in the rotation. IF 7 WERE TO SUDDENLY BREAK UP TODAY, WHAT WOULD YOUR REACTION BE? I'd be upset some, but the series is over  and I no longer read DC so they'll always be cannon to me. WHY IS 1 SO IMPORTANT? Their friendship is so strong that their relationship is made to last WHICH ONE HAS THE STRONGEST BOND? Wendip or Kim/Ron HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU READ/WATCHED 10’S FANDOM? Grew up with it so 20 + years, though I'm one of the few who do ship this pairing WHICH SHIP HAS LASTED THE LONGEST? Jesse & James HOW MANY TIMES IF EVER HAS 6 BROKEN UP? None. IF THE WORLD WAS SUDDENLY THRUST INTO A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE WHICH SHIP WOULD MAKE IT OUT ALIVE, 2 OR 8? Tough one. On one hand you have a teenage superspy and her bumbling boyfriend (though when chips are down he always comes through) and on the other you have a young master magican/high school teacher and two of his students/magical partners (one is a walking library and the other is a begining mage herself). I think I'll give this one to Negi, Nodoka, & Yue due to the spells. And maybe Ron's clumsiness. DID 7 EVER HAVE TO HIDE THEIR RELATIONSHIP FOR ANY REASON? No, they were very open about it. IS 4 STILL TOGETHER? Yes, they made it through the Race intact. IS 10 CANON? They have dated in the past. IF ALL 10 SHIPS WERE PUT INTO A COUPLE’S HUNGER GAMES WHICH COUPLE WOULD WIN? Yeah. I'm not sure the contest would end. We have 7 couples where at least one member with survival training. 7 couples with an extreme feeling of doing the right thing. 4 couples with access to enough money to buy their way out. Etc. I really can't choose. HAS ANYBODY EVER TRIED TO SABOTAGE 5’S SHIP? Maybe Butch & Cassidy WHICH SHIP WOULD YOU DEFEND UNTIL DEATH AND BEYOND? Wendip DO YOU SPEND HOURS A DAY GOING THROUGH 3’S TUMBLR PAGES? Not really IF AN EVIL WITCH DESCENDED FROM THE SKY AND TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAD TO PICK 1 OF THE 10 SHIPS TO BREAK UP FOREVER OR ELSE SHE’D BREAK THEM ALL UP FOREVER WHICH SHIP WOULD YOU SINK? Probably Jughead & Ronnie. They both still have plenty of others who I could then ship them with. Now we're supposed to choose and tag 5 people but I'll just say if you want to do it, go for it.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review - Family Matters

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/wolfenstein-youngblood-review-family-matters/

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review - Family Matters

In Wolfenstein’s alternate 1980s, Nazis remain a tyrannical force of evil and oppression across Europe, even after Hitler was killed by series protagonist BJ Blazkowicz. Thus, the Nazi killing continues as the Blazkowicz twins, Jess and Soph, pick up where their parents left off for a spin-off in Wolfenstein: Youngblood–a relentless co-op shooter driven by an unapologetic, youthful attitude. It may not reach the same narrative heights of its predecessors or land every idea borne out in its new approach, but Youngblood hits where it counts.

Our introduction to Jess and Soph shows how their parents, Anya and BJ, taught them the means for survival on their rural Texas homestead. There’s a tense tone of protective parents who’ve been through the worst and are preparing their daughters to be able to handle the same, which is quickly juxtaposed with the twins’ carefree exuberance when alone together. Bring in the wizkid best friend Abby, daughter of Wolfenstein 2‘s Grace Walker, and you have a trio that brings their own unique swagger to the Wolfenstein name.

Their personalities immediately come to life. Jess and Soph are boisterous and sometimes dorky, the same way many teenagers and young adults are, and it gives them genuine personalities that mostly just come off cool as hell, especially with stellar voice acting. They’ll go back and forth about their favorite superspy novel series Arthur & Kenneth, even imagining themselves as their beloved in-fiction duo. They’ll refer to things their parents have done, hype each other up in combat, and just straight up act silly in the elevator loading screens to the tune of ’80s synthpop background music, breathing new life into the Blazkowicz family.

The game is less about a bold, fleshed-out narrative and more about instilling an infectious charisma in its star characters to match the over-the-top action and sow the seeds for what’s next in Wolfenstein.

It’s not long before they take a turn for the absurd; with BJ gone missing, they uncover clues to his disappearance and take matters into their own hands. But they’re not exactly sneaking out of the house or secretly taking their parents’ car out for a drive. They’re taking a military-grade helicopter to Nazi-occupied France to find their dad, and well, kill Nazis. As either Jess or Soph (with your co-op or AI partner as the other sister) and equipped with high-tech Da’at Yichud battle suits, you join a French resistance movement in Neu-Paris, which quickly boils down to you raiding Nazi outposts and strongholds.

With Jess and Soph inseparable, co-op is at the heart of the experience, and thankfully partnering up online is a breeze. As a host you can have friends (or randoms) jump into your session seamlessly without interruption; the AI will assume control until a player connects and again right as a player leaves. If players have identical missions in the quest log, completing it will record progress for both players. And if you’d rather go it alone alongside a decent AI companion, it’s just as viable an option for the entire game.

Youngblood captures that familiar Wolfenstein feeling of taking an automatic shotgun to a Nazi soldier, melting an armor-clad supersoldier with a laser rifle, or zapping a horde with a lighting coil, and what a powerful feeling it is. But what’s new is that tougher enemies have one of two armor elements that are weak to corresponding weapons, encouraging you to actively juggle your varied arsenal. Furthermore, a slightly more diverse weapon upgrade system helps flesh out some familiar firearms to get them to function the way you prefer and tear through enemies more efficiently.

Light RPG elements also make their way into the character progression system; you rack up XP then dump upgrade points into new skills and perks, like raising health/armor caps, increasing cloak times, stocking heavy weapons, and much more. Enemies scale to your level, and only a few sections are defended by near-impossible enemies early on. It’s a simple system that helps facilitate steady unlocks, making you feel like you’re getting ever more devastating, but never overpowered.

Solid gunplay and some neat mechanics wouldn’t mean much without the proper combat encounters to complement them, and Youngblood delivers. You’ll often find yourself pulling out all the stops to either finish combat scenarios or realize you have to retreat and rethink your approach. A completely stealthy approach isn’t as viable as it was in previous Wolfenstein games, even with the new cloaking ability, but it’s a good way to thin out the opposition before going all-out guns blazing. It can get overwhelming when supersoldiers, massive mechs, and a bomb-strapped panzerhund bear down on you, but that’s when Youngblood is at its best. Intense firefights can break out anywhere with little warning, and the main missions manage to keep a consistent action-packed momentum throughout.

Youngblood captures that familiar Wolfenstein feeling of taking an automatic shotgun to a Nazi soldier, melting an armor-clad supersoldier with a laser rifle, or zapping a horde with a lighting coil, and what a powerful feeling it is.

Admittedly, co-op centric features are a bit sparse. Each sister has a roster of emotes and motivational quips called pep signals that provide stat buffs or much-needed armor/health. However, that’s pretty much what you get in terms of tandem abilities, and the absence of some sort of joint attack or tag-team abilities feels like a missed opportunity. In the fray, partners will be frantically trying to revive each other or falling back on shared lives which work like instant continues, taking the place of a traditional checkpoint system. It can be frustrating to make it to the final fight of a main mission, run out of shared lives, and be sent back to the very beginning of the mission. But if anything, it’s a crude way to emphasize cooperation and tactical gameplay.

Overall, Youngblood leans more into an open structure by making Neu-Paris a group of separate districts (open hub areas) where you find your missions. After a brief introduction, you’re tasked with assaulting three “Brother” towers–your main quests–attached to each hub area. Out on the streets, though, side missions and random events fill in the spaces and are conducive for racking up early XP, getting familiar with district layouts, and soaking up the vibe of a downtrodden 1980s Paris, but these missions quickly feel like filler that bulk out your to-do list.

The design of the districts are striking, however, and you’ll see hints of Arkane Studios’ influence; when I’m double jumping and mantling to the rooftops and top floors of buildings, I’m reminded of Dishonored, especially as I search for collectibles and chests full of currency. This approach also spices up combat with some verticality and the opportunity to flex the agile capabilities of those slick Da’at Yichud suits. The Brother towers even have alternative entry points that you’ll have to discover yourself or find through side missions. It’s a successful incorporation of that studio’s strengths, and the game is better for it.

The Paris catacombs acts your safe hub in Youngblood, and it’s where you accept side missions from resistance members, stock up on supplies, or hit up the old knock-off Wolfenstein 3D cabinet. It’s not as extensive as The New Colossus’ U-boat home, and you won’t get much from its inhabitants–they’re nowhere near as involved as Wolfenstein 2’s supporting cast since they’re just quest givers. However, Jess, Soph, and Abby are there to pick up the slack.

They might be polar opposites of their parents, but it gives Youngblood its own flair. BJ’s inner monologue and struggle internalizing life-long trauma is at the heart of modern Wolfenstein games, and Anya has seen the pure evil of the Nazi regime first hand through the years. Naturally, Jess and Soph have vastly different characterizations, only knowing a post-war world and presumably growing up in a stable household. They capture the spirit of a carefree youth, yet they share the same unfettered motivation for killing Nazis; it would seem that Anya and BJ taught them well.

The story doesn’t reach the same highs as mainline Wolfenstein games, namely The New Colossus. It’s an incredibly tough act to follow, really. But aside from a cheap plot twist and underwhelming villains, most of Youngblood’s lean story is quality stuff. To that end, the game is less about a bold, fleshed-out narrative and more about instilling an infectious charisma in its star characters to match the over-the-top action and sow the seeds for what’s next in Wolfenstein. Despite Youngblood taking place after events we’ve yet to see unfold in the mainline games, it leaves the door open for some exciting, wild possibilities for where the series could go.

Jess and Soph are boisterous and sometimes dorky, the same way many teenagers and young adults are, and it gives them genuine personalities that mostly just come off cool as hell…

Throughout Youngblood, traces of an ongoing game structure become more pronounced once you finish the main story. You can take on daily and weekly challenges as they cycle into the game, which offer some additional XP and currency to unlock any remaining abilities and weapon mods. What’s a bit more substantial is the option to replay story missions on harder difficulties (hard, very hard, and challenging) for increasing amounts of XP and currency. While it’s a bog-standard way to keep the co-op experience going, they at least offer an outlet to try new tactics, as these harder modes can become quite unforgiving. The endgame may not be extensive, but the ride was exciting enough that the content feels like a little value added.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood has the series’ signature first-person shooting thrills that’ll have you gladly busting shots and blasting lasers in the face of Nazi trash–and the opportunity to do so alongside a friend. It incorporates some new ideas which are serviceable for the most part, but hits more of the right notes in RPG elements and level design. It also knows the resistance doesn’t end when one person cuts the head off a monstrous regime; the fight continues, sometimes into the next generation. And the way this brief spin-off broadens the saga with the Blazkowicz twins makes you wish there was more to see from this new cast of lovable knuckleheads. Jess and Soph–and Abby too–learned from the best, and embrace their newfound duty of ridding their world of tyranny while being cool as hell doing it. Youngblood is short, but oh-so sweet.

Source : Gamesport

[tyrannuspitch]

thinking about alex's perfectly combed hair and pristine school uniform in the first episode and like. how it's clearly ian's influence (or more likely, demand), how it contrasts with him doing shit like climbing in windows and picking locks, how he breaks a grown man's nose without a moment's hesitation but then, after being pulled off him, PUTS ON HIS BIKE HELMET to continue his chase. but also thinking about how much quieter alex is before point blanc and the bad boy persona, how he and tom talk in class but only tom gets in trouble for it, how he stands alone at that party and ayisha doesn't remember who he is, how he just... fades into the background... HMMM.

on one hand. imposter swag. you're a fake alex!! looking like the perfect student when he really is not = doing the clone thing without even knowing it. on the other. ummm identity. becoming someone new as in going undercover but also as in BECOMING someone new. "[ian] wants me to be just like him" yeah but in what way. just kind of chewing on that thought.

oh hang on. third thing. the original suspicion at point blanc was not total replacement it was that they were turning the SAME pupils into different people without them even realising it. and isn't that exactly what ian has done to him. but also maybe ian's death and the ensuing actions of blunt & co have done it AGAIN.

[tyrannuspitch]

i think if they were going to have troubled teen alex missing a bunch of school to meet shady adults in shady locations and coming back bruised and distractible and obsessive, in a season with drugs at its very core, right after a season that ended with him acting extremely unlike himself and getting into a fistfight at the school dance, then they should've committed and had a subplot where a teacher assumes his problem is drugs and deals with it very badly. i think it would've tied things together much better.

[tyrannuspitch]

episode two is so messed up. what a thing to orchestrate. what an elaborate mind game.

smithers pretending to be a grief counsellor first then changing his story, acting deliberately sinister - saying things that alex should be glad to hear but villainously, playing the part of someone playing the part of an ally

wolf using victim-blaming torture tactics - "i don't actually want to do this, you're the one forcing me by refusing to co-operate" - simultaneously threatening alex and holding a promise of mercy over his head. an enemy who it would be so so easy to turn into a friend.

smithers, back again, first claiming to be rescuing alex and blaming blunt for all this (though not outright saying wolf is his agent)... then shifting into the enemy again and threatening to kill him.

and what is all this teaching him. is it really about testing / "training" alex's resistance to torture and manipulation. or is it about teaching him that those who claim to be on his side never are? that attempting to tell anyone at all that blunt is using him as a child soldier will only lead to worse?

and on top of that. if you take this in combination with the deportation and care threats, blunt is saying he can do anything and get away with it. this whole web is his. we can infiltrate your life, we can take your home and family away, we can hurt, threaten, torture and kill you, and we can spin whatever story we like and use the law or ignore it as suits us. we pretended to be other parties who knew what was happening, but we lied. we are all there is. you have no choice.

(and also, potentially - just normalising abuse. alex goes almost directly from smithers pointing a gun at him to being briefed by jones and smithers. "we can do anything we like to you, and then you have to sit at a desk across from us and act like it never happened." blunt is casual and matter-of-fact and mildly congratulatory. "we can put you through hell and that's not just normal but good. if you'd been hurt less that would mean you'd failed.")

of course, alex doesn't just. completely internalise all this. he fights it, he sees through a fair amount of it, he retains his grudge, he goes against some of these lessons later on (eg telling close friends about his mission) - but still. he keeps working with them. and i would be surprised if it didn't affect him at all. going to be looking out for it as i continue my rewatch.

but also - what's most disturbing, imo, is that none of it was even necessary. alex didn't need training - he already had the skills. and he didn't need much in the way of persuasion - he's already prepared to go to incredible lengths for ian.

don't take this the wrong way, because we barely know ian and i don't yet see reason to accuse him of much more than being a little strict and suffocating - but this does make me wonder exactly what his parenting (uncling) looked like. like, sure, the loyalty and bravery seem more tragic than sinister, they can all just be alex. but wolf said, repeatedly, that alex seemed to have been trained, like he'd been training his whole life - and i'm just wondering how. and why.

[tyrannuspitch]

oh, and on the question of julius being self-destructive - see above for possible reasons he might think he doesn't have much left to live for, and/or much life left to live. but again, it's not all that overt. the closest we get is him pointing that gun at alex, while the agents all have guns on him - in that moment he's probably asking himself whether he's prepared to kill alex at the cost of his own life. but we don't see him get to make that decision.

perhaps more interesting than any of that is the fact that he kills that random french guy on the road. and just drives away. and THEN goes on to his original's house while his original is still there, and speaks to people when he's barely had any practice at being alex, etc... because all that seems to me like he's breaking the rules.

clone!parker was supposed to kill tom and then he was supposed to make him disappear. it was meant to be flawless and untraceable, and like, sure, he may or may not have actually been capable of that, but that was the ideal.

in contrast, julius cracks a man's skull open with a rock, leaves him lying in the road, and steals his car. we don't see his whole journey, so he might've done something else to distance himself from it, but even so, this is definitely not The Perfect Crime. this is reckless and impulsive. he didn't even necessarily need to kill that guy - he could've just taken the lift he was offered. he's going to have to get on a plane with alex's fake passport anyway, so he WILL be traceable.

but. he's not doing it because he needs to. he's doing it, much like stellenbosch in the lab, because everything's fallen apart and he wants to burn it all down.

julius is definitely kind of doing things out of loyalty here, but he also clearly completely believes things are Over. he's not doing anything to try and help his captured family - he's already skipped straight to avenging them. and he's not playing by the old rules, because the secret's already out. nothing left to defend or salvage. just rage.

[tyrannuspitch]

oh shit okay. something which you might suspect, but which i didn't really expect to find evidence of - julius has survivor's guilt over the downfall of point blanc!!!

he says to alex that he's going to make him understand what it's like to lose your family, eg, that he's going to make alex feel exactly what he's feeling... and only moments before that, julius was saying to tom that he (alex) would "never forgive himself" if something happened to tom. so. put those together. julius feels incredibly guilty.

you could reasonably ask why, though, and there are a few possibilities.

julius didn't contribute anything to the fight at point blanc - judging from the grime on his face, the timeskip, and where we first see him, it seems like he was hidden somewhere near the lab when it blew up, and was hidden + unconscious in the wreckage while the fight concluded.

but none of the clones put up much of a fight, because they were, you know, unarmed teenagers, and there wasn't much they could reasonably do. and sure, survivor's guilt isn't always rational, so it could just be this. but also - maybe he feels responsible just because alex brought everything down, and alex is his opposite? he was the very last clone to go through the ~process~ - is there any kind of clone hierarchy thing going on there, and/or does he maybe feel superfluous? hmmm.

there's also the fact that julius starts trying to kill people to equate his feelings in alex, when he doesn't actually know that anyone is dead yet. a few possibilities here:

julius thinks the captured clones (plus greif and stellenbosch) are going to be killed by various intelligence services to make them conveniently disappear. not an unreasonable suspicion, and also fits the clone cult us-versus-the-world mindset. i can actually imagine that being used as motivation in training - "if anyone ever finds out who you are, they'll kill you. that's why we have to stick together. we only have each other."

julius thinks the captured clones et al are going to be killed by scorpia to tidy up loose ends. also pretty plausible. scorpia definitely knows he exists, though, which makes him a dead boy walking in this case.

julius thinks the captured clones specifically, dead or alive, might as well be dead because they've outlived their purposes. there's no point to them any more, and there's no possibility of a worthwhile life remaining to them. remember how greif was going to kill them all and start again? i'm not saying julius (necessarily) knows that, but that kind of ambient, unspoken mindset of disposability would probably still have an effect on the clones. and there's also the clone cult sense of superiority / perfectionism - clone!sasha (iirc) disdainfully called original alex and kyra "mundane". they can't be special and perfect any more, so what's left?

don't have a conclusion on these. all pretty interesting options. and tbh julius could easily be thinking all of them at once.

[tyrannuspitch]

another very interesting thing - we mostly see the clones from the perspective of the originals, so we see them as aligned with grief/stellenbosch/etc and their whole abusive institution. but that definitely isn't the whole story.

the original mystery of point blanc is how they're making the pupils to act so eerily, inhumanly perfect. what kind of nightmarish and/or horrendously invasive treatment they're putting them through to make them act precisely how they want. and the answer we're given is "they're being replaced with clones". but once you remember that clones are, in fact, also people... that's not an answer at all. it's just deferring the question. how did they make the clones to act like that?

and then there's the whole military, institutional feeling of point blanc - the uniforms, the locked doors, the armed guards, the fact of being trapped in the wilderness and cut of from the outside world... all this applies to clones even more strongly than the originals. they haven't always been at point blanc, but they have always been hidden away somewhere. their whole existence is a secret. very early on, right after stellenbosch hits alex, either she or greif tells alex something like, "the sooner you realise that here we can do exactly what we like to you, the better" - and that's been the clones' whole lives.

aaand there's also the surgery. yes, of course it's disturbing and awful for the originals to be drugged and photographed and studied and to have copies made of them. but how much worse is it to have your own face and body taken away from you and replaced with someone else's? the clones are all different heights -- some of them will have had limbs broken and reset to achieve that. they have different eye colours, different hand sizes, different teeth. and the recovery time expected of them is insane. no matter how many drugs you give someone, doesn't any major injury/surgery cause, like, a state of shock? i don't think you can medicate away a bruised survival instinct. and i think trying, and expecting them to just immediately be fine, will probably be pretty damaging.

and of course. there's also the fact that greif is fully prepared to just murder all of his own children and start again. and stellenbosch is clearly upset by the idea but doesn't even try to argue. so it's not only the originals who were in danger of replacement - the clones were in danger of exactly that too.

and like... idk. they're greif's clones and personal army, so they're not allowed to be distinct from him; they all act uncannily similar, so it doesn't seem like they're allowed identities distinct from one another; and their life purpose is to replace these other children, so they're supposed to entirely replace their name, appearance, and identity with them. AND apparently another batch of clones would mean much the same to greif as this one. they're nothing and no-one; they're empty vessels for his masterplan; they're subsumed into being part of him and each other and potential future siblings to the point that in his mind they can't even really die. what the fuck.

i'm just rambling now but like. god. nightmarish in so many different ways.

[tyrannuspitch]

by the way. i'd love for you all to meet my good friend alex

[tyrannuspitch]

can i be a fake fan for a moment. i enjoy the show, esp season 1. i like alex a lot and i am specifically VERY interested in the whole clone cult situation. but i haven't read an alex rider book in ~10 years and i'm not actually convinced i want to start again. this may at some point result in some fanfiction written with minimal knowledge of what most people consider the real canon, somewhat laser-focused on very minor characters. some of whom i might have to pretty much invent from scratch. living long enough to see myself become the villain, or whatever

[tyrannuspitch]

taking a child into care compared to deportation + boarding school with military discipline that used to be a sanatorium + safehouse that functions like a prison + school that pretends to be a prison for fun and games. this show has Things To Say about Institutions.