#the idea for this hit me like a truck when i saw the original image
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petpetpinixy · 5 days ago
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has this been made yet
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putas-in-suffering · 4 years ago
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Mmmmm, how about a brat tamer with bish, we know that man would gladly mark you up for misbehaving💅🏿
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Sucias! We’re steadily working on some hoe ass content for you guys. We’ve got lots of original ideas that we’ve been playing with and we’ve also gone through some old requests in our inbox that hit that inspiration just right. Requests are still closed. But we didn’t think you’d mind if we went ahead and gave you all the smutty goodness. So we got a doozy here for all you Bishop freaks (it us). 
Read on to see just how Bishop gets his brat in line...
You pouted in your seat next to Bishop, impatiently waiting for him to finish his conversation so that you could go. A party was taking place around you. There wasn’t a special occasion. The boys didn't need one. The clubhouse was full of people and while you were normally down to partake in the night’s activities, an incident from earlier had turned your mood sour. 
It was about an hour after you’d arrived. The music was flowing, a cloud of smoke engulfing the room as everyone drank with enthusiasm. You’d stepped away to get a refill for Bishop on his beer when a woman you’d never seen before saddled up next to him. She was obviously new. Being El Presidente’s old lady meant that you’d seen every face that came through this place. Hang arounds and club girls. The ones who knew the rules and abided by them got to stay. The ones who didn’t got thrown out on their ass. It was the way of the MC world.
You had watched as she trailed her long hot pink nails over his arm, her eyes zeroing in on the President’s patch on his leather. She was eager and thirsty for clout. Desperate. And that vibe never lasted long with the men in the clubhouse. It was unattractive and incompatible for the lifestyle they led. A woman had to have her own shit when dealing with a Mayan. Their time was valuable. You couldn’t expect to have him at your every whim. Plus they all liked a little chase. Including your man. You may have been together for awhile, but you kept him on his toes and he loved it. You both got off on it.
Which is why you weren’t surprised to see Bishop brush her off and point her away from him. She’d looked crestfallen and you’d almost felt bad for her. You’d never questioned Bishop’s loyalty. But persistent women made your blood boil. They didn’t have respect for what was so clearly owned by another. There was a hierarchy and you were at the top when it came to the women of the club.
You were ready to let the whole thing go, pleased to see that your boyfriend wasn’t at all interested. But instead, the woman made one last ditch effort by grazing her fingertip over his bearded lips with a pathetic excuse for a seductive smile. 
You saw red.
Bishop yanked at her wrist and barked at the prospect to get the bitch out of there. His eyes had found yours, knowing you’d seen the whole thing. You knew better than to cause a scene. He was handling it. So you stayed rooted to your spot, cold and stoic as EZ hauled her out of the clubhouse.
Bishop came to you immediately and he could see the anger in your eyes. You assured him you were fine, but the party was over for you. He’d insisted you both stay, unwilling to let the moment be ruined.
That was forty-five minutes ago and you were still stewing. You’d tried to entice him into leaving, batting your lashes like you knew he loved. He’d brushed you off. The action made you seethe. Images of how he’d dismissed the bitch before made a sour taste settle onto your tongue. He was not about to ignore you like you were some whore.
You tried again, leaning into his side and whispering into his ear.
“Bishop...let’s go home, baby” You purred, letting your tongue gently caress the shell of his ear.
His brown eyes became dark, his mouth set into a firm line as he looked at you. His hand made its way to your thigh, gripping the flesh harshly.
“I told you. We’ll leave when I’m ready. So shut the fuck up and do as I say, querida.”
An icy chill ran down your spine. You sneered at him, letting him know you heard him but you weren’t at all happy about it. Something had him agitated tonight. And while you were used to dealing with a moody Bishop, you were not cool with being rejected like a random puta.
“Fuck you.”
His face became stone as he registered your words. You were both speaking in low tones, but the tension was obvious. You removed his hand from your thigh and stood, leaning forward to grab the car keys from the pocket of his leather. He didn’t move. He let you do as you pleased as you snatched the keys and walked away from him. You headed for the door, intent on leaving his ass behind.
The summer heat enveloped you as you made your way down the clubhouse steps outside and towards Bishop’s truck. You pressed the button to unlock it, watching as the lights lit up in response. You’d just gotten your hand on the driver’s side door when someone jerked you from behind. You were spun around and pushed against the the vehicle with a brute strength that let you know who it was immediately.
Bishop boxed you in with his arms as he pinned you with a glare. You matched his anger, unwilling to bow down to his dominance this time.
“Where the fuck you think you’re going? Huh?” He rasped as he gripped your chin and forced you to meet his now black eyes.
“Home. Like I said an hour ago.”
“You don’t disrespect me like that. You know better.” He bit back, fingers tightening their hold on your chin.
You winced against the pain and jerked away, pushing his body away from yours.
“I’m not doing this with you right now.”
You went to leave, but once again he stopped you. This time he dragged you by the arm to the back of the truck where the truck bed was open. The tailgate had been left down from unloading cases of beer earlier in the night. He forced you back, making the edge of the tailgate dig into your lower back.
“Is this about earlier? Is that what’s got you so fucking twisted up?”
His breath collided with yours as he loomed over you. He narrowed his eyes and you could see he was trying to read your face, searching for a motive.
“You think I like coming here and seeing some whore rub herself all over you like a bitch in heat? Do you think that’s fun for me, Obispo?”
He looked away, gaze taking in your surroundings to ensure no one was around. They weren’t. You were alone in the muggy night.
“I told you I was sorry. I threw her out. What else did you want me to do, huh?”
His tone softened ever so slightly, but his eyes were no less intense. You may be justified for your anger, but your disobedience wasn’t excused.
“How would you feel if I let one of the guys manhandle me? Let Angel squeeze my ass? Or let the prospect brush up against my chest? Would that be fun for you?”
With every word you spoke you could see the vein in his neck throb. His jaw clenched, his hands now balled into fists at his side. You were walking a very dangerous line. You knew that. But his reaction was giving you the pleasure you‘d been seeking. It was gratifying.
“I’ve seen the way some of them look at me. Maybe I should-,”
Bishop’s hand struck fast as he gripped your throat and applied pressure. It wasn’t enough to cut off your air supply, but it had the desired effect of silencing you.
“Shut the fuck up.” He growled out. He almost sounded more beast than man and your insides warmed at the thought.
Your body reacted to his anger instantly. Your nipples hardened despite the warm air of the evening. Your thighs twitched, your pussy already pulsing with need. The thrill of his anger and aggression made you wet instantly. It wasn't what you’d intended to happen. You’d been seriously upset and frustrated with Bishop. But your body knew him too well. And it was attuned to him by instinct rather than sheer will.
“You’re pushing your luck tonight, princesa.” He warned, his lips edging closer to yours. His free hand roughly cupped you through your jeans, forcing you onto your tiptoes. 
He could clearly see the reaction your body was having to him, and he was manipulating it to his liking. He got off on taming you. Just like you got off on rebelling against him. It was a demented tug of war that neither of you planned on losing. 
“You just love to act up, don’t you?” He crooned against your neck, bearded lips grazing over the sensitive skin. 
You shivered, unconsciously widening your legs for him to better maneuver against you. You pushed your chest out in invitation, daring him to touch you there. 
“I’m not the one who let a disrespectful cunt touch what's mine.” You retorted. The attitude was thick; the bite in your words apparent. 
He leaned back, lips quirked into a smirk at your brazenness. He was amused. And turned on judging by the hard muscle pressed against your stomach. 
“You know better than to doubt me. If I wanted whore pussy I’d have it. But instead, I put up with you.” 
His words and tone were ugly, but his body rubbed sensuously against yours. He thrust his hips into you, his hands now toying with the button on your jeans. 
“So, I’m gonna remind you of that, baby. Daddy’s gonna fuck you until you can’t remember anything but my fucking name.”
Your pussy contracted around nothing, so incredibly aroused by his words alone. You remained unmoving as he unbuttoned and unzipped your jeans, hands pushing the fabric down your legs. He pulled you in for a kiss, but immediately retracted when he felt the sting of your teeth bite at his lip.You smirked when he touched the appendage and a spot of red dotted the surface. 
“Fucking brat...” He cursed as he grabbed you by the back of your neck and nearly collided his face with yours. “Lick it off.” 
You stared at him with disdain, but did as he said. Your tongue licked the spot of blood from his bottom lip. The tang of iron hit your tongue and you savored the taste. 
In an instant you were forced away from him, facing the open bed of the truck. 
“Bend over.” 
You had no choice. His hand pushed you as he tore at your panties and exposed you to the open air. His belt clanged as he released himself from his dark denim confines. His cock rutted against your ass, the flesh seeking out the wet heat of your overflowing pussy. 
“Stick that ass out like I know you can.”
You lowered the upper half of your body, supporting yourself on your arms. The angle allowed your ass to meet his crotch, your glistening lips visible even in the darkness. 
“You talk a lot of shit for someone whose pussy stays wet for me.” He taunted as he rubbed the head of his cock at your entrance. 
You bit your lip to keep the moans at bay, both out of stubbornness and need for privacy. He teased you mercilessly. Dipping shallowly into your depths before retreating. You tried to follow his touch, but he kept you still.
“Say it.”
You knew what he wanted. And although you were fighting for control, it was obvious you were losing. So you gave in.
“Daddy...” 
He plunged into you in the next instance, hips flush with your ass. You attempted to grasp for purchase against the bed of the truck, but it was useless. Bishop’s hips set a punishing rhythm. Your body barely had time to clutch at him before he was pulling out. His grunts were like another set of hands, working you closer to that proverbial edge. 
“Fuck...” He groaned, letting his cock hit deep within you. He stayed still for a moment, feeling the hold your walls had on him. “Your pussy is tight. And just for me. Right, baby?”
“Yes...”
His calloused hands spread your ass, no doubt entranced by the way your body accepted him. He landed a harsh slap to your right cheek, enjoying the way your pussy squeezed him in response. 
“She wants to cum, querida. She knows who she belongs to.” He provoked, a finger sliding down between your bodies to assault your clit. 
The submission came naturally. Your body surrendered to his touch, your mouth unable to form words as the climax that’d been building finally swept over you. You could only squeeze your eyes shut and pray that Bishop held you up because your joints locked, your knees ready to give out at any moment. He fucked you through the chaos, continuing to work your clit as tears stung your eyes. 
“Shit, that feels good.” He praised as your pussy gripped him so tight you were afraid he’d become locked inside of you. His pace began to falter as he fucked you hard enough that the tailgate nearly cut into your skin. And you barely had a chance to come down from your high before he was experiencing his own. 
Warmth coated your insides as he filled you. His fingertips dug into your hips. His chest collapsed against your back. Ragged breaths filled your ear as he struggled to calm his racing heart. 
It felt like hours had passed, but in reality it had only been seconds. Bishop carefully moved off of you, hissing as he eased himself out of your sensitive walls. Despite your exhaustion, you pushed your backside up and out for him to  take in the sight of your overfilled cunt. 
“Jesus, I’ll never get tired of seeing this.” 
He ran a long finger down your slit, smearing the cum that had leaked from within. You jolted at his touch, still too sensitive. He pulled you up and around to face him, tapping your lips with his coated finger. You dutifully opened your mouth, sucking the mixture off of him. The savory sweet taste of you both exploded in your mouth. He caressed your cheek lovingly, the warmth seeping back into his eyes. 
“You know I love you.”
You nodded, too tired to argue anymore. 
“So don’t treat me like I don’t. Okay?”
“Okay.” You acquiesced, bending down to pull your jeans back up your legs. Your panties were torn and discarded nearby. There was no salvaging them. 
Bishop adjusted his own pants, buckling his belt back up as he watched you closely. You let him pull you in for a kiss, your mouths dancing against each other tenderly. 
“Let me tell the guys we’re heading out. And then we can go home.” 
You returned the smile he sent you and nodded, watching as he made his way back inside. You walked to the passenger side and got in. Your eyes caught the glow of the dashboard clock, triggered by the unlocking of the vehicle. It’d only taken you fifteen minutes to convince Bishop to take you home. Of course, he’ll see it as his idea. He’ll think he fucked you incompetent, but you knew better. You weren’t new at this game. If you wanted something, you had to set it in motion. And you’d done just that. 
At the sight of Bishop walking back down the steps, you smiled. He winked at you in return. 
Who says being a brat doesn’t pay off? 
Sucia Tag List:
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crimson-ace · 4 years ago
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Basewarming Party
Archive of Our Own Link
It’s been a few months, but here’s another Miraculous Transformers AU story! This time with some backstory.
Adrien, Alya, and Nino were leaving school when they saw three familiar vehicles nearby.
Nino ran over to the green dump truck and got in, planning to play some new songs for Stoneheart.
Alya headed over to the yellow sports car and groaned as Queen Bee told her to not mess up anything inside her.
Adrien got on the red motorcycle and smiled when Ladybug asked how his day was.
The three headed off and separated for a little bit to not draw suspicion as they soon met up on an empty road.
“So we spent the last solar cycle setting up an area of the base for you.” Ladybug explained to Adrien while they drove. “It’s normally used for human liaisons to present top-secret information when they need our help, but Pegasus thinks we did an okay job setting it up.”
Ladybug, Queen Bee, and Stoneheart soon made it to a road in Fontainebleau Forest and drove to a secret area that led to the location of the Autobot base. After giving their security codes, the three Autobots drove into the base and let the humans out, immediately transforming to their robot modes.
They noticed there was a banner hung up near one of the base’s computers that depicted the faces of Adrien, Alya, and Nino, as well as the Autobot insignia, with something written in an incomprehensible language.
“Uh...what does that say?” Nino asked.
Stoneheart tapped Ladybug’s shoulder lightly. “Ladybug...” He pointed to the banner, causing Ladybug’s optics to widen.
“Oh, scrap!” Ladybug hit her own head in frustration. “I forgot to write that in your language, not mine! Sorry!” She replied. “I meant to write ‘Welcome, Humans!’.”
“You made this?” Adrien was impressed with the level of detail in the banner.
Ladybug nodded. “Uh, yeah. I used to be an artist back on Cybertron. It was more of a hobby I picked up while I was in the Autobot academy. Why don’t you check out what we set up for you?” She added, realizing she was rambling on, and pointed to a staircase for the humans to walk up.
Adrien, Alya, and Nino walked up the stairs and were surprised by what they saw.
There was a couch set up in front of a small television which looked like a model from the mid to late 2000’s, and in between those was a “table” made from a board of wood on top of four cinderblocks. There was also a minifridge nearby, though most of the Autobots didn’t know what the humans ate, and planned to ask them later before getting snacks.
“So? What do you think?” Stoneheart asked as he walked over to the area and looked over them.
“Dude, this place looks awesome!” Nino chimed. “You guys did a great job!”
“I still think we should have put a cage here.” Queen Bee snarked, earning a glare from her fellow Autobots.
“So. what do you guys want to do now?” Alya asked the others.
“Well, earlier today, Stoneheart asked me about what Earth’s greatest warriors are like, so...” Nino took out a Blu-ray player and a container of the original Star Wars trilogy in the same format. “I said I would introduce him to Luke Skywalker.”
So the three humans sat down on the couch with Ladybug, Queen Bee, and Stoneheart sat down behind them to watch the movie. Even though they asked if this was based on Earth’s actual history, the Autobots were surprisingly invested in the film. When Obi-Wan Kenobi was killed by Darth Vader, Stoneheart cried out in despair, surprising everyone.
Apparently, the noise was enough for Pegasus to walk down, wondering why everyone was being so loud. “Can you all please keep all that noise down? I’m busy performing system diagnostics here.”
“Okay, C-3PO, we’ll be quiet.” Ladybug snickered as soon as she finished the sentence. “Did I say it right?” She asked Adrien, who nodded with approval.
Pegasus let out a sigh of frustration at the commotion. “I wasn’t built for this…” He grumbled. “What exactly are you doing anyway?”
“We’re learning about Earth history, obviously.” Queen Bee smirked. “Optimus said we need to familiarize ourselves with the planet.”
Pegasus scoffed. “We came here for a reason other than to watch human entertainment, Queen Bee.”
“Hey, why exactly are you here anyway?” Adrien asked. “I know you guys fought a war over control of your home and its energon, but why did you come all the way to Earth for it?”
Queen Bee smirked. “Well, as Optimus Prime’s second-in-command...”
“You mean acting second-in-command” Pegasus added, earning a glare from the Autobot.
“I, uh... I can explain what happened and how we got here, provided you don’t tell anyone else...” Queen Bee started to explain
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The civil war between Autobots and Decepticons had lasted for a very long time, so both sides were forced to abandon the planet Cybertron to find new sources of energy. For some reason, our ship’s scanners found your planet to have an a lot of raw energon. Like, we've never seen a planet with this much energon before.
Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones to find out...
"Hull breach on Decks 3 to 5! Shields are also damaged!” Ladybug cried out.
“We’re taking heavy fire, sir! We also just lost one of the thrusters!” Pegasus added.
While the Decepticons had a majority of their resources with them on their ship, which they called the Nemesis to show how friendly they were, it was only the five of us on a much smaller ship not nearly as armed as what the Decepticons had.
After another onslaught of fire from the Nemesis, a majority of our systems were knocked offline.
“Brace for impact!” Optimus ordered as our ship plummeted to Earth. It was a miracle we managed to survive.
We all came back online after about a few of your Earth hours and assessed the situation with our ship.
“Diagnostics say the ship is beyond repair with our current resources.” Pegasus said solemnly. “Some of the computers are still online, but we don’t have a lot of working parts right now.”
“So, now what? What can we do now?” Ladybug seemed to be the most nervous about our predicament. Then again, she had the least amount of experience out of all of us. (Hey!)
“We came to this planet in search of energon, but it seems we have an additional mission now: to protect it from the Decepticons.” Optimus stated. “Is the ship’s probe still online?" After checking the systems, Pegasus nodded, causing Optimus to walk over to one of the ship’s control panels. “Teletraan I, scan the area for local lifeforms. We will take on their appearances to blend in to avoid suspicion from the Decepticons.”
So the ship’s probe flew around for a little bit and not only came back with data on forms we could take, but also an image of an energon mining site the natives had set up.
“Carbon-based lifeforms?” I scoffed at the idea of these inferior lifeforms being able to harvest energon. “Do they even know what they stumbled upon?”
Pegasus continued to browse through the footage and gasped. “I’m detecting Decepticon signals converging near that area. They must have noticed the energon too.”
“Nevertheless, we must scan an alternate mode and try to obtain this energon in a discreet manner before the Decepticons. We must disguise ourselves as what these lifeforms view as vehicles.” Optimus declared as a mechanism on the ship popped up while we all browsed through ideas for possible alternate modes.
Ladybug saw something with two wheels and smiled “Ooh, that looks nice.” she said as the ship’s systems reformatted her so she was able to transform into that.
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Stoneheart saw what looked like a green vehicle designed to carry heavy objects. “So is this supposed to be like one of Earth’s more powerful vehicles? Either way, I like it”. Soon, he was reformatted as well.
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Pegasus saw a yellow and white vehicle with brown highlights and emergency lights, reminding him of the Rescue Bots on Cybertron. “This seems like a suitable form to take.” He was the next to be reformatted.
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(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I couldn't really find anything like this in brown, but the motorcycle isn't spotted either, so just work with me, alright?)
Optimus chose a large red and blue vehicle with a trailer attached to it without saying anything as he was reformatted.
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I on the other hand, had looked through the options for a form to take for a few nanoclicks. Naturally, a bot as beautiful as myself needed an appropriate form. Thankfully, I found something just as interesting, and one of the few good things about this planet. It was one of your Earth cars with a sleek design and yellow paintjob. I stood still as I eagerly waited for the machine to finish reformatting me.
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“Remember, we must keep a low profile and only reveal ourselves unless absolutely necessary.” Optimus ordered. “For now… Autobots, transform and roll out!”
With that familiar command, we all transformed into our new vehicle modes (except Pegasus, who stayed to see if anything else on our ship was working) and left for the excavation site the humans had set up.
Granted, it took us a couple of run-ins with some other Earth vehicles to get the hang of this planet’s traffic laws, but we eventually made it to where the energon was. There was also a sign written in your language that said something like “GOPHER-MINT PROPERTY/NO TREE-PASSING”. In hindsight, we really should have familiarized ourselves with the language before we headed out.
It didn’t seem like the Decepticons had attacked yet, although we were in trouble with a different form of opposition.
“This is Officer Raincomprix! Step out of the vehicles right now! You have violated several traffic guidelines, and are now trespassing on government property.” Someone from your planet’s law enforcement had apparently been following us. The strange thing was that he had a human partner who looked much younger than he did, almost like she shared genetic qualities with the man. “I’m going to give you until the count of ten to get out of the vehicles. Wait… where are the drivers? WHY DO NONE OF THESE VEHICLES HAVE DRIVERS?!”
Before we could really say anything, a stray shot from the distance hit the ground, signaling the Decepticons were here. The officer ran back to his car and tried to drive away as the Decepticons made their way to the surface.
“So, Optimus Prime. I see you and your little band of Autobots managed to survive the trip to this planet.” That raspy voice taunting us belonged to only one Decepticon. The very same Cybertronian who started the Decepticon cause behind the civil war that had caused so much suffering across the galaxy for megacycles. The Emperor of Destruction and leader of the Decepticons, Megatron.
“I see you’re trying to maintain cover on this strange planet rather than simply harvesting all the energon the local life forms have managed to discover for us. Typical Autobot weakness.” Megatron smirked as he and his Vehicon troops opened fire on the mining site. “Take the energon, and see if these lifeforms found any more locations with it. If you find nothing, leave no survivors.” He gave that last order with a sadistic grin.
“What should we do?” Ladybug asked nervously.
“Even if it means exposing our cover, these organic lifeforms need help. Autobots, transform!” With that order, we all transformed into our robot modes and activated our weapons. “Autobots, make sure none of the local lifeforms are hurt. Now, split up!”
So we all scattered to engage the Vehicons. I armed my stingers and fired off electrical blasts at some of the Vehicon forces. Of course, the organics were afraid of a superior being like myself, so they ran away like cowards… or maybe that was because another Decepticon was right behind me.
“Reckless as usual, I see.” That stoic voice came from my Decepticon counterpart, the (actual, not acting) (shut up, Pegasus!) second in command of the Decepticons, Malediktator. I slowly turned around and saw he was armed with his signature weapon, a rocket launcher.
“Maybe, but at least I know I’m fighting for the right side.” I quipped as I aimed my stingers at Malediktator.
Malediktator began to open fire, shooting several heat-seeking rockets at me. I tried to blast some of them, but there were some rockets that still managed to hit their target. I was knocked to the ground and struggled to get up.
Malediktator was going to fire again, but he was hit in the head by Ladybug’s “weapon”, her yo-yo, causing Malediktator’s weapon to misfire. It was probably the only time she actually helped out in a fight before. (I’m standing right here, Queen Bee!)
One of the stray missiles went towards the human law enforcement and his genetic experiment in the distance, until Optimus ran over and covered the two, taking the hit in the process. I think they talked a little, but my auditory processors couldn’t pick up their conversation.
Ladybug and I kept fighting to disarm Malediktator, but even though it was two on one, he still managed to overwhelm us. We tried our best, but it was really hard to keep up with the second in command of the Decepticons. While we were fighting, I noticed Optimus fighting Megatron one on one, but it was hard to make out who was winning.
Malediktator knocked both me and Ladybug to the ground and took aim at us with his rocket launcher. He was about to open fire when we all heard a crash to the ground. We turned around and saw Megatron slowly getting up after presumably losing to Optimus.
“If you are to harm the humans, Megatron, know that I will do everything in my power to stop you.” Optimus said, raising his ion blaster and pointing it at Megatron.
Megatron simply laughed in response. “Very well. If you’re so determined to protect this pitiful race, I’ll let you have this victory. But be warned, the next time we meet, I won’t have such mercy.” He stated grimly as a ground bridge appeared behind him. “Malediktator! We’re leaving. You can scrap those two another time.” He said as he turned around and walked into the portal with the remaining Vehicons.
Malediktator lowered his weapon and nodded. “Yes, Lord Megatron.” He said before walking away into the ground bridge. I tried to blast him, but Optimus raised his arm, silently ordering everyone to stand down.
As soon as Malediktator entered the ground bridge, the portal closed.
We all got up and collected ourselves as the humans swarmed around us. Strangely, the law enforcement unit and his experiment were the closest to Optimus. It was like everyone was afraid of us except those two.
“Did you really mean what you said back there? That you’d protect us?” The law enforcement unit asked.
Optimus leaned down so he could look the human in whatever optics were for him. “Of course. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.”
The unit was amazed by how serious Optimus sounded. “Is there anything we can do to hel--what am I doing? W-Who’s the highest ranking officer here?” Another human ran up, calling himself a “Colonel”, or something along those lines. He said he would talk to his superior about what happened.
After a mega-cycle or two, some vehicles I assumed belonged to this planet’s government arrived. One man came out, who was referred to as the “Prime Minister”. I didn’t really see what made him a Prime and I certainly didn’t know Earth had their own Primes, but everyone still listened to him.
“So, from what I’ve heard you’re at war and have come to our planet.” The Minister said. “What exactly are these ‘Decepticons’ you’re fighting after?”
“They are after a powerful source of energy and the lifeblood of our kind, energon. Your planet seems to have an abundance of it for some reason.” Optimus explained.
“And your ship crashed so now you need a new base of operations?” The Minister asked, earning a nod from Optimus.
“That is all that I ask for.” Optimus replied. “You kind need not interfere in this war. Even depleted of their resources, the Decepticons could lay waste to your planet if you aggravate them enough.”
This made the Minister sigh. “We can have some of our best men work on helping you construct a new base. Other than that, we’ll try and let you fight this war as long as you keep it a secret. If things heat up, we inform the United Nations about these... Decepticons. We’ll also expect status reports from you to make sure things are okay.”
Optimus nodded and stuck out his hand. “Understood.” He extended it to shake the human’s hand, but because the human was so small, he could only shake Optimus’ finger.
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“But yeah, after a few orbital cycles, the humans helped us set up this base in the forest, and we keep in contact with them through a liaison.” Queen Bee said, finishing her story.
“Wow...” Adrien was impressed by everything Queen Bee had told about their journey to Earth. “And you really can’t get back?”
“Not unless we fix our ship or create a working space bridge.” Pegasus sighed.
“Oh...” Adrien felt bad for all the Autobots. “I’m so sorry...”
“You have no need to apologize.” Everyone turned around to see Optimus Prime entering the room. “Although we were forced to abandon Cybertron, Earth is not a prison. We are more than willing to protect any world from the Decepticons.”
“R-Really?” Adrien asked, earning a nod from Optimus. “Are you sure we can’t do anything else to help you get used to the planet?”
“Can we, Optimus?” Ladybug got up and asked. “It’s a good learning experience.”
Queen Bee got up next to her. “Ladybug has a point. Learning about Earth culture can help us better understand these strange organic lifeforms”
Optimus took a few moments to think about it and smiled in response. “Very well. Maybe this can be the humans’ way of repaying us for protecting them.” He said, making them all cheer.
“This is so lit!” Nino cried out, which only confused Stoneheart.
“What does ‘lit’ mean?” Stoneheart asked.
Ladybug shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with lighting things on fire?”
“Maybe we can teach you all about memes first! That’ll be fun!” Alya suggested. “Ooh! Let’s teach them about Rickrolling!” She took out her phone and started to look something up.
Queen Bee rolled her optics. “This isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted to know about Earth culture.”
“And now you know how I fe--” Before Pegasus could finish his sarcastic comment, they were all interrupted by a song playing on Alya’s phone that all three humans were dancing to.
We’re no strangers to loooooooove~
You know the rules, and so do I!
“Welcome to Earth!” Alya and Nino cried out to the music while they kept dancing
Optimus sighed. He had a feeling he really should have put more consideration into letting the humans educate the Autobots.
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down!
Never gonna run around and desert you...
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teenwolffanclub-me · 4 years ago
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Season 1, Episode 2: Second Chance at First Line (Part Two)
Hey there beautiful reader! If you’re new here, this is a series I’m writing where each chapter is an episode from the first season of Teen Wolf. If you’ve been here before, hey! I missed you! Previous and future chapters are linked at the end of each part if you want to catch up.
Pairing: Stiles x Psychic! Reader (eventually)
P.S. Stiles and Scott are really bad at keeping secrets and Jackson is a suspicious asshole.
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I stared down at my algebra homework, the numbers blurring together until I couldn’t read them anymore. I blinked a few times in an effort to clear my vision. My head was killing me. I groaned and slammed my pencil down onto the desk in front of me. I’d been working on this for almost an hour now, but I couldn’t quiet my mind. It was already dark outside and I wasn’t even close to being done.
Every time I closed my eyes, gruesome images flashed behind them. Scott and Stiles walking through the forest with shovels, half a body buried in the earth, mangled animals.
I rubbed at my temples and let my head fall down onto the textbook in front of me. As I rested for a moment, I felt myself becoming faint. My eyes fluttered open and black dots floated around my bedroom. I cursed myself for fighting it this long. I knew that always made it worse.
All I could do was whimper as my limbs grew weaker. My eyes rolled back involuntarily and my phone clattered onto the hardwood floor. After that, everything went dark.
I woke to the sound of voices. I was laying on my side, one arm outstretched above my head while the other lay against my stomach. I pried my heavy eyelids open and the whole world tilted. My stomach churned painfully as a wave of nausea crashed over me. It felt like I’d just been hit by a semi-truck. My muscles protested as I forced myself up off the cold ground.
Wait. Cold...ground...
Shit. I was back in the forest. Why did it always have to be the forest? I couldn’t sleepwalk to one of my friends houses or something? My head was no longer pounding, so I knew I was in the place it wanted me to be. Why, though, I had no idea.
“What if he comes back?” It was Scott’s voice that drifted toward me with the wind.
Judging by the volume, he couldn’t be far.
“I have a plan for that.” Stiles responded, sounding slightly out of breath.
I wiggled my fingers as I waited for my body to regain it’s strength. It always took a minute or so after an episode.
“Which is?” Scott was gasping gently too.
Once I felt confident that I wouldn’t face plant, I used a nearby tree to help me get to my feet. I took a few slow steps forward to test myself. Satisfied that I was mostly back to normal, I headed in their direction. Goosebumps erupted on my skin as a soft breeze brushed against me. Once again, I was only wearing a t-shirt and it was freezing out here.
“You run one way, I run the other. Whoever he catches first...too bad.”
I climbed up a small hill and saw Scott and Stiles kneeling before a large hole in the ground. Two shovels lay discarded on the dirt beside them. I swallowed thickly. So, that part of my vision had already happened.
“I hate that plan!”
I didn’t want to waste anymore time. They might think I’m a psycho for sneaking up on them, but I had to find out why they were so hellbent on solving a murder case. I knew my mind wouldn’t let me rest until I figured it out. And I wanted to get home, so I needed to act fast. Within seconds I was standing on the other side of the hole they’d obviously just dug.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” I crossed my arms to maintain some of my body heat as I started shivering.
“Gah!” Stiles jumped aggressively at my voice and fell face first into the hole.
I winced and peered inside to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.
“Y/N? How-how did you find us?” Scott bolted to his feet and looked at me with wide, nervous eyes.
I was honestly surprised he knew my name. I’d been around him plenty of times with Allison, but never really talked to him directly until now.
“That’s...” I hesitated. It wasn’t like I could tell them what actually happened. “Not important. What are you doing?”
“Why are you everywhere?” Stiles popped back up like a whack-o-mole and braced his hands on the dirt edge of the hole.
“What?” I asked dumbly, my own eyes widening.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you spying on us all week.” He wagged a finger at me like a disgruntled father.
My cheeks grew hot under the accusation. I really didn’t want them to think I was some weirdo stalker. I tried to keep the rising defensiveness out of my voice. “It’s not my fault you two talk about halved bodies and animal bites in public.”
“You heard that?” Stiles dropped his hand, his eyes twitching slightly.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “It was kind of hard not to. You really think Derek killed that girl?”
Scott took a step toward me with a hand outstretched. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to intimidate me or reassure me with that gesture. Either way, he looked close to a panic attack.
“Y/N, you can’t be here. You need to go home.” His brown eyes were boring into mine, practically begging me to listen.
I frowned. I did not take orders from anyone but my mother, occasionally. I closed the distance between us with a few long strides.
“Not until I get some answers. I’d like to know if I accepted a ride from a murderer. Why are you two so interested, anyway? And talking about scents and bite marks?”
“Oh, God.” Scott instantly started spiraling. He backed away from me and shoved his hands through his hair. He was muttering something to himself that I couldn’t make out.
“Uh...guys.” Stiles’ shaky voice fluttered up from the hole he was still standing in. I moved my attention from Scott’s freak out to see what he wanted.
I looked inside and let out a loud shriek at the sight before me. One lifeless eye stared up toward the sky, attached to the upper body of a wolf. A very much dead wolf. That was cut in half. Bile rose up my throat and I gagged, staggering away from it.
Stiles pulled himself out of the hole and Scott ran to my other side.
“What the hell is that?” He yelled, still freaking out but probably because of the corpse in front of us now.
“It’s a wolf.” I deadpanned, still staring at it. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the gruesome sight.
“Yeah, we can see that.” Stiles sent a glare my way and leaned over me to look at Scott. “I thought you said you smelled blood. Like human blood.”
Did he just say...?
Scott took a deep breath to calm himself down. “I told you something was different.”
I looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
“It doesn’t make sense.” Stiles threw a hand up in frustration.
“We gotta get out of here.” Scott just shook his head and picked up one of the shovels from the ground.
“Yeah. Okay. Help me cover it up.” Stiles grabbed the other shovel and was about to stick it into the loose dirt when something caught his eye.
My heart started pounding with uncertainty. What if it was Derek coming back? If he saw us on his property and he actually was a murderer, I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to add three more bodies to this grave.
“What’s wrong?” I breathed, unable to wait any longer for him to tell us what he was seeing.
“You see that flower?” He pointed somewhere in front of us.
True to his word, there was a single flower sticking up from the ground a few feet away. There were a few small green leaves at its base, and light purple pedals that formed an almost perfect cylinder at the top.
“What about it?” Scott sounded annoyed that he was stalling the clean up process.
“I think it’s wolfsbane.” Stiles was still staring at the flower with wide eyes.
Wolfsbane? Like the plant from werewolf mythology? There was no way that could be a real thing.
“What’s that?” I let out a sigh of relief when Scott asked the question, glad I wasn’t the only one confused right now.
Stiles’ brows rose and his lips parted in scrutiny as he gave Scott a long look. “Haven’t you ever seen The Wolfman? Lon Chaney Jr? Claude Rains?”
He shook his head. Stiles’ eyes snapped to mine. “The original classic werewolf movie?”
“Of course I’ve seen it.” I admitted. I’d always loved old films, and I actually had to watch that one for a class at one of my old schools.
Stiles sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment before turning his attention back to Scott. “You’re so unprepared for this.”
My mind was racing with questions. The way they were talking...it was as if something else was going on with all of this. Something other than human. I’d already heard Scott talking about smelling and hearing things he shouldn’t be able to...
Was he...?
Stiles plucked the flower from the ground, a big clump of dirt coming with it. That’s not all that emerged from the ground, though. A piece of rope was seemingly attached to the roots. He looked back at us in question and both Scott and I shrugged.
He pulled on the rope and followed along the path it was creating in the dirt. It became clear almost instantly that it had been buried all the way around the grave, in a huge spiral. Stiles continued walking until the entire length of rope was wrapped around his hands. I heard a soft gasp from beside me and watched as Scott stood to his feet slowly.
“Stiles.” He muttered, staring right into the grave with a horrified glint in his eyes.
I looked down and yelped, nearly shitting myself at the transformation that had happened. The severed upper body of a woman was now lying where the wolf had just been. Stiles joined us quickly.
“Oh, whoa.” He stumbled back at the sight.
The three of us stared down into the hole in stunned silence for a few long moments. I took a step backward to put some distance between myself and the body. This was all too much. What I just witnessed is not possible. It shouldn’t be possible. But it had happened right before my eyes. Wolves don’t just turn into people.
I wrapped my arms around myself tighter, feeling my entire body start to tremble. I didn’t know whether it was from the cold or the events of the last few minutes.
“Y/N?” Stiles suddenly called out as he noticed that I was retreating.
At this point, I wasn’t sure if either of the boys in front of me were entirely human. There had to be some kind of supernatural shit going on here, and I wanted no part of it. I just moved. I couldn’t let us be forced out of another town already.
“I—I’m gonna...I have to...” My teeth were chattering now and my words kept getting all jumbled up. 
“We can explain.” Scott went back to having a major freak out. “All of it.” 
I didn’t really want him to, to be honest. I’d seen enough to know that I didn’t want to be involved anymore. I just hoped my mind would be satisfied at this point and not force my hand again. I couldn’t help it if I just kept showing up places, but at least while conscious, I would be keeping my distance from now on. 
My shoulders tensed as I felt something heavy wrap around me. I’d been so lost in thought that I hadn’t even noticed Stiles walking toward me and offering his jacket. My muscles instantly relaxed under the comforting warmth and I sighed tiredly. Even if I wanted to get away from them, I wasn’t about to turn away a coat right now. 
And, God, it smelled good. 
I sent him a small, grateful smile and his eyes flickered around my face quickly as if checking for signs of insanity. 
“I’ll drive you home.” I sighed in relief that he’d somehow read my mind and nodded. My shaky hands pulled his jacket tighter around my torso as I followed the two of them toward a trailhead. 
I chewed on my lip nervously as I sat in the back of Stiles’ blue Jeep. He and Scott had been throwing ideas around about wolfsbane and it’s uses since we pulled out of Beacon Hills Preserve, but I hadn’t said a word. I was still trying to process everything I just saw while coming up with a plan to avoid these two for the rest of my life. 
“Maybe it’s a special skill, like something you have to learn.” My attention snapped back to the front of the car with Stiles’ words and I realized I had no idea what they were talking about. 
“I’ll put it on my to-do list. I already need to figure out how the hell I’m playing this game tonight.” Scott barked back, seeming a little breathless. I leaned forward a bit and watched as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly. 
“Maybe it’s different for girl werewol...” Stiles let his last word trail off. His head jutted forward and he rolled his lips inward as he visibly cringed. 
A heavy silence filled the car. His eyes fluttered and snapped to mine in the rear view mirror. My jaw was slack as I stared right back. Did he just...was he going to...
“Stiles, finish that thought.” My voice was barely above a whisper. I tried to ignore the fluttering in my stomach as I said his name aloud for the first time. 
He hesitated, chewing on his lips in thought. He looked between Scott and I. Back and forth. I saw Scott shake his head minutely and clenched my jaw shut. If they didn’t tell me what the hell was going on soon, I couldn’t be held accountable for my irresponsible actions. Like jumping out of a moving vehicle. 
“I...I was going to say...” I started taking off his jacket as he tried to think of a believable lie. 
Yeah, I was done. The second we slowed down enough I would be removing myself from this situation and never speaking to them again. 
“Stop that!” Scott suddenly yelled and gripped his hair, so I froze with one arm free. 
“Stop what?” Stiles’ fingers tensed on the steering wheel as his head snapped to the right. 
“Talking!” He was breathing heavily now and clutching his hands into fists. I pressed my back into the seat behind me, wanting to be as far away from him as possible. 
“Are you okay?” Dumb question, Stiles. He was clearly very much not okay. 
He began hyperventilating and pulling at his seatbelt. “No! No, I’m not okay! I am so far from being okay!”
Good God. I’m going to die. 
“You know, you’re going to have to accept this, Scott. Sooner or later.” Stiles’ spoke with that parental tone again and all I could think was that this was so not the time for a lecture. 
“I can’t!” Scott’s voice was thicker now, more guttural. I pushed myself against the door to my left and gripped the handle. 
“Well you’re gonna have to!” Stiles was yelling now too, only making the situation worse. 
“No, I can’t breathe.” Scott slammed one of his hands into the roof of the Jeep with a loud groan and I yelped in surprise. I covered my mouth and froze in fear. My heart was racing in my chest. He was really freaking out, to the point of potential violence. A small car was not the place to be with someone like that.
Suddenly, jumping out seemed like a really good idea. 
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Stiles swerved to the left and I lost my hold on the door handle. My shoulder slammed into the plush cushion beside me and the seatbelt dug painfully into my hips. 
“Pull over.” Scott demanded, breathing heavily. He hunched over and groaned again. 
“Why? What’s happening?” Stiles was watching him carefully instead of focusing on the road. 
“Oh my God, Stiles! Just do it!” I shrieked, wanting nothing more than to get away from them both. 
Just then, Scott peered into the duffle bag resting on the center console between them and...growled? 
“You kept it?!” His voice was deeper than I had ever heard it and raw with emotion. Anger, mostly. But there were traces of anxiety and fear too. 
“What was I supposed to do with it?” Stiles’ voice cracked with panic as he continued to race on down the road. 
Scott moaned loudly. It sounded like he was in agony. He lowered his head to his chest before snapping it back up quickly. I gasped in shock and scrambled as far backward as I could at the sight of his face. Here eyes were no longer their normal brown, but now looked more like fireflies as they glowed a bright yellow. His canines elongated into pointy spikes. 
“Stop the car!” The metal cage around us shook with his intense scream. 
All I could do was stare at him with wide eyes as Stiles’ skidded to a violent stop in the middle of the road. Thankfully, no one was coming at the moment. He immediately jumped out of the driver’s seat, taking the duffle bag with him. He chucked it over a nearby hill as hard as he could, and it disappeared instantly between the trees. 
“Okay, we’re good.” He called before walking back to the car. 
I hesitantly let my eyes trail back to the passenger seat. I had no idea what I would see sitting there. Would it be Scott? Or some kind of monster?
“Oh, no...” Stiles muttered, noticing at the same time as me that he was gone. 
I tried to catch my breath as I unbuckled myself and fell out of the Jeep. At once, I was both relieved that he was gone and worried about him. The chilly night air helped shock me back into reality. That really just happened. 
“Werewolf.” I whispered, breathless. My eyes met Stiles’, which were practically bulging out of his head at my declaration. “You were going to say werewolf.” 
                                                 ------------------
I watched a cloud of condensed air gather in front of my lips as I exhaled and shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat. It was way colder than I’d expected. Part of me wished I’d taken Allison’s advice and worn a scarf. 
“What do you think she’s saying to him?” She asked from beside me, watching Lydia invade Scott’s personal space on the field. 
I had no idea, and I didn't really care. I had so many other things to worry about. Like the fact that he’s a fucking werewolf and we just discovered half of a dead body on Derek Hale’s property a couple hours ago. 
I just shook my head. “I don’t know, probably bribing him to pass to Jackson.”
After losing Scott, Stiles drove me the rest of the way home. He’d practically threatened me when informing me that I couldn’t tell a single soul what happened tonight. I caught him looking up at me from the bench and swallowed nervously. I really wanted to tell Allison. She was practically dating him, for God’s sake. She deserved to know.
I still had no idea where Scott had gone. Either way, he was here at the lacrosse team’s first game. Something in my gut told me that he shouldn’t be here. That it was a terrible idea and bad things were going to happen. 
Lydia joined us in the stands, looking smug. Allison asked her what she’d been talking to Scott about, and she played coy. I kept my eyes trained forward. I just had such a bad feeling. 
The game started out slow for Beacon Hills. We were currently behind a few points, and time was almost up. I noticed that Scott and Jackson kept ramming into each other and intentionally keeping the ball out of the other’s hands. It probably had something to do with the way Jackson had threatened Scott about his alleged drug use in the hallway.
Suddenly, Scott got good. Really good. He was catching the ball left and right, and making every goal. The stands were erupting in cheers at each successful goal he made, but I was watching him closely. He seemed agitated. He was breathing heavily and hunching over every few seconds. I glanced down at Stiles and saw that he was chewing on one of his gloves nervously. 
“That’s it, Jackson! Get fired up!” The coach yelled excitedly from the sidelines. 
“Here, help me with this.” Lydia pulled a sign out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed mine and Allison’s hands.
I stood up and peered around to see what it said. In big bubble letters it read, “We Luv U Jackson!”
As if sensing it, Scott’s head snapped in our direction. Stiles whipped around and cringed before turning back to the field. I watched Scott’s shoulders heave as he took long, labored breaths. He was about to shift, I could feel it. Any minute now, the entire school would know that he’s a werewolf.
He caught a pass and practically jumped over another players shoulders. My lips parted in surprise. That was actually kind of badass. He weaved past every player that tried getting in his way and somehow scared them enough to start passing directly to him. 
Then, he threw a ball so hard that it broke through our opponents goalie net. 
The crowd exploded with pride, but I was frozen. That is not good. There was no way a normal person would be able to do something like that. He was going to get himself caught. 
Time was running out. There were only six seconds left on the clock. Scott managed to score the winning goal and everyone, including Stiles, cheered happily. I watched as Scott threw one of his gloves off and gasped at the sight of brown claws at the tips of his fingers. The people around me started ambushing to field to celebrate. I quickly lost sight of Allison and Lydia. 
I managed to see Scott bolting toward the locker rooms through the dense crowd. Stiles seemed to notice too and went chasing after him. I wanted to help, but I knew I couldn’t just run into the boy’s locker room. I would have to trust that they could handle it. 
I turned to walk down to the field, but stopped when I caught sight of Jackson holding Scott’s discarded glove. My eyes widened as I watched him inspect it. He was paying close attention to the ends of each finger, where claws had poked through. He looked around, probably trying to find Scott. 
This is so, so not good.
Episode 2, Part One      Episode 3
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marshmallow-phd · 4 years ago
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The Anormic
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Part of The Experiments Universe
Genre: Lucky One/Obsession AU
Pairing: Kris x Reader
Summary: You were everything he needed to feel human. But not even your presence could keep the nightmares away. The years had gone by and it seemed his dreams were all that was left of his trauma. When his past comes back and snatches you away, the human mask he’d worked so hard to create will be ripped away and he’ll stop at nothing to get you back.
Part: 1 I 2 I 3
**
You stumbled back, tripping over your feet and barely catching your balance before you could meet the floor. You felt like you’d been tossed in front of an eighteen-wheeler. To keep you steady, you placed your palm against the cold cinderblock wall. No. It couldn’t be the same Kris that he spoke about, not your Kris. Sure, he had a mysterious past, but you took it as easily explainable; a bad childhood or dysfunctional family he was trying to outrun, maybe even a criminal record that he deeply regretted. This was something else entirely.
You racked through your memory, trying to find any sort of sign or clue that this man was telling the truth. Kris couldn’t have any powers or extraordinary gifts. He was an average person who worked a laborious job, who came home to you in the evening, and lived an ordinary life. But the dots were there to connect: the ambiguous past that he rarely spoke of, the quick reflexes, and lifting of objects that should have taken more struggle. This Dr. Brandt had said he was like a dragon – a possible hint as to what else Kris was hiding from you?
“Quite a shock, isn’t it?” Dr. Brandt said, amused.
The words to snipe back were far out of reach. Part of you wanted to jump him like an overprotective cheetah, clawing his face with your fingernails until you drew blood. But the meeker part of you couldn’t find the strength to attack, barely able to keep your knees from buckling under.
“He was one of the subjects that progressed quickly. A shining example for the other eleven.”
Other eleven? Tao. Did that mean Kris’ friend Tao was among them? Were the other men you saw leave part of that group as well? Dr. Brandt’s smirk deepened, if that was possible. He seemingly enjoyed your confusion.
“So… you want to cage them all up again?” It was the only question you could push out onto the surface. There many more – more details of the experiments, what he meant by Kris jumping sides. A deep labyrinth lied before you. While you had no idea what sort of Minotaur waited in the middle and you were left without a string, you knew you would have to move forward to get to the truth.
“Actually, we’ve made progress without the original subjects,” he said. “Much more than could have ever hoped from the first trials. However, we’ve hit a bit of a wall. If we are to keep forging a new way, we need to glance back. We need Kris’ cooperation to do so.”
You swallowed thickly. At least he wasn’t trying to be the mysterious mad scientist in the tower. He came right down and had no issues explaining to you his evil plans. “So what do you need me for then? To make him help you?”
“Unfortunate collateral. We know that getting Kris here would be more trouble than it's worth. You were the easier target, so we brought you here. Eventually, Kris will come to us and be more than cooperative. Then, when we have all that we need, the two of you can go on your way.”
Great. You were bait. Like a worm on a hook. The tension in your jaw made the muscles under the skin ache. Even your teeth were whining from the pain. “So, I’m guessing you left him a little map on how to get here?”
“Oh, no!” Dr. Brandt laughed. “That’s not nearly as fun. But we did leave behind a clue to get him started. He’s an intelligent being. He’ll find us… eventually. Until then, enjoy the hospitality.” Like a dancer, he whirled on the balls of his feet and exited the room. The door slid closed behind him, the click finalizing the idea that this would be your prison for the foreseeable future.
You were battling yourself. You wanted Kris to come rescue you, but him getting pulled back into this mess of a place was horrifying image. It was hard to wrap around the thought of Kris living a life of experimentation, of tests and needles and torture. And for what? What was the purpose behind all of this? You almost shouted for the mad doctor to come to answer the questions, but you held your tongue. Now wasn’t the time to draw attention to yourself. While the doctors and guards might be aware of your presence, you needed to fade into the background of their minds. If you were going to get out of here, you needed to become almost invisible. So, instead of screaming into the abyss where your words would fall on uninterested ears, you lied down on the bed, eyes focused on the slick white ceiling. Kris would come for you, but in the meantime, you would create your plan. Because you would get out of here and you refused to let Kris be caged ever again. In order to that, you would have to find your own way.
**
It was hot. It was the kind of memorable hot where beads of sweat dotted the hairline in a way that was never ending and the sun shined up in the sky without any mercy from the clouds that had been dotting the sky for the past few days. Overnight they had either drifted off to another landscape or dissipated back into their individual water droplets. Despite the heat, it was still a beautiful day. The park was full of families and couples enjoying the fresh air, but it wasn’t overcrowded to the point of being suffocating. You took in the sights with a smile as you sat at one of the picnic tables by your lonesome. Textbook and pen at the ready, you were killing two birds with one stone by finally leaving the confining walls of your studio apartment while still getting plenty of studying done before your test next week.
After a few hours, your eyes were tiring from the glare the glossy paper gave off. The words were beginning to blur. You were no longer able to recite the previous sentence that you’d read. A break was certainly earned.
As your gaze wandered around the park it settled on a small food truck across the bike path. The signs all over the metal sides said their specialty was ice cream. Well, you’d worked hard for a treat, hadn’t you? Packing up your things, you threw your bag over your shoulder and made way to the truck expertly dodging children playing tag in the process. The line moved at a tolerable pace, giving you enough time to pick out a treat before approaching the front window. The woman inside the truck was friendly. She wrote down your order with a smile and, after handing your card back, pointed you off to the side where you could pick up your sundae. You were practically bouncing with anticipation as you watched from the opened back door; the employee scooped up the vanilla ice cream and torched the marshmallows until they were a perfect golden brown. The grin on your face was wide to the point of making your cheeks ache as you thanked the young man who handed the Styrofoam bowl to you. Not wasting time to find a spot to sit down, you walked down the bike path as you attempted to eat at a pace that was acceptable for the public.
All afternoon you had been hearing the typical noises of the park, most not bothering you in the slightest. You weren’t so easily distracted, but the blissful air you were currently in must have made you more susceptible. The chime of a bike bell caught your attention. You glanced over your shoulder to see a teenage boy peddling fast and laughing as he left his friends in the dust. But he wasn’t paying attention to where his bike was going, thinking that his bell was enough to clear the way as he stared behind him. Before he could collide with you, an arm wrapped around your shoulders. It pulled you out of the way in time but at the expense of your ice cream.
The bowl was cracked nearly in half. Chocolate syrup and melted mush covered both your shirt and the shirt of the wannabe hero.
“Well, that was nice while it lasted,” you murmured in disappointment.
“I’m so sorry,” a deep voice apologized.
You looked up and – as much as you hated to admit it – your irritation dissolved away, all because of the very handsome face that you were getting lost in. You waved his sorry away. “It’s okay. Better than being a bug squished on the cement.”
That made him laugh. “Let me replace it.”
“Oh, no, that’s alright. Thank you, though.”
“No, I insist.”
“Really, its-” You were completely ignored. The man – the very tall, handsome man – was already walking towards the food truck, wallet in hand. Nerves and butterflies took over your body as you stood there on the edge of the path, unable to walk away when you would have in any other situation. But there was something intriguing about this man. Not to mention, you were a sucker for chivalry.
The man came back with a new s’mores bowl balanced in one hand. Balanced wasn’t really the right word as what took two hands for you to carry rested nicely in his single palm. His other held onto a stack of napkins. The latter was handed out to you first.
“Thank you.” You took a few napkins shyly. Once you were cleaned up, you took the sundae. “Thanks.” You already said that. Clearing your throat, you tucked the used napkins under your arm and held out a free hand. “I’m (/y).”
He smiled broadly. “Kris.”
**
The building looked different. For over a year, the sight of the lit-up windows and the silhouette outline against the setting sun was a welcoming one – it loosened his tense shoulders, opened up his lungs. He felt stronger, even more so than he already was. A deep rest couldn’t do for him what seeing this place had. He always felt like he could live forever. Invincible, like Superman.
Now, though? Now it was simply a monument to his faults. Bricks and mortar that stood for nothing but loss. If he’d known that meeting you that day in the park would lead to this, he would have left the second he pulled you out of the way of the bike. He wouldn’t have smiled as you enjoyed the ice cream or even given you his name. Or, at least, he hoped that he would have gone the other way. As he walked up the stairs of the apartment building, he was bombarded with memories. The happy ones, most of all. But even the fights came pushing through. In those moments he’d been angry and frustrated, wanting to never have another scene like that again once you’d both calmed down and said sorry. In the present, though, he would give anything to have another fight with you. Back and forth he bounced, from wishing he’d never met you to praying he’d be able to hold you in his arms again. With unstable fingers he unlocked the front door and went inside.
The place was still a disaster. He hadn’t bothered cleaning up or even attempting to right any of the overturned furniture before he’d left. Dust was already starting to settle on every surface – something that would have driven you crazy. You couldn’t stand a dirty home. You wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else until it was spotless, just the way you liked it. Although, Kris had always thought that you simply used that as an excuse to procrastinate your studying. If it was you who had made the mess with your homework, then it wasn’t a dire situation. He’d always laughed at your pitiful argument against his statement. The lights suddenly flickered on.
“Kris?”
Turning around, Kris felt immediate relief.
Standing in the doorway were four of his brothers. He hadn’t seen them in quite a while. The exact amount of time was lost to him. Years, maybe? They all lived on the military base that kept them safe. It had crossed his mind once or twice to take you there to live. It might have helped drive the worry and the nightmares away. But that would have meant telling you everything. That inevitability haunted him even more.
“Chanyeol.” He tried to swallow down the shakiness in his voice. Thankfully, the younger hybrid took the first step, not even acknowledging the way Kris was barely holding it together. He closed the space between them with long strides and hugged Kris for the first time in years. Kris sighed into the embrace, even patting Chanyeol on the back. When they parted, Kris said, “Thank you for coming. I know this is probably the last thing you want to get involved in.”
“Hence why there’s only four of us,” Baekhyun huffed. The haughty air was clearly fake given the smirk dancing in the corner of his mouth.
“Nice to see you, too, Baekhyun.”
“So, Chanyeol said that your… friend was taken.” Minseok crossed his arms and leaned up against the door after shutting it behind him.
“My girlfriend,” Kris correct.
“And you both lived here?” Yixing asked.
Kris nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how they found us. The apartment is under her name.”
“Does she know about you?” Chanyeol ran a hand through his messy black hair. “Does she now about us?”
“No,” Kris admitted. “Well, at least she didn’t before. Now- now there’s no telling what she does and doesn’t know.”
Yixing walked deeper into the apartment until he reached the living room. Crouching down, he examined the shards of glass sprinkled all over the rug. He scooped up a hand full, not bothered at all by the tiny cuts the edges made on his fingers and palms; they healed just as quickly as they were formed. “How long ago did they take her?”
“Day and a half ago. Why?”
“Just wondering. I wasn’t sure if they tried to come back and get you as well. Or if this was caused by them coming back.”
“Nothing’s changed since I left.”
“Did you find anything on your original search?”
Kris cleared his throat. Yixing and he… well, they never really had the closest of relationships, even back before they were separated. As thankful as he was that the latter had volunteered to help, Kris still couldn’t help against feeling the slightest bit awkward. “I didn’t do a thorough search, but I did find this.” He walked over to where his duffel bag was sitting on the floor and unzipped the pocket that held the frayed badge.
Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the symbol. “What is it?”
“It’s the symbol for Regeneration Science, camouflaged unit for EXO. Wang told me about it. She considerate it their back up plan. I never put too much thought into it. The way she talked about RS made it sound like that’s where they would move everything in case something were to happen.”
Minseok took the patch, examining it closer. “Is it possible that they had a copy of the files that you didn’t know about?”
Kris shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought so. Wang was protective of her research. She didn’t like the idea of copies floating around. While I was still undercover, I tried to find all the copies that I could. They didn’t exist.”
“They obviously still have something on us,” Baekhyun chimed in. “Why else try to come after us again after all these years?”
“That’s a good point,” Yixing said as he straightened himself back up. “If you found that,” he pointed to the patch, “without looking, then maybe there’s something else here. I think we should dig a bit deeper, maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
So, the four of them started searching around the apartment, checking under the couch and in the different rooms for any other clue the enemy might have left behind. Kris headed towards the bedroom, but found himself frozen in the doorway. His brain, adding to the cruel torture he was already in, imagined you sitting on the bed, covers draped over your legs, smiling at him as if he’d just come back from a long day at work.
“You alright?” Minseok asked. His sudden appearance made Kris jump.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Behind Minseok, he watched as Chanyeol picked up the bookcase and set it against the wall. On the floor were scattered papers and folders, creased from the pressure of the wood that had lied on top of them. “Excuse me.” Kris passed by Minseok to get to the living room.
“Is this yours?” Chanyeol asked.
Kris shook his head. “No, it was (y/n)’s. For one of her classes.”
Frowning, Yixing picked up several of the papers and skimmed their contents. “Are you sure about that?”
“Of course.” Why would you lie about something like that?
Yixing held up one of the papers for Kris to see. “I think this might have been how they found you.”
In a flash, Kris snatched the paper. His eyes flew over the words. Slowly, their meanings sank in. It was a list off all the previous places he’d lived, including the different aliases and variations he’d gone by. Only after meeting you had he gotten weak and used his real name. How did you find any of this? But more importantly….
Why were you looking for it in the first place?
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name-me-regret · 3 years ago
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If The World Was Ending 15/?
If The World Was Ending Chapter Fifteen: A Reason To Live
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
“When I die, I wanna die with my Chucks on Pair of jeans and a shirt with MJ on I’m gonna die, yes, but I'ma live in style Time is golden don’t you waste a second Make the most of everything you’re getting Cause you’re gonna die too, so best you live in style
All I know Is I’m not giving up I’m gonna go Until my time is up…
When I wake up I'ma look in the mirror Take a look and see my vision clearer Oh I’m gonna give, my everything Went to church the other, Sunday morning Preacher told me ‘Put an end to the moaning Cause you’ve got a reason, a reason to live’...”
~Chucks - Mi Casa, Younotus
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
The man had literally an endless supply of ammo it seemed, since they had to continue to avoid being shot at from the grenade launcher, and he was still too close to the residential areas that Rhodes didn’t want to use his heavy artillery. Also, the police that had been following the assassin were too close. So, he stuck to repulsor blasts, but when they did manage to connect, didn’t seem to harm him that much besides some first or second degree burns. That wasn’t enough to take down the man that was clearly enhanced in some way, judging by the way he’d picked up his motorcycle and threw it at Buck with ease. The man wasn’t fast enough as he was slammed by the 400 pound vehicle, flying back as he tumbled across the ground. Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone or anything around.
“That’s it, I’m putting him down,” Rhodes growls. Buck lifts his head and sees the man’s suit shift as a missile comes out of his shoulder as well as his mini-gun.
Buck wants to stop him, because he didn’t want him to kill anyone regardless if the other was trying to kill them. Before he could, Rhodes is unleashing the missile and then the mini-gun when the assassin dodges the projectile. As he was dodging the bullets, Buck saw his opportunity and stood, flew to where the motorcycle was at. He took hold of a flash grenade JARVIS provided that was apparently part of the armor’s arsenal. He attaches it to the motorcycle and then was amazed as he was able to lift it, and started to swing it around and then let it go in the man’s general direction.
As expected, he was able to dodge, but he wasn’t expecting the flash grenade which exploded close enough to knock him off his feet. This wasn’t the movies so the motorcycle didn’t explode, but the one of handle bars did rip the rest of the way off after the second throw though. Buck is already in the air moments after he throws the motorcycle, so he arrives as the Winter Soldier is starting to get up and kicks him across the face. It knocks the mask off his face, as well as quite a bit of blood from his mouth. Buck winces, but knows he doesn’t have a choice. War Machine is on them in the next moment, knocking into the man with all the strength of a battering ram as he had tries to stand a second time.
“Hold him down!” Buck quickly jumps forward and helps Rhodes, who forces the still struggling man onto his stomach. Rhodes puts a pair of heavy duty handcuffs on him, but it extended from the wrist all the way to his forearm. Their newly secured prisoner struggles but isn’t able to break out of them. “Good luck breaking out of that, buddy. It’s Starkanium.” He pulls his fist back and punches the man in the back of the head, finishing in knocking him out before he looks at Buck. His faceplate lifted as he gives him a grin. “Good work, Evan.”
Buck is breathing heavily, from exertion and the adrenaline coursing through him. His own face plate lifts and he grins back at the other, since that was the single most craziest thing he’d ever done. It was also the first time in a long time he’s worked with someone and felt trusted. “Thanks!” He swallows as he tries to regain his breathing back to normal. “And it’s Buck, by the way. No one calls me Evan anymore.”
Rhodes laughs and claps him on his armored shoulder. “Sure thing, Buck.”
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Bobby was very concerned, because Athena had called him a few minutes ago but she couldn’t really get out much from in between her sobs. So, a heavy feeling was quickly building in his chest and choking him; a feeling he was very familiar with. It was the same feeling from when he’d lost Marcy, Robert Jr., and Brooke. So, as soon as he managed to find a parking space —that may or may not end up with him getting towed— he’d jumped out and started to make his way toward the medical center. Before long he was jogging, and then running as that feeling started to build.
Finally, he sees his wife and there were tears running down her beautiful face, and slows to a stop as he reaches her. “What? What’s happened?” Bobby demands, wrapping his arms around her to try and offer some kind of comfort to the woman he loved. It was just, he was too freaked out to properly do so.
“Buck... his...” she tries to get out, thus further confusing Bobby. It was then she pulls away and hands him something that his heart dropping down through his stomach, because he recognizes it. He was holding the charred remains of Buck’s license plate.
Bobby suddenly realizes with a horrifying clarity that he had just lost another son.
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Eddie zipped up the hoodie over his sweaty, battered body with a wince, since he had taken more body hits in order to not get punched in the face. It would be harder to explain away a black eye than hide a bruise to his stomach. And not for the first time, he wondered if he was making a big mistake, and then remembered the winnings that were burning a hole in his pocket and all he could do with it.
Originally, he had gone to the street fights to release his anger and forget about things that he didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to think of Shannon and how she had left him twice, once by choice and the other unwillingly, and that she would have left him willingly anyways if she hadn’t died. And how pathetic that he was angry at a dead woman, even months after her death.
Then there was almost losing his son in the tsunami, and the one that had almost killed himself searching for him; and found him in the end. Buck. He was the one he didn’t want to think of the most, and the look on his face the last time they’d seen each other and Eddie had spewed hurtful words that weren’t true. And Eddie had never felt more like his father than in that moment, and he wished he could push the words back into his mouth so they could have never caused such a look on Buck’s face.
He was just angry, angrier because he couldn’t see him. Mostly at himself, because if he was being truthful, he had preached about all of them having problems and needing to suck it up, and when he had examined his words he realized he’d sounded like his father. His old man had always drilled into his head that he couldn’t whine about his problems, that he had to be a man.
‘No puedes llorar o te verás como un maricón. Aguántate como un hombre.’
You can’t cry or you’ll look like a faggot. Hold it in like a man.
It was those lessons that always reared their ugly head whenever he tried to deal with his own emotions. He knew it was because of this, the machismo taught to him by his father that his marriage with Shannon had failed. Also, because he hadn’t been there to help her when she needed him. That was also tied with it though, because a man’s job was to provide for the family and the woman to raise the children. It was wrong, of course, but it’s what he’d been taught growing up, and he had let it control him for so long.
Now, he was making the same mistakes all over again with Buck, even if he knew that their relationship wasn’t that of a couple. It wasn’t to say that he was adverse to the idea of them together, but he knew that Buck and Tony were together, and that was one of the reasons he had lashed out. That as well as that sleazy lawyer bringing up Shannon and reminding him all over again where he had failed.
As he got into his new truck, having made enough money to make a sizable down payment on it, Eddie turned on the A/C. His phone started to ring as he pulled out of the parking lot of the run down factory, and frowned when he saw that it was Bobby. He was wondering what he needed and hoped he didn’t need him to come in for an extra shift, since he wasn’t exactly in a position to do so. Besides, he had seen the man earlier at the end of their shift. The grocery run had been the last thing they did before they were finished, having to extend it because of the road rage incident in the parking lot.
“Hey, Bobby,” he greeted as his phone connected to his truck’s bluetooth. That’s another thing he loved about the truck, since he could answer his phone and not have to worry about taking his eyes off the road. “What’s up?”
‘Eddie,’ came the man’s choked voice, making Eddie immediately snap to attention. Something was wrong.
“What’s wrong?” His heart was already beating wildly in his chest, fingers gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.
‘It’s Buck.’
Eddie felt his heart jump up into his throat and images of the truck bombing, the pulmonary embolism, and the tsunami coming to him so abruptly that he had to pull over before he has an accident. “What happened? Is he alright?” It didn’t even matter that he was mad at him at the moment, because in the end, Buck was Eddie’s best friend and would come running if he needed him.
‘He... his Jeep... you should come to Kaiser Medical Center on Sunset Blvd,’ he finally said, clearly unable to finish what he had wanted to say.
Eddie immediately swiped up on his screen to get his phone to the main menu and brought up his map amp as he found the complete address on there. “I’m on my way,” he told him before ending the call. Then he pulled away from the curve, hearing as someone blared their horn behind him as they had to stop when he pulled into traffic so suddenly. Eddie didn’t pay them any mind and floored the gas pedal, the feeling of dread building more and more the longer it took to get to where he needed to go.
When he was unable to get through due to emergency vehicles, he felt his heart stop in dread. “Buck,” he whispered, before he’s out of his truck and running toward the scene. When he gets to the police line, he can’t see much besides the red lights and black smoke of something manmade on fire, like a building... or a vehicle.
Eddie is suddenly under the police line before he knows what he’s doing as Bobby’s words echo in his ears. ‘It’s Buck. He... his Jeep...’ And also the last thing he said to him in that grocery store. The words that he didn’t mean, but had said them anyways.
‘Because you’re exhausting! We all have our own problems, but you don’t see us whining about it. No, somehow, we just manage to suck it up. Why can’t you?’ And Eddie hadn’t meant them, not really, he was just mad. Eddie was mad that he couldn’t speak to him, that Christopher was having nightmares and calling for Buck, and the man couldn’t contact them.
In that moment, none of that matters, and all he’s thinking and praying, is that Buck is alright. That if that’s his Jeep burning, then he isn’t inside of it. Because if he’s... If Buck’s...
He’s stopped by some officers as they try to hold him back. Eddie only doesn’t swing at them because he’s so desperate to get through and make sure Buck is okay. Then he hears a voice that makes him stop and he sees it’s Athena, and she saves him from getting arrested, again.
“Is it Buck’s Jeep?” he demands of her. Normally he wouldn’t ever speak to the older woman like that, but he needs to know. Eddie wants her to tell him that it isn’t Buck, and that he’s just being irrational right then. She shatters his world with her next words.
“Yes, it’s Buck’s Jeep.”
A strangled sob escapes him and she’s suddenly hugging him, and he’s never ever hugged or even touched Athena besides a brief pat on the shoulder. However, in that moment her arms are the only thing holding Eddie together.
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Buck flight back toward Kaiser is much better than when he left it. He thinks he’s getting the hang of the suit, even if he didn’t really think it was a great idea. After all, even if JARVIS had said that Tony had built the suit for him, it couldn’t really be for him... surely not to keep. Buck can’t really think that he will. That’s just crazy.
He sees mayhem when he flies over the medical center, the lights of police and other medical personnel and he knows that he’ll have to answer for some of it. Rhodes had told him not to worry about it, since it was only a few damaged cars and a few minor injuries, but luckily no one died. He told Buck before leaving to secure the prisoner, that after the attack in New York, Tony had created the Stark Relief Foundation and that the destruction caused today would be covered by the Foundation.
Buck had of course heard about it but the day had been wild that he hadn’t really been thinking of that at the time. He also really hoped that meant he’d get his Jeep as well, since he had just gotten it back from the shop after the tsunami, and he needed his Jeep. It wasn’t the same one that his sister had given him, which had quit on him when he was six months into his probationary year.
The Jeep he had brought afterwards wasn’t the latest model, because he hadn’t been rich or anything. All that mattered was that it was a Jeep and he’d managed to keep the word JEEP from the one Maddie had given him and had it put on the dash. It and a few other things he had added to his new one, so it wouldn’t feel that much different. The damage had been extensive after the tsunami, but nothing that couldn’t be repaired, especially after the water had receded and the vehicle recovered. So, he hoped it could be recovered again this time.
Although as he flew over the parking lot and saw the remains of the Jeep, or what he assumed was the Jeep after being hit by the projectile from the grenade launcher, he was sure it wasn’t recoverable. He was only thankful that he hadn’t left his wallet in the middle console as he normally did when he drove. Then again, he had been trying to keep Tony awake on the way to Kaiser, so he hadn’t thought to pull his wallet out of his pocket.
His phone, however, had been in the console since his maps app had been guiding him to the medical center and had forgotten to grab it when Rhodes and the Rescue armor had arrived. So, it had likely been destroyed, and he wouldn’t be able to call anyone for a ride, or even order an Uber or a Lyft. There was no way he could take the suit back to his apartment, since his neighbors were still asking him about Iron Man, or Tony Stark, as if they weren’t the same person.
He could just imagine the gossip if he stepped out of a suit of armor of his own. Oh boy.
Buck was thinking about landing the suit on the roof where no one would see him leave it to check on Tony, but heard JARVIS’s distinct voice suddenly. ‘Mr. Buckley, there appear to be several police officer’s trying to get your attention from down below.’
“Shit... uh, what do I do? Should I go down there, J?”
‘It does seem to be a good idea to speak with the officers about what Colonel Rhodes has told you, Mr. Buckley. Although, if I may suggest, it would probably be better to keep the faceplate down. The Rescue Protocol was only a last resort, and revealing your face would paint a target on your back. It’s prudent to stay off HYDRA’s radar for now.’
Buck inhaled and nodded. “Y-yeah, I think I can do that.” He started to pilot down, now a bit more confident that he can land now without causing anymore property damage. It’s a bit rough but not too bad, and two police officers are suddenly there, and he realizes that one of the has the Captain’s rank and the other is none other than the Chief of Police.
“Iron Man?” the Chief asks, uncertain.
Buck tried to will his voice not to shake as he opened his mouth to answer. “No, I’m not Iron Man,” he told him, surprised when his voice came out warbled like Tony’s does when he speaks without lifting the faceplate. He saw them wait for him to identify himself and he wasn’t sure what to say, and latched onto what JARVIS had called the armor. “I’m Rescue.”
He saw the reporters being kept back by the police lines snap pictures, their flashes lighting up the night along with the lights of first responders. Buck was a bit thrown that their cameras were aimed in his direction, but then again, he guessed he could understand. He did have on armor like Tony, and of course they wanted to know who he was. “Can you tell us what happened here, Rescue?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, clearing his throat and was glad that wasn’t heard since he didn’t want all of them to know how nervous he was. He was surprised as words started to appear on the HUD, and realized that JARVIS wanted him to read it. So, that’s what he did after he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “At proximately 5:47pm, Iron Man was attacked in a safe house by an assailant that has yet to be identified.” He wondered why the AI didn’t want him to say that it was the Winter Soldier. He wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t about to offer it up and decided to stick to what JARVIS had written for him.
“He managed to escape in a suit of armor that only had flight capabilities and met up with a friend, who took him here for medical treatment. However, his attacker followed him here and proceeded to attack myself and War Machine, who had arrived to offer backup.” He noticed that the ‘statement’ didn’t mention Buck’s name, which was just as well. “We left the area to prevent anymore destruction of the surrounding area, as well as the medical center. The assailant followed us from the ground and managed to cause destruction on a residential home. I was able to rescue the people trapped inside, who were a married couple and their daughter. Afterwards, War Machine and I were able to finally restrain our attacker. War Machine has gone ahead to secure the prisoner while I came back to see to Iron Man. The Stark Relief Foundation has already been informed of this incident and will be on both scenes within the hour.”
“So, Iron Man is inside the medical center receiving treatment at the moment?” the Chief of Police asked. Buck couldn’t remember the man’s name for the life of him, and JARVIS wasn’t giving him anymore information. He nodded instead of speaking again. “Then we shall provide a protection detail for him,” the man told him.
Buck refrained from breathing in relief and turned away from them. He hadn’t taken more than a step when he heard a shout and paused when he recognized the voice. Buck turned and saw three figures heading toward him through the police line; Athena, Bobby and Eddie. He froze, since he hadn’t expected them to be there. Also, he couldn’t really greet them as if he knew them, since there were too many cameras still pointed at them. He also wouldn’t put it past the news reporters to have microphones pointed toward him to try and capture something.
“Yes?” he said, his head tilted down when he saw Athena’s badge attached to her belt. “May I help you, officer?”
“I’m Sergeant Athena Grant, and the friend that helped Iron Man is also a friend of ours. We found the remains of his license plate and we want to make sure he’s uninjured.”
Eddie and Bobby looked like they were really trying not to interrupt her, the former’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. It was hard to make out the expression on his face due to the darkness, but Buck could imagine he was angry. “Sergeant Grant, this isn’t the place to discus these things,” he told her, trying to keep his tone neutral. Buck did not want them to know it was him and risk them revealing his identity. “I’m sure Dr. Stark will get in contact with you about... your friend as soon as he can.”
Buck’s gaze turned toward Eddie as he jerked forward, looking like he wanted to get into his face if not for the hand that Bobby had put on his shoulder to hold him back. “Where is he?!”
He looked at his best friend, not sure if he could call him that after everything that had happened, and wanted to say something. Buck wanted to wipe the angry expression he could see due to the suit, since JARVIS had turned on the night-vision. “I have nothing further to say.”
Buck turned and blasted off, leaving Eddie, Athena and Bobby behind.-
- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
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recentanimenews · 4 years ago
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FEATURE: Madoka, Wonder Egg Priority, and the Future of Late-Night Magical Girl Shows
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  Beware! This article contains spoilers for the beginning of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
  It is January 21st, 2011. In the shadows of a witch’s labyrinth, two girls named Madoka and Mami form a close bond. Mami is a magical girl, powerful but lonely. Madoka decides, then and there, to fight by Mami’s side. But then, in the middle of combat, the witch Charlotte transforms into a giant worm and bites off Mami’s head. Madoka’s eyes widen in shock. A broken china cup seeps tea on the ground. Smash cut to the wails of goth rock trio Kalafina as black clouds roil and a single flickering shape strides toward oblivion. Three episodes in, Puella Magi Madoka Magica threw down the gauntlet. Over ten years later, the mark it left is still there.
  Puella Magi Madoka Magica was special. But why? Not because it was the “first dark magical girl series.” Sailor Moon, the modern magical girl standard-bearer, became popular not just because of its charming characters but because the show could do things like briefly kill everyone during the series finale. Even magical girl series aimed at younger audiences, like Ojamajo Doremi, tackled subjects like the death of a pet or the aftermath of a divorce. Not to mention the infamous 46th episode of Magical Girl Minky Momo from 1983, when the titular heroine was hit by a truck! Truly, everything has been done before.
  The secret to Madoka Magica’s success is that it is not really a magical girl show. It is a suspense thriller cunningly disguised as a magical girl show. It has as much in common with Kamen Rider Ryuuki as it has with Sailor Moon, and was written by Gen Urobuchi, a former eroge game writer who ran in the same circles as Kinoko Nasu and Hoshizora Meteo. Madoka Magica is not interested in the slow process of endearment by which magical girl series ease you into the daily routines of their characters — the weekly monsters, transformation stock footage, holidays, and very special episodes. It presents as such only as long as it takes to put you off guard, and then (clad in the gorgeous raiment of art team Gekidan Inu Curry) it goes for your throat. 
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    So it was that Madoka Magica became the standard-bearer of a new kind of late-night anime. Rather than “cute girls doing cute things,” let’s call this genre “cruel things happening to cute girls.” Take something charming and unassuming, like a magical girl story or a high school slice-of-life show. Populate it with fun, marketable characters. Then set those characters screaming when the real story pops out like a jack-in-the-box. The frisson between cute and scary hopefully generates enough charge to catch the attention of audiences, but  — most importantly  — audiences don’t have to reach that far to engage with it. That is because these shows are built off those same conventions that anime fans are familiar with. Those conventions just happen to be evil this time.
  As often happens in the entertainment industry, the success of Madoka spawned many copies. These projects did not have Gen Urobuchi, and they were often not lucky enough to have an art team as singular as Gekidan Inu Curry. All things considered, they tried their best. YUKI YUNA IS A HERO brought a different former eroge game writer, Takahiro, on board. Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka made its team of magical girls a proper military unit. More recently, GRANBELM added giant robots to the stew. I’d say Granbelm is my favorite of these, if only because the giant robots were pretty cool! I’d love to see them in a Super Robot Wars game one day.
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    Some of the more interesting entries in the “cruel things happening to cute girls” genre didn’t have any magical girls in them at all. Selector Infected Wixoss was a card battle show about teens fighting for wishes; writer Mari Okada smartly changed focus from the cruel system tearing the characters apart to the way that individual selfishness keeps cruel systems running perpetually. SCHOOL-LIVE! featured a group of schoolgirls continuing their slice of life activities within a world devastated by a zombie apocalypse; the anime production was bolstered by a murderer’s row of writers from Nitroplus, Urobuchi’s former stomping ground. Episode 3 — a flashback to teacher Megumi on the day of the outbreak — is a genuine triumph, precisely because it is so earnest. Rather than pushing hard to shock or disgust the viewer, it allows the characters to breathe in the moments leading to disaster and lets the horror come naturally.
  Traditional magical girl shows, in the meantime, have been doing just fine. We’ve seen several good seasons of Precure and two fantastic ones, the all-rounder Go! Princess Precure and uneven but groundbreaking Hugtto! Precure. Sailor Moon’s Crystal remake seasons and movies have steadily improved after a rocky start. The first few seasons of magical idol series Aikatsu are charming and introduce a fun legacy quirk that ties together characters from different seasons. Even Ojamajo Doremi has seen a follow-up film that puts the spotlight on the generation who grew up watching it.
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    Madoka’s successors, on the other hand, are in a trickier place. Some of them have been successful, others have been good, but none have recaptured that lightning in a bottle that made Madoka a hit. Even a recent Madoka Magica series based on a phone game, written by Gekidan Inu Curry themselves, came and went without much buzz.
  In the years since Madoka aired, there have been plenty of folks who have expressed their reservations about the “cruel things happening to cute girls” genre. After all, magical girl series can be revolutionary or transgressive without being cruel. Hugtto! Precure introduced the series’ first male Precure (equally comfortable wearing dresses as skating outfits) and featured a romantic partnership between two of its female leads. Go! Princess Precure’s best fight scenes are as spectacular as anything in this year’s Jujutsu Kaisen, yet remain perfectly accessible for its target audience of young girls. Madoka's progeny may have been targeted at older — and often, male — audiences, but outside of some blood and gore just a few of these series were more genuinely mature than the children’s series they riffed upon.
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  Image via HiDive
  I do still see a future for late-night magical girl shows. In 2016, a weird magical girl series called Flip Flappers aired. Directed by animation wunderkind Kiyotaka Oshiyama, it featured two girls in love traveling through many strange and colorful environments in search of macguffins. Hidden inside a candy coating of marketable elements was everything from the Freudian fairy tale theories of Bruno Bettelheim, to architectural oddities such as thomassons, to occult figures like Jakob von Uexkull. Flip Flappers harnessed some of Madoka Magica’s sense of danger, putting its cast into intense and scary situations from the very first episode. But it was not a show about girls being tortured by an evil system; it was a show about girls exploring surreal dreamscapes. A new genre had been created: “cute girls doing weird things.”
  Here are the cornerstones for the “cute girls doing weird things” genre: you need girls of course, maybe even magical girls, but the rules behind their magic are nebulous. Rather than take children’s genres and corrupt them, you build out atmospheric settings, drop in the characters, and see what happens next. You give the cast room to express themselves within the bounds of the story, rather than leading them down an assembly line to their doom. The malevolence of Madoka is not off-limits, but more useful still than malevolence is uncertainty. The goal is to unsettle the viewer rather than disgust them.
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  Image via Funimation
  Five years after Flip Flappers, a new show walks these same steps: Wonder Egg Priority, an original series from CloverWorks. Of course, Wonder Egg Priority is aiming at something totally different than Flip Flappers. Its spooky environments are incidental. Its main aim is, through riffing on the work of Kyoto Animation and famed director Naoko Yamada, depicting in full and uncompromising detail the difficult emotional lives of teenage girls living in the modern-day. Those lives just happen to be filtered through an anime lens of trauma manifesting as horrific creatures that have to be destroyed, and girls that need to be saved. Yet to me, Wonder Egg Priority captures the dreamlike atmosphere that Flip Flappers achieved in its best moments — the means by which characters exploring unfamiliar spaces reveal themselves in new and different forms. Despite being made of familiar parts, in execution, I think it is something new.
Somewhere between Flip Flappers and Wonder Egg Priority lies the future of late-night magical girl shows. They should not ever replace the ones made for kids; those do perfectly fine on their own, thank you very much. But in their embrace of uncertainty, I recognize a ghost of what I once felt when I first saw Charlotte’s gaping maw. The sensation that the ground had disappeared, and that — like magic — anything was possible.
  What's your favorite recent magical girl show? Are you excited for the newest season of Precure? Does Wonder Egg Priority terrify you on a weekly basis like it terrifies me? Let us know in the comments!
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      Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't reciting lines from Revolutionary Girl Utena, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at @wendeego
  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!
By: Adam Wescott
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mother-snake · 4 years ago
Text
stop time- pt 1
(here i am, back at it again with the angst!)
taggs: @idkanameatall warnings: blood, almost big death, sad, imagrey not for the good soul. words: 2492
- Stopped time, captured lights Gathered imaging on photosites A sensor, small like a tooth Records in stages, pixel pages of truth-
Time was something complex. You could spend hours on things and only to realise hours have passed. You could spend more time with people than you originally thought. maybe that’s why it hurt Janus so much. to know he wasted so much time on things that didn’t matter. Forgetting about everyone else. So focused on other things he was blind to everything he really cared about.
He walked the lonely halls. He didn’t know how long he had been wondering. But it had been long enough that his legs gave out from below. His lungs felt like they were on fire. But he didn’t care. small petals were coughed up onto his hand.
He missed them. He missed them so gravely. He wanted to hold his family he had one had. But what was the point on going to a place he wasn’t even wanted?
He let himself drape on the floor as a coppery metallic filled his taste buds. it had been going on since he was young. But it had never been this bad… maybe that was because he now knew for certain that they didn’t care about him. they would leave him alone to dwell in his thoughts. Wishing he could go back in time and fix what he had broken…
Maybe it was best he stayed back in the shadows. Maybe he should have stayed there and not introduced himself to Thomas. Maybe then he would have still had Remus at least… he wasn’t sure where he had gone wrong with Virgil. Maybe it was all the arguing. It had seemed to be the only thing the two of them did for the last couple weeks…
He felt his arms shake as he tried to push himself up and off the floor. what had it taken for him to be accepted. only in the end for him to decide that he would rather be alone than see the hatred that seemed to be fixed on their faces every time they entered the room.
He was shaking. Barely breathing. But if he was going, he would at least like to be warm for the last couple minuets. that would be nice… it wouldn’t feel so real that way.
With each step he could feel his life force slowly draining. Blood dripped down his arms as small white roses were stained crimson as they grew out of his arms and legs.
He didn’t care about the pain. Nothing hurt as much as his soul ever could. he felt light headed as he saw the pristine white door. A moment of hesitation filled him. Wass this really what he wanted… what he deserved?
No. it wasn’t. but he didn’t want to be alone anymore. He wanted someone. Just one person to see him before he faded into nothingness. Before he would see the black void. Before he would be alone for the rest of eternity.
He gripped a slippery hand on the door. Pushing it open. Leaving a hand print in its place. he was gasping and wheezing for breath. The sound of laughter filled his ears, causing him to cough harshly. Masses of petals were coughed into a bloody mess onto his hands… then the laughter stopped. Replaced with a deathly silence.
He shook as he leaned on the doorframe before pushing himself forwards. the only sound that filled his ears were the sounds of his shoes clicking against the smooth surface of the floor. And then a scream. He looked to the source of the noise to see a familiar face and let a weak smile grace his lips. his vision turning ever so blurry as he stood still, wrapped in thorns and roses that dripped crimson tears to the floor. “hi,” he rasped, afraid if he moved he would end up crashing to the floor.
The sound of footsteps reached his ears… his vision was now a blur, but he could make out the colours. “what the fuck…” he heard one of them whisper in terror.
The world around him began to spin. Heh… maybe this was a bad idea after all… “Janus!” several of them yelled as he toppled to the side. but he didn’t land on the floor. A pair of strong arms caught him before he could end up there. He let out a hiss of pain as another rose made its way out of his skin.
A small whimper came from his right and the sounds of people moving were the only things he could process. His brain was becoming foggy. His mind unable to comprehend what was happening to him.
Was this what dying felt like?
He sucked in a breath as someone picked him up bridal style. Pain shot everywhere… small tears pricked his eyes. “hey…can you tell me who’s here?” he whispered, his breathing becoming more laboured as his lungs filled further with petals. “I’m here,” roman, “Patton, Virgil, Logan, Remus are all here as well. Come on, let’s get you fixed up, okay?” he muttered, fear laced in his voice.
“naw, I think I’m gonna take a nap,” Janus muttered as his eyes slowly became heavier. “Janus, please. We need you to stay awake,” Virgil said sternly. “no you don’t…” he chuckled, “I don’t want to cause you guys anymore pain,” he gasped out as another flower bloomed, covering his one human eye. “falsehood. We may not act like it. but we do care Janus,” Logan said sharply, If Janus could see him, he would see the tears streaking down his face. “heh…” Janus muttered. “please Jannie. We can’t lose you,” Remus said, his voice cracking in the process, “we love you too much to lose you,” he hiccupped.
A warm feeling spread in Janus’s chest at his words. he let his shoulders relax. The pain numbing as he closed his eyes. His chest rising slowly. “Janus?” he couldn’t tell who had spoken it. “hey Janus, can you open your eyes?” his breathing was getting lighter.
“Janus please-“he slipped into a deep sleep. his breathing evening out as he did so.
--
Roman looked at Janus as he slept peacefully on the now crimson couch. A wave of fear and panic seemed to rest over everyone. “wait- look!” Virgil said as he pointed to one of the gruesomely beautiful white roses. it was willing. Drooping before loosing a petal. Then another. then the rose next to it began to do the same. And after ten minutes. The second last one was gone. Leaving the one that rested blooming above his eye.
They didn’t move from his side unless necessary. Not wanting to leave him alone. they tried to clear anything that remained. The blood that had been left behind in a trail was cleaned up by Remus who had dealt with blood on more than one occasion.
They didn’t move after three days. they didn’t move after a week. but it was half way into the second that Patton was summoned.
Thomas had been confused as to why he had felt so unmotivated in all aspects during the time. Cancelling plans, he had been exited for. “something popped up kiddo. Ill inform you when its solved okay? don’t worry yourself,” Patton said, a fake smile plastered on his face. “Patton… don’t lie to me. I can tell you’ve been crying,” Thomas said as he saw the smile falter ever so slightly.
“its Janus… we don’t know if he’s going to wake up…” Patton said quietly. “why? Did something happen to him?”
Flashes of images provided via Remus caused him to stumble slightly. Images of Janus in a thorny prison with a look of longing in his eyes. Covered in blood he could only assume was the sides. “Patton?” Thomas muttered horrified. “I know kiddo,” Patton's voice cracked.
They stood there in silence as Thomas processed what was going on. One of his sides had been suffering from what looked like a curse he wouldn’t even put on his own enemy. “why did it happen?” Thomas asked curiously. “we don’t know… but according to Virgil it happened once prior when we were younger. Just on a less extreme scale,” Patton said slowly, “Remus said that it happened when Janus had felt alone. Like there was no one who would be there… no one who loved him,” tears poured down Patton's face as he curled himself into a ball on the floor.
Thomas felt tears of his own slip down his face. had Janus really felt like that? why wouldn’t he say anything. Did he think that no one would care if he was slowly dying… not only that… how long had he been suffering in silence?
Thomas had a lot to think about, and for once he wished he wasn’t so torn up on the inside.
--
His eyes snapped open when he heard the groan. Virgil stared at Janus as he moved himself to his side, tugging the blanket they had draped over him after cleaning up as best as possible.
He gently shook the others as he was filled with excitement. “what-?” Remus said as he woke up. “Janus is stirring,” Virgil said with excitement and worry laced in is voice.
Virgil saw Remus’s eyes snap open at is words. Quickly moving to help Virgil wake the others.
Five minuets later he was, along with the others, sitting near Janus, watching intently. a small groan let Janus as his eyes cracked open.
--
Light flooded his vision. a small groan left as he pulled the blanket further over himself. wait. Since when was the dark side light enough to blind him? And when did he ever own such a soft blanket in the first place?
Why did he feel like he had been hit by a truck most of all. “Jannie?” a voice called. “Remus?” he said as he poked his head out of the blanket, “where am I…?” he said as he rubbed his eyes only to pause in a wince of pain.
Well, that was unexpected. He looked at his hand that had a fresh droplet of blood.
He reached back up before he himself froze. What the hell was that? it was then that he realised it wasn’t just Remus in the room. But the other sides as well. They all looked relived but concerned for some reason. “roman?” he asked getting the sides attention, “do you have a mirror I could borrow,” he asked. “of course Janus,” roman said with a grin.
Janus turned fifty shades white as he heard the words that left roman. “how do you know my name,” he muttered horrified. his eyes snapped to Remus and Virgil. “you told us,” roman said, “don’t you recall?”
“I would remember telling you my name. and I sure as hell have not,” he hissed. no one spoke as Janus pushed himself as far away from the sides as possible.
“well… what is the last thing you remember?” “the courtroom where none of you were bothering to listen to me,” he grumbled. “Janus. The wedding was over a month ago,” Patton said softly. “what?” Janus said staring between them all, “well… that still doesn’t give me an answer. Why did I tell you my name?”
“its my fault,” Patton muttered, “i took your side. Roman was confused since we didn’t listen to you, but when I took your side he became defensive and he didn’t know if he could trust you and-“ Patton said he had to pause as he shook on the spot. “you revealed your name in he hopes he would trust you,” “did it work?” Janus muttered.
“no- “Patton began. “it didn’t,” roman cut in, “I made fun of your name. you snapped back and I acted childish and ran off. Its my fault and mine alone,”
“that’s a lie,” Janus muttered. “sounds like it’s a three-way fault here,” he chuckled.
He shivered as a cold drat swept over him. Causing him to pull the blanket further up. Virgil smiled weakly. It took a lot for Janus to believe someone. Maybe there was some hope after all.
He let out a loud sigh and removed his patchwork hoodie before throwing it on Janus, startling the snake who made a small yelp noise as he pulled it off his face. “what- “he looked at it with shock. “you’re cold. I’m not,” he smirked.
His previously hidden limbs uncurled from behind. Very dark purple spider legs sat behind him. Janus only stared in shock. “am I sane?” he whispered to out loud. “I have no fucking clue,” Remus muttered back in just as much shock.
Janus looked back to the hoodie that sat in his hands before letting out a small sigh. A smile creeping its way upon his face.
He slipped it on and he would be lying if he said he didn’t almost melt like putty into the thing. “you may never be getting that back dear emo,” roman chuckled, “oh before I forget!”
Roman pulled out a small bronze, pocket sized mirror before holding it up to Janus who almost had to double take. dried blood laid in-between his scales.  He looked ghostly pale as he felt.
But it was the small rose that had told him everything. But why had he felt so alone compared to right now. “you gave us quite the fright kiddo,” Patton said, “I thought that I was going to lose you when you closed your eyes.”
“who said it?” he asked looking at Virgil. “Remus, you seemed to still believe him in that moment,” he grinned back. “I see…” he said as he looked at the now rather uncomfortable side.
“listen,” Logan said, “I know we may not show it in the best way. but we do care about you Janus. And if EVER you feel like that again. You tell one of us and we will remind you how much we love and care for you.” “the nerd is correct!” roman cheered.
“the amount of times we’ve been angry at one another doesn’t outweigh the love, okay?” Patton said.
Janus felt tears streaking down his face. “so you could say the amount of times you’d like to see me looking like that is… infinitesimal?” a silence spread through the room.
Logan stood up and walked out of the room without a word. Patton burst out laughing. he turned to see roman and Remus snickering and Virgil with a small amused look on his face. “nice on,” he said as he stood up, stretching all of his limbs,” well. I’m going to make sure you didn’t break the braincell, when your ready give me my hoodie back,” he said before walking after Logan.
Janus looked onwards with a smile. Sure, he may not remember the past couple months. But right now, he was okay with that. he had everyone he ever needed surrounding him.
And he wouldn’t want to spend his time any other way.
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darkestwolfx · 5 years ago
Text
Relic - Re-Review #15
“Leonids again? I figured they’d be back one of theses days.”
Here we go again!
I adore this opening image of a family looking to the skies.It fits them so well for there are no reasons why they wouldn’t be watching a meteor shower considering their background.
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“A full on meteor shower and here you are starring at the moon. Not that I’m surprised. Your Father was the same way before he became an astronaut.”
“Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like for Neil Armstrong to land there a hundred years ago.”
“Don’t look at me, I’m not that old.”
I think I remember having a continuity/timeline debate when I first reviewed this - which I’m not going to do for now - you can re-read the original if you’re looking for it.
Grandma trying to serve the cookies haha!
And everyone else in the background just to prove that they exist still because they will not be the main focus of the episode.
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Does Scott actually have an ear piece? This question has been bugging me for a while...
“Base to Thunderbird Five. Everything alright up there, John?”
“I’m fine, but we may have a situation developing. According to my readings, this meteor shower is about to become a perfect storm. I’m showing multiple debris fields projected to hit the far side of the moon, right on top of Shadow Alpha One.”
“Dad’s old moon base?”
“Captain Taylor is still up there. If we don’t get up there soon, Dad’s best friend is history.”
Can I just ask, again... where has EOS disappeared to? Writers, please remember when you add in characters.
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“Thunderbirds are go! Sorry did you want to say that?”
“Forget it.”
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So much to say about this episode, there really is, what with all the backstory dynamics and the character interactions! We’ll get there at some point, I’m certain, even if I do have to mostly quote the episode.
Lee staying there even after the base was decommissioned makes perfect sense to me. It seems like exactly the sort of thing his character would be inclined to do - even before we knew retirement wasn’t really for him. He was Jeff’s best friend after all, has to be a certain level of madness there.
“What’s this guys story?”
“He and Dad were part of the original team that built the base. You may be too young to remember, Alan, but Captain Taylor used to assist International Rescue when we were first starting out.”
“And the stories he could tell about life in space were pretty wild! Even by dad’s standards. Taylor literally wrote the book on lunar survival.”
“Problem is, that book was written a long time ago.”
It makes perfect sense that Lee would have assisted IR in the beginning too - you couldn’t keep a secret like that from your best friend. Not to mention the boys would have been a little too young to jump straight into the business without some help.
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“Tell me again how simple the landing will be?”
“Urr, I miss Earth!”
That whole sequence was hilarious!
For some reason, the music was a surprise to me. I wouldn’t have had Captain Taylor down as a classics guy.
“You must have grown two feet since I last saw you.”
Scott’s six foot two, so he was probably just over four feet tall last time Lee saw him, so probably around 7-14 (according to children’s clothes manufacturers).
“And what do you make of our chances, Captain?”
“Hmm... 70-30.”
“Oh, 70-30... Which way?”
Um, Scott, really? Do you really need to ask that...
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It’s like playing a video game! They should have had Alan down there to help out! No seriously, Alan would have loved to be in Scott’s seat.
“I just can’t give up on it.”
“Look around you, Captain. Don’t you think Alfie’s given up on you? Why are you trying to keep it running.”
“Because it’s my home, Scott. This base is a part of me and I’m not ready to say goodbye just yet.”
It would be hypocritical to not understand that.
John working on an algorithm like that is awesome, although once again, EOS could have helped with that, no? Still, he’s very smart to be able to make something like that up so quickly.
“What did I tell you? There’s nothing this base can’t handle- no, no-”
Maybe Scott picked up that speaking too soon trait from Lee as opposed to Jeff, because he definitely doesn’t seem like the sort of man to rush ahead. Lee on the other hand. And it does seem that Scott and John remember him best, so...
Lee helping Scott! That is the sort of parental interaction we’ve been missing with Jeff gone - I mean we see Scott helping everyone else, but there are few people he’ll turn to so that was just a lovely moment to add in in my opinion.
He got John’s name on a second attempt! Well done, Lee!
But didn’t anyone ever teach Scott to leave things behind in an emergency? A jet pack of all things is not worth dying for. John made your chances of that very clear too.
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”Lose something?”
”Thanks Captain.”
“Don’t mention it. Your Father did the same for me once. Nice jet pack by the way. You know I designed that model.”
“Does it come in blue?”
I’m guessing not Scott if you have it in grey, but hey, good on him for asking.
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“Your dad always thought the flames were a little too much.”
“I like them. I like them a lot.”
Trust Scott to like them.
“I’ll drive.”
I love the way Lee just folded his arms and waited, like he knew.
“Let’s see... huh... uh, I don’t know what any of this does... You know what, on second thoughts, it’s your ride, Captain.”
And trust Captain Taylor to put a turbo onto lunar transport. it reminded me of Jeremiah Tuttle’s truck in ‘The Imposters’ (pictured right).
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“Get ready to turn left.”
“A Tracy boy back in command. It’s just like old times.”
“Turn right. Turn left.”
“Make up your mind, kid.”
“FAB.”
“What does that stand for again?”
Take a guess, Taylor, you can’t go too far wrong!
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Nice way to pull off a rescue, with ejector seats.
“So long, Alfie. Thanks for all the memories.”
Rescue count: 20
Little story to finish off with. I love Captain Taylor’s stories;
“So, there we were: Lee Taylor and eff Tracy, facing down a solar flare two hundred metres wide! When all of a sudden your father got the idea to head for a nearby asteroid belt. I said, ‘Jeff what are you crazy? You’re nuts!’”
Well now we know where Alan got it from. Jeff really shouldn’t have been surprised that the kid could fly.
Let’s do a little name count as well. I think I did this before, but hey, it’s fun;
Spencer, Cecile, Jim,
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ask-de-writer · 5 years ago
Text
DARING DO and the ADVENTURE of the X'IBIAN VASE! : MLP Fan Fiction : Part 13 of 21
Return to the Master Story Index
Return to MLP Fan Fiction
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Daring Do
and the Adventure of the X'ibian Vase!
by
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
And
Carmen Pondiego
Cover Art by
Doctor Dimension
52630 words
© 2015 by Glen Ten-Eyck
Writing begun 08/26/15
All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.
//////////////
Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users
Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions, provided that such things are done without charge.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images provided that I receive a copy of each image for my archive.  
All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fictions is actively encouraged.
///////////////////////
Relaxing on a chaise lounge beside the delightful pool that used to be the bath of an Emperor, Carmen adjusted her dark glasses against the glare of the sun on the letter.  She was wearing only a skimpy bikini of bright red and her trademark hat.
The floating island of VILE’s headquarters was presently in the tropics and that suited her perfectly.
She skimmed through the Chineighese characters with utter familiarity.  Her brother in law, Marehem, was having the time of his life, bedeviling the ROT expedition. She was chucking at the recent double disaster with the railroad cars and flipping ROT’s truck. (He insisted on using the character of poison toadstool for them).
Done with the letter, she handed it to Blendin, who was visiting.  He was chuckling himself as his mother hit the pool.  Her hat and glasses sat on the lounge.  She was a red and khaki torpedo swimming underwater to the other end of the pool.
She shot back, underwater again, the whole length of the pool and surfaced like a one horned porpoise. “What do you think, Blendin?”
“I think that Adora would be furious if she knew but she really has no grounds to be.  She did ask Eris to see what she could do to mess up ROT’s expedition.  It was Eris’ idea to send Uncle M!  
“After all, he has had so much fun with the Empire over the ages.  Simply amazing how much chaos VILE’S temporal transport device can cause in the right hooves and his are as wrong as they can get!”  They both shared a giggle.
Baron Von Nighthoof leaned down and took Carmen’s arm, lifting her effortlessly from the pool.  He was smiling warmly at her.  He hugged her closely and stepped back a single pace.
He offered her a flat case of the darkest wood, inlaid with his cutie mark.  Carmen took the case and opened it.  Her gasp of sheer pleasure was almost more reward than the Baron expected.
He nodded, “The copy of Pharow Underrock’s Golden necklace.  It is ready to grace the only neck on this whole world that can outshine its beauty.”  He reached forward and lifted the golden wonder out of its case and set it around Carmen’s neck, pulling her close as he fastened it.
She snuggled up to him and whispered, “You are not only evil, you are wicked!  And I love it!”
~~ ~~ ~~
Jeremy was riding in the carry saddle of Sehang Shu while they discussed his knowledge of Ethnological Geography.  After several hours, she said thoughtfully, “You actually do know more than your prior testing revealed, Jeremy.  I do wonder why you did so poorly when it came to the tests.”
Glumly, Jeremy stared out at the bleak landscape about them and replied, “It sounds like an excuse. Blame my family.  They are old Equestrian Military Service and proud of it.  When I tried to study around them, they always interrupted it.  Celestia forbid that I complain about it, either.”
“Did they not finance your education at the Royal University?”
“No, Sehang, they did not.  I was entirely dependent on grants and scholarships.  I have earned my way through my schooling.”
“I see, Jeremy.  I have earned my way also.  It is sad that such a family could not see fit to support so worthy a goal as education.
“Surely, though, with you at the University and they in Service or on the Family Estates, they had little opportunity to disrupt your studies?”
Jeremy snorted bitterly.  “I wish it was true, Sehang.  They had a nice townhouse in Canterlot, too.  They made such a career of “visiting” the U to noisily interrupt my studies that, at the end, Princess Luna, as the Chancellor of the U had to forbid them entry to the property of the University at all.
“My uncle, Colonel Broadhoof, spoke out against her interference in a family matter.  The Princess pointed out that it went beyond family, when they upset the other students’ studies.  
“He called her a pustulent creature of nightmare, to her face.”
Sehang Shu commented, “That sounds as unwise as telling the Emperor to shove one up his ass!”
Jeremy smiled a little at the humor and went on, “The suddenly Sargent Broadhoof found that out!  He was broken, forbidden any Canterlot Mustering and given a month of nightmares as punishment.”
“Bad dreams for a month is a severe punishment?”
Jeremy sucked his lips as he thought of a way to explain.  “Let me put it this way.  Somewhat over two thousand years ago, the Nightmare Wars got named that BECAUSE of Princess Luna’s use of nightmares as a weapon.  Almost 20% of the unicorns attacking the Fortress of Nightmare committed suicide within five days of coming to the battle front.”
Very softly, Sehang Shu  said, “I see.  And she has had over two thousand years since to perfect that craft.  Did he survive?”
Soberly, Jeremy replied, “Yes.  Sort of.  They released him from the Asylum about six months ago.  He is still under treatment.  The family blames me.  They say that it would not have happened, if I had not chosen the University over a military career.”
Sehang Shu nodded sadly.  “Some other herds view us in a similar manner.  I am sorry, Jeremy.
“I have a question though. With a military background, how did you miss Qushi Han Le’s sharpshooters at the dock in Singapone?”
Grimly, Jeremy replied, “That was my fault.  I was thinking of everything wrongly, and so did not even look for them.  I have only realized today from talking to you, that I had any problem.  Equestrian Superiority was an unquestioned value in my family.  I did not even realize that it had soaked into me since my foalhood.  I may still lapse but ask your forgiveness now.  I will do my best to sort this mess out.”
Sehang Shu nodded thoughtfully. “The most important part of education, Jeremy, is not the learning of facts, as important as that is.  It is the admission of ignorance and error accompanied by the effort to remedy them.
“That is what Ethnological Geography is all about.  Our ignorance and erroneous knowledge of past civilization and the effort to remedy it is the whole foundation of the discipline.”
They revised their discussion of the subjects to be tackled in the colloquium.  Jeremy found the conversation fascinating.
He actually regretted it when it was time to dismount for making dinner.  After stretching out the kinks in his legs from the saddle, Jeremy wandered over to the cook stove.
He was mildly surprised when Soree made room for him.  “How can I help, Soree?
“Measure the water into that pot to the third line, please.”
Measuring in the water, Jeremy commented, “It seems unfair for us to eat and none of the herd to have any.”
Sang He’s voice replied, “In the desert, we need only drink once in seven days.  That will be a large drink, but it will do.  We need only eat once in ten days, though we can eat or drink any time that the opportunity presents itself.
“Our ancestors were made for mountain and desert lands.”
“It still seems unfair!  I presume that you do know what you are doing, after all, this is your home!”
He was surprised by the chuckle from the herd.
Dinner preparations were interrupted by the bellow of a musket and a cry from Sehang Shu!
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Tyranny was fuming.  “They had no business seizing our truck!  Wasn’t it bad enough that their recklessness had already cost us one truck and most of the load?”
Overthrow, speaking from behind the wheel of the truck that they were in snapped, “That was your fault, Tyranny!  So was getting into that train wreck!  You disobeyed clearly posted signs about staying off the slope while the crossing was in use.”
Robber, sitting in the back of the cab put in, “How come, in the name of Discord, did you not read the traffic law pamphlets that I gave you?  It was the Lock Keeper finding that out that you got your permit without taking their knowledge test that cost us the truck!  Their rules are very clear and blunt.  They seize vehicles that are used in deliberate violation of their driving rules.”
Tyranny glared out the window of the truck at the passing rice paddies and neatly laid out farms.  His teeth ground.  The worst of it was that they were both right.
All that he could do was growl under his breath about injustice, so he did.  He sourly commented, “At least we have now got past the last two canals and what?  Four railroad crossings without any further problems.”
Robber consulted their map. “See those bluffs up ahead?  We will be going through an area of mountains.  When we clear them, it will only be about twenty kilometers to Cantrot.  We will have two rail crossings and one canal between us and the city.”
Ignoring Robber’s comments, Tyranny snarled, “That so-called Antiquarian, Daring Do, set us up! I have found out that she did not even take a single truck on her expedition!  The expedition proposal that she gave us, before she quit on us, is why we came this way!”
Overthrow said dryly, “So, you finally figured that out?  It took you long enough.  I knew that she took us to the cleaners on the proposal as soon as I saw them go on upriver, without even transshipping.”
He suddenly applied the brakes hard, jolting them all.  They were stopped only a few meters from a water buffalo on the road.
The two trucks behind them, driven by experienced Chineighese drivers, stopped without incident. Tyranny was reaching for the horn button when Overthrow knocked his hoof away.
“Stop trying to interfere! Tyranny, sounding the horn at domestic livestock is illegal.  All that we can do is wait for it to move or try to ease around it.  The law pamphlet suggests waiting in the case of water buffalo.”
He snarled, “Why should we wait?  We can drive around it!”
Outside, over a tonne and a half of highly irritated domestic water buffalo was pawing the roadway and lowering its head to charging position.  A peasant in plain cotton robes and flat conical hat was toiling up the road embankment toward the beast that was easily three times taller than he was.  He had a long wooden switch to herd the loose animal away.
He barked some command at the buffalo.  It turned its head and regarded its master briefly. Tyranny chose that moment to lean out the side window and make shooing gestures at it.  The distraction caused the enormous brute to snap its head about and focus entirely on the truck!  It charged.  
The impact shoved the truck back and sideways almost a meter!  It was accompanied by the shattering of glass night driving lamps and the crunch of metal.  The buffalo backed off, shaking its head.
The peasant’s switch got its attention and it started to walk sedately away, guided by taps of the long wand.  Tyranny, seeing it waking away, yelled, “Shoo!  Get out of our way!”
The transition from walking away to charging was almost instantaneous!  The huge heavy horns and thick skull of the enormous animal slammed into the right hand door of the truck.  It was almost perfectly centered, smashing and folding the door inward hard enough to bounce the dazed Tyranny almost entirely off his seat!
The very upset peasant used his switch and fanning motions of his hat to steer the water buffalo away, successfully, this time!  Robber shuddered as he saw the peasant’s orange mane and blue fur for the first time.
The steering still worked properly.  Overthrow got the truck back on course and they were cautiously back underway.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
<==Previous   Next==>
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evakuality · 5 years ago
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Since I looked at Isak and Matteo (which can be found starting over here), I figured hey let’s be equitable here and look at Even and David as well.  The interesting thing with these two is that they are even more divergent as characters than Isak and Matteo and yet we can trace David’s origins in Even quite effectively.  Filling similar story spaces, and in many ways sharing similar characteristics, they are still very different characters.  So this should be a fascinating task.  Because these two don’t have the same screen time that Isak and Matteo did, this will be a smaller set of comparisons.  There probably won’t be one for every episode on its own, partly because there are some episodes where neither character appears much at all, and partly because even when they do appear they are on screen for much less time.
Both Even and David are introduced in the third clips of the episodes (to Isak and Matteo; I know David was introduced to the audience earlier) but their introductions are very different (which makes sense because by now Isak and Matteo were already established as very different characters too, with very different needs in a romance).  Even catches Isak’s attention from afar, but his focus is on Vilde and Sana and so Isak is able to stare, along with the camera, until Even finally looks up and spots Isak too.  This is distanced, a twist of fate making them notice each other across a crowded space, though it should be noted here that we know from later on that Even was already crushing and so it was fairly inevitable that Isak would catch his eye one day; Even was forever going to be checking to see if he’d been seen yet.  It does mean it has that sort of fairytale ‘eyes meeting across a room and everything fades away’ feeling to it.  Isak looks away, however, when Even looks at him, unwilling to so openly check out a guy I guess.  Because this is a crowded place and they aren’t alone and he’s still very insecure in his sexuality.  Even seems keen to keep that mysterious facade up (what a dork, though; directing this ‘getting to meet Isak’ thing like it’s his job!  Step one, make him notice me: accomplished.  Step two, look cool and mysterious: check.), and so Isak doesn’t notice if Even stares back.  This means he remains a little mysterious to us here as well because we only see what Isak sees.  
David’s, on the other hand, is a close up meeting with Matteo and it’s only the two of them nearby.  This means they can both look openly and turn back to watch the other.  While everything does slow down when they catch sight of each other, it doesn’t have that same fairytale feeling to it.  That’s partly because I do think Even is manufacturing his image at this point.  He wants to be seen and noticed and he needs to look cool and mysterious to do it.  David’s intentions seem to have always been to keep his head down and make it through the school year without having to be noticed by anyone.  He’s just as hit by a truck here as Matteo is.  There’s no artistry, no intention to make a move.  Just a random meeting of two boys in a hallway which tilts both of them off their axis and pushes them out of their comfort zones.  While it hasn’t been explicitly said, I don’t think David saw Matteo before this moment unlike Even.  I think this is as much of a shock to David’s system as it is to Matteo’s.
Already we see differences between these two.  Even comes on strong here, I think, because he desperately wants this boy.  He intentionally makes a move on Isak (and I think he’s already starting on that at this stage) but he backs off when things get too intense because he realises he does have to make himself known (and of course, as we see later, Isak’s thoughtless comments don’t help).  David doesn’t want to be seen or known, and he is well aware that getting close to someone else will involve being known, and so he has no plans to see and be with Matteo but when they meet it hits him hard.  He says it himself later (‘I didn’t want to tell anyone at school, but then I got to know you’), and obviously both these tendencies come to the fore at the kosegruppa and abistreich meetings.  Even goes there with the express purpose and intent of meeting Isak.  He wants to get to know this boy who has charmed him from afar.  A chance glance in a cafeteria isn’t enough anymore.  What we need now is an actual meeting, a conversation.  So he orchestrates, again, a way to make Isak interact.  He places himself behind Isak in the seats, and probably plans to get into some sort of group with him which is thwarted when he leaves.  He presumably follows him to the bathroom, waits til he comes out of the cubicle and then starts his ridiculous paper towel stunt and the overly exaggerated ‘oh? You’re here? Do you also need paper?’ thing.  He wants to be noticed and seen, he wants to be cool, and yet this is what he thinks will help with that?  Luckily for him, Isak is entranced by the mystique of the whole thing and doesn’t notice how dumb it is.  I don’t think Even’s anywhere near as confident as he appears in these scenes because his efforts are pretty bizarre and they really only work because they knock Isak off centre and so he never questions any of it.  
David, again, is a chance meeting.  We don’t know why he’s there at the Abistreich meeting but I guess while he said he didn’t want anyone to know that he’s trans, he did want to make friends and so we see him interacting with people as much as he can.  It’s not just Matteo.  There’s this meeting he’s intending to go to and there are Sara and Leonie as well.  But, by chance, he’s heading in as Matteo is coming out and Matteo speaks.  Where with Even, he was the one directing the plays with this encounter with Isak, here it’s Matteo.  He’s decided ‘hey I want to get to know this cool guy more’ and he invites him to come smoke.  David, while clearly interested in Matteo, is still wary.  So he follows but he’s prickly and aloof.  While Even in this conversation is flirty, teasing, even a little possessive when Emma comes along, David is reserved, almost to the point of standoffishness, at least at first.  Of course, this can be read as him wanting to appear cool and mysterious like Even.  But I don’t think that’s it.  I think he’s trying to protect himself and if Matteo hadn’t been the one to push forward in the way that he does (over and over again), I don’t think David would have pursued this.  It’s too threatening to his plans to keep things low key and get through school without incident and without having to tell anyone.  But he’s drawn to Matteo and he can’t help but go along with him when the opportunity arises.  He relaxes as the conversation goes on and they talk about things that are important to each of them.  It’s not much, but it’s already a deeper conversation than Isak and Even have.  David and Matteo get more time to develop to this point before they’re interrupted, and I think that’s at least in part because Even still has his plans.  He’s not giving up after initiating one interaction.  David, on the other hand, would have backed away more quickly, and been harder for Matteo to connect with in the coming days, if they didn’t establish a firmer bond more up front.
The way they each act when the interloping girl comes along is interesting too.  Even pushes back, makes it clear he wants Isak in a group with him, lays his claim to Isak’s time.  He has his plan, dammit, and Emma is not going to ruin it, and he is gratified when Isak goes along with it without hesitation.  They’re left sitting awkwardly together, all three of them on the bench, because Even is not willing to give up Isak’s company if he doesn’t have to.  David, by contrast, gives up immediately and leaves.  Obviously part of this is because Isak is clearly unwilling to spend time with Emma, whereas Matteo kisses Sara, however lacklustre that kiss is.  Despite wanting to make friends, David is still obviously trying hard to keep everything compartmentalised.  Sara and Leonie are class friends, Matteo is … something else.  And having them integrated together makes it harder to slip away from any or all of them when and if the ‘natural catastrophe’ occurs and he has to run.  Even’s ‘hot and cold’ behaviour comes later, but David is already conflicted between wanting to make these connections and wanting to be free enough to flee if necessary.  So David is already both drawn to Matteo and spending time with him, and needing to escape when things get too intense.  He starts his disappearing act very early on.
The clothes they choose to wear and the way they choose to present themselves is also fairly indicative of their intentions.  Even is slicked back hair and cool jacket, carefully studied pose and deliberate actions.  David is black clothes, shapeless and formless in an attempt presumably to try to hide both who he is and to go under the radar and remain unseen.  Even’s works for him, of course.  Isak is enchanted and thrilled by the hot, mysterious, cool guy.  David manages to make himself more mysterious and alluring by wearing this stuff and acting this way.  Not only Matteo has noticed him.  Leonie, too, thinks he’s something special.  So his attempt to go as invisibly as he can through the school hasn’t worked.  He’s new, he’s got this look and he’s a bit standoffish.  Of course people are noticing.
So, even in this first episode we can see that while the events are similar and they happen at the same points in the stories, these two characters are already quite different.  Part of this is that Even has a more forceful personality and he has a firm idea of what he wants and a plan for how to get it.  I joke a little that he’s ‘directing’ this, but while I don’t think it’s quite the elaborately planned event that I suggested earlier, there is deliberation in what he does.  He operates with intent and purpose and in doing so he sweeps Isak along with him.  David, while we learn later that he can be a joker and a fun loving and fairly exuberant person, starts out here as a very closed off and reserved person.  He’s had some very bad experiences at his old school, he’s wary that his secret could come out at any time and he’s fearful that it will overwhelm him again.  Hence how we find out later that he has a plan to run and hide if anything comes at him.  Even’s experiences have made him willing to pursue what he wants because he knows life is fleeting and he has to grab it with both hands.  David isn’t at this point, at least not yet.  He wants to protect himself and so he’s as much swept up in this thing as Matteo is rather than doing the sweeping.  He needs to be pushed to make this connection, unlike Even who is stampeding towards his as fast and as eagerly as he can.
The second episode can be found right over here
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thefloatingstone · 5 years ago
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Hey C-Puff! So I know I keep saying that I love your taste, but I'm curious, what would you consider essential scifi movie viewing?
Oof! (and thank you! 8DD) It really depends what kind of mood you’re in. Because “sci fi” is essentially a weird genre, because it can be mushed with literally any other genre and still work without straying too far from the ‘sci fi’ concept. Sci fi is a genre the same way fantasy is a genre or horror is a genre. You can make a horror-comedy or a fantasy comedy, but you can’t make a drama-comedy (At least without some major tonal dissonance). So it REALLY depends what you feel like watching or what mood you’re in or what tolerance level you have in some aspects.
I can list a few though which I feel are super essential viewing but are vastly different from each other. I’m not gonna give a full summary break down of each one because it’ll take me like 3 hours to write (these things take a while sometimes) but I’ll give a little indication!
Edit: oops…. I ended up spending 4 hours writing this….
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1: Alien (1979)(Sci-Fi horror)
These days the Alien franchise seems to automatically = Xenomorphs. So it can be hard to remember the very first movie that not only started the franchise but literally changed sci fi as a genre, you barely see the Xenomorph on screen, and when you DO the film does its best to hide what it actually looks like with lighting, camera angles and editing. Because the first movie’s Alien costume was not really good, and the movie had a VERY small budget comparatively speaking. So it literally has the opposite goal of trying to show off the xenomorph as much as possible.
Originally sold as “Jaws but in space”, the whole idea of the film was “What if you were a bunch of truckers in the middle of space and nowhere to run, and something unknown started picking you off one by one. Where can you run? Who can you contact? What can you do?”
The original’s entire focus is on fear. From long sequences of Ripley running where it’s filmed facing her so you can’t see “behind you” as the audience to instill paranoia, to hearing what sounds like extreme amounts of gore off screen where you can’t see it, the entire film is designed to be terrifying.
It’s difficult to remember that with what the franchise is known for today.
Also noteworthy is that so much of what is Alien came from Jodorowsky’s “Dune” which was never made, but nevertheless still achieved Jodorowsky’s goal of changing sci fi forever.
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2: Blade Runner (1982)(Sci-Fi Noir)
in 2012, Ridley Scott said in an interview; “30 years ago, I saw the future”.
As far as I am aware, the first movie to ask the question “where exactly does ‘being human’ start or end?” regarding robots. The original Blade Runner is filmed in a way to replicate a 1940s style crime noir story, complete with brooding detective and femme fatale. However, it is set in the FAR OFF FUTURE of 2019.
The story follows our detective, known as a “Blade Runner” chasing down a specific class of robot which is illegal on Earth (but used in off-planet labour deemed too dangerous for human work) after the model number started a riot on one of these off-world labour camps. Detective Decker is tasked in finding and “retiring” a group of robots recently landed in futuristic Los Angeles, especially since the robot group is tracking down and murdering the designers in charge of creating their line.
However, the further Decker investigates things, the more uncomfortable questions he finds himself asking. How are these robots so much more different than us humans? What are their motives? Are they really just machines gone berserk? Or is there something very very human they are trying to achieve.
A film that exploded in Japan and essentially caused every anime between 1982 and 1995 to be in some way a Blade Runner fanfic, it changed the genre even more than Alien did. This time letting philosophical questions and atmosphere do most of the work, as the cyberpunk aesthetic of future Los Angeles was as important a character to the story as any of the human players. It was the first time we truly saw Cyberpunk, and literally EVERYTHING we consider “Cyberpunk” these days came from this movie’s direction and cinematography.
Watch the Director’s cut. DO NOT watch the Theatrical version. The Theatrical version was forced to add narration to the long stretches of silence as the movie distributor thought audiences would be too stupid to handle a movie with so little dialogue in it. The Director’s Cut is how the film was meant to be watched, doing away with all the needless talking and letting the film’s visuals and music speak for itself.
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3: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)(Sci-Fi Mystery)
Yes yes I’m biased because it’s my favourite movie. But even if it wasn’t it’s an essential film to watch in the Sci-Fi genre.
Some people will think E.T. holds this title, but E.T. came out 5 years AFTER Close Encounters and so, Close Encounters is one of the first movies if not THE first movie that came out and asked… “What if the Aliens came and were our friends?” Because up until this point, All the “Big-Eyed Grey Aliens in Flying Saucers” movies portrayed them as invaders trying to take over the planet. And the sci fi stories and movies that DIDN’T have this narrative, the aliens were always human looking (Star Trek, The Day the Earth Stood Still etc)
And so, this is one of the first movies that suggested that maybe the weird looking space aliens from another planet who look nothing like us could be our allies. Would want to speak to us. Would want to know us.
Not that the movie is full of love and friendship. in some places it feels more like a horror movie than anything else. But that’s because the film thinks its audience is smart, and it doesn’t have to have a character EXPLAIN things to us. We can understand what’s happening by WATCHING. And if something is strange and doesn’t make sense, it either will by the end of the film thanks to context, or it was never that important to understand anyway.
Also a giant part of the film’s power and influence comes from its visuals, but even more importantly, its soundtrack which I can’t communicate in a gif. And so I am left linking a trailer.
I think it says a lot that it was THIS movie, not Star Wars, that helped the first Star Trek movie to be made a few years later, and with that, helped give us Star Trek TNG. Not bad.
(You can watch any of the 3 cuts of the film. I’m most familiar with the Director’s Cut so that’s my fave and what I would recommend but I haven’t heard of any of the 3 cuts being “the bad one”)
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4: Total Recall (1990)(Sci-Fi Action)
It was only a matter of time before Arnie showed up on this list, being in no less than 3 Sci-Fi game changers in the 80s and 90s.
What makes Total Recall Unique, however, is that we have Paul Verhoeven as director, who likes movies that have a little more to say than “Arnie shoots a bunch of bullets at things” (as great as that is, don’t get me wrong) And I think the fact that people will STILL debate this movie says a lot about it.
The story is set in the far future, where normal construction worker Arnie is bored with his normal life (which is weird considering he’s built like a truck and married to Sharon Stone but I’m not here to judge). He’s been having reoccurring dreams about going to Mars, as well as a strange woman he meets there. One day while traveling home on the subway, he sees an ad for a copany called “Rekall” who can use a sort of brain implant machine to give you instantaneous fake memories. Basically, you can take a vacation that lasts 6 months in your memories within the span of 10 minutes real time.
Arnie’s character decides to visit, and asks that his fantasy take place on Mars, and describes the woman he meets there. However, during the fake memory implant something goes wrong. VERY wrong. The machine drags up suppressed memories Arnie has of being a sleeper agent, put on Earth until needed, as well as images he’s been seeing in his dreams. The Rekall employees have to sedate him and send him home, refunding him for the poor experience.
However, Arnie can no longer just forget what the machine dragged up from his subconscious, and starts to question if his life really is his life. If his wife really IS his wife. (after all…. Someone who looks like Sharon Stone married to a construction worker who looks like Mr Universe living in a very cushy apartment? Something doesn’t add up.)
Arnie finds himself suddenly dragged into a massive conspiracy plot revolving around Mars, the corrupt governor running it, the rebellion and its mysterious revolutionary, as well as who the hell WAS he before he was who he is now?
That’s the movie’s plot at least. But as many people who watch the movie has pointed out, despite the movie itself never making a point of it, funny how all this adventure and conspiracy hits Arnie right after he’s plugged in to a fantasy machine at Rekall. Convenient.
Nobody to do with the film has given a straight answer as to how real the movie’s events are supposed to be, and film fans have been arguing to this day of it was all real as the movie shows it to be… or a meta narrative.
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5: Robocop (1987)(Sci-fi Satire)
The movie that very almost got an X rating for its violence, also directed by Paul Verhoeven and even more biting in its meta-narrative than Total Recall.
The STORY of the movie is that future Detroit is a complete shithole so full of crime that the police force just can’t keep up. After a police officer named Murphy is blasted to fuck, his corpse is used by the CPO company to create a “robotic law enforcer” meant to be put on the street to handle crime. Robocop is his name, and if he proves to be effective, CPO is planning to mass produce them. During the course of the film, however, Murphy learns to regain his humanity through the help of his police partner, and uncover the scrupulous CPO company’s hand in the city’s crime wave.
So that’s the STORY of Robocop… but it’s not what Robocop is “About”.
Robocop is essentially an enormous criticism of Corporate America in a way that’s basically come true since the movie came out. Robocop is one of those rare movies that is BETTER now than it was when it came out.
OCP is essentially Apple or basically any current American company. Focused on rushing out products for the good press it’ll give them before ironing out the problems and bugs, and taking MASSIVE and inhumane shortcuts in development to meet a deadline, uncaring who gets hurt in the process.
This message is further highlighted by the fake commercials peppered into the movie, a very clear criticism of everything from America’s extreme focus on its military and racism of other countries, American manufacturer’s disregard for what is environmentally safe in favour of “Status Symbols” in its fuel guzzling cars, America’s obsession with defending people’s ownership through unethical violence, Medical and health advertised on television like a luxury product, as well as just the inane meaningless garbage that is/was American television.
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As a native of the Netherlands, Verhoeven pours so much cynicism and criticism towards American culture, both in the jokes as well as the core theme of the movie, that the film as a whole is less “Watch Robocop shoot his handcanon at bad guys” and more a dystopian nightmare, and finding humanity in it despite it all.
The only movie to top Robocop in its criticism of American culture would be “Starship Troopers” also directed by Verhoeven. But that movie is so depressing I almost can’t even reccomend it, despite it being GENIUS.
It’s the movie where the human race wins a war against giant bug aliens… and that’s the worst ending that could happen.
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6: Enemy Mine (1985)(Sci-Fi drama)
*leans forward and smiles at you* hey there, friend. Do you like aliens? Do you like enemies to friends to lovers? Do you like found families? Do you like “Racism is bad” narratives? Do you like non-binary aliens who have no gender? Do you like romantic undertones between non-binary aliens played by a male actor and a cis white dude also played by a male actor?
Because BOY DO I HAVE THE MOVIE FOR YOU.
You think I’m joking with that description…. I am not. Not even a fucking little.
I very rarely see anybody talk about “Enemy Mine” and that’s a fucking crime because this movie is friggen AMAZING. The fact that it exists at all, let alone was made in the 80s is borderline absurd.
The movie takes place in the future. Humanity is in an intergallactic war with an alien race called the Dracs. Battles and skirmishes between the two races explode throughout the galaxy on various planets whenever the two species run into each other, and we follow our human main character Davidgewho, during a spaceship confrontation with the Drac, crash lands on an uninhabited planet, along with the Drac pilot named Jeriba Shigan.
The planet they crash on is a violent world battered by meteors and storms, which forces the two pilots to seek shelter in a cave near their crash site (and there was only one cave!). Despite them both needing shelter, the two absolutely despise each other, completely prepared to kill the other one the second they make a move. It’s a tense and paranoid stand off where each one waits for the other to move first. Neither of them do.
They find out that the planet is sometimes used by human miners for its rare ore (who use captured Drac as slave labour) but they only visit the planet periodically when the years- long bad weather settles. And so, Davidge decides to wait for rescue, despite knowing it may take several years before any human comes to the planet. Until then, he just has to survive and NOT get killed by the Drac he’s sharing the cave with.
So… the two wait. And a weird truce is called. And they wait… and time passes… and with literally no other life to turn to for company… well…. they start talking. First spitting and insulting each other. Then, slowly, learning more about each other. Then, slowly, sharing cultural information with each other, learning about their different species, learning about what each’s species have been telling them about the other. And well…. after several years… it becomes very hard to see the only living person you have been talking to for years as an enemy.
And then, after a while, Jeriba (nicknamed “Jerry” by Davidge) brings up a tiny problem.
He’s pregnant.
Davidge asks how the fuck that’s possible. Jerry explains his race has no gender or binary sex, and they produce asexually. So… ok…. Now you’ve got an alien you don’t FULLY trust who is pregnant and going to have a baby on this hostile planet.
…..oops.
Also, as time goes on another problem arises. The humans who will eventually show up to mine this planet use Drac as slave labour. This wasn’t ORIGINALLY a problem…. but it’s kinda become a problem now.
This movie is fucking amazing and nobody talks about it. Go watch it. Although be prepared for tears and feelings.
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7: Galaxy Quest (1999)(Sci-Fi Comedy)
In modern day America (or rather 1999 America) there use to be a show called “Galaxy Quest” which DEFINITELY WAS NOTHING LIKE STAR TREK OK???
It was a very big show, but it eventually got cancelled. However, it is still considered a massively popular and influential tv show, enough to have its own conventions and dedicated fanbase. (AGAIN. IT’S NOT STAR TREK STOP SAYING THAT!)
The actors who starred in it many years ago now struggle to get work in other roles which they all deal with in different ways. Our Kirk Character played by Tim Allan is an egocentric selfish asshole who bathes in the “glory” of his role as the captain, despite it having been years, in complete denial that he’s a has-been and the fact that none of the other cast like him. Our Spock character is played by Alan Rickman who wants to know where his life went wrong. He use to be a REAL actor. He use to star in Shakespear plays. How did it come to this? He hates all of you. As well as Sigourney Weaver who had the important role of “Sexy Girl” in the show (a fact she resents) and a handful of others.
One day at a convention, they are approached by some super awkward and weird cosplayers, who ask them in-character if they could help their alien species, the Thermians, who are getting decimated by a warrior race lead by a General Sarris. As the Thermians are peaceful and have no experience in battles, they’ve come to ask the “Crew of the Starship Protector” to aid them. Alan Rickman agrees, believing it to be a promotional gig, and signs up his co-stars (only telling them after the fact which they resent him for)
The next day they play out their roles as they did on the show rather unenthusiastically, ordering the Thermians to simply shoot at General Sarris to defeat him, and then take them home.
Things turn complicated tho when the Thermians show up again and say “uhm… it didn’t exactly work. general Sarris is still alive and killing out people.”
And then our motley crew find out… the Thermians are NOT actors. They are in fact a real alien race. An alien race who are unfamiliar with the concept of “lying”. Their species had picked up the radio waves from the Galaxy Quest TV show and, believing it to be a historical record, modeled their entire civilization after the show. And now they need the crew of the “Protector” to help them in the face of this threat that could wipe them out as a species.
So our washed-out has-been actors find themselves pretending to really be their characters in a real space mission to save an alien race. Which is kind of a problem considering they have no idea what they’re doing at any point during this adventure.
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8: Terminator 2 (1991)(Sci-Fi action)
I could have put the first Terminator movie on here… but I didn’t. Beause although both are excellent I personally prefer the second one. You don’t really need to have seen the first one to understand the second one either. I saw the second one first and it’s pretty easy to follow since the first movie’s plot wasn’t that complex.
10 or so years ago, Sarah Conner was visited by a time traveler who revealed he was from the future, and that in 1997 an AI known as “Skynet” would launch all the world’s nukes, causing the human race to almost become extinct. But Sarah Conner is the mother who will one day give birth to John Connor, the human rebel leader who will one day vanquish the machines. The machines know this, and Skynet sent back a robot called a “Terminator” to kill Srah Connor before she can give birth to humanity’s last hope.
Fast forward to this movie, Sarah Connor has been put in a mental institution (for rather obvious reasons) and her son, John Connor now 10 years old, lives with his aunt and uncle and is what we call a “problem child”. With no father figure in his life and his mom “going nuts”, John is a kid who smokes, steals bikes and is constantly in trouble. Then, one day, a robot from the future shows up to kill him. An advanced NEW kind of terminator sent by the machines, made of liquid metal, it is another attempt by the machines to kill John Connor before he can grow up to be the rebel leader.
This time however, Humanity has sent someone else to protect John. The exact same model of Terminator who tried to kill his mother, repurposed and reprogrammed to protect John from this lethal machine.
John, being a child, has to cope with the fact that not only is a killer robot trying to murder him, but ALSO his “nuts” mom turned out to be right. And he also starts developing a weird relationship with the robot sent to protect him. Looking for some kind of father figure to fill that hole in his life.
Although the first Terminator might have been more impactful in terms of visuals and ideas, the second Terminator is the one people remember as a movie. This is where “Hasta La Vista Baby” come from. This is where “Made from Liquid Metal” comes from. This is where THIS comes from
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and where this comes from
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and this
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I don’t know if I can call it a BETTER movie than the first Terminator… …except it kinda is…. And one of the very few sequels where it ended up having more of a cultural impact than its predecessor.
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9: Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)(True Sci-Fi)
One upon a time there was a show called “Star Trek”. It then had a movie which did kinda of ok at the box office but many thought was rather boring.
And then they made Star Trek 2.
Set several years after the original show, where all the main characters are off living different lives. Kirk is an admiral working on Earth behind a desk. Spock is a training instructor to students who will one day be pilots and crewmembers in the Federation. The rest of the Enterprise’s former crew are all scattered across the Federation, either on Earth or on other Starships.
Far off in space, a Federation ship is looking for a dead planet to test a brand new technologcal creation called the “Genesis Device”. While doing so, they find Khan and his crew, who 15 years ago were left on a lifeless planet by Kirk after they tried to take over the Enterprise for use in Khan’s mad plans revolving around Genetic engineering. Khan and his crew take over the ship and learn of this “Genesis Device” with its power to destroy all life when unleashed on a living plan. Khan only has one goal in his mind; Revenge.
While on a 3 week long training mission under Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise picks up a distress signal, and go to investigate.
This movie honestly has no right to be as good as it is. Even if you have 0 knowledge of Star Trek (as I did when I first watched it) it makes complete and perfect sense on its own, and its extremely easy to understand what’s happening and why. It helps if you’re familiar with the characters, but the film on its own portrays their friendships and relationships with each other so perfectly that you completely buy every scene with them together, and WHY they’re friends. And how LONG they’ve been friend, without having to watch seasons and seasons worth of episodes to catch up. You don’t even need to watch the first Star Trek movie.
The film is a story about revenge… but it’s main core theme is about grief. Grief in many forms. Khan’s grief over the death of his wife which he blames Kirk for and his burning fiery hatred. Kirk’s grief as an aging space captain, unable to cope with himself growing old and the fact that he never truly learned how to handle loss, as someone who ALWAYS believes there is a way to save the day. Grief over lost relationships with his ex-lover and a grown son he never knew about and lost an entire relationship with.
Despite being about spaceships in space shooting at each other and long drawn out tension filled scenes between Kirk and Khan, it’s a movie about mortality, and the need to face it.
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10: The Last Starfighter (1988)(Sci-Fi Adventure)
I could have put many things down for “Sci Fi movie about having an adventure”. I could have put ET or Explorers or Flight of the Navigator, but I decided to put The Last Starfighter. Even though ET may be the better known adventure film, it’s also the movie most people will have already seen, and Flight of the Navigator might look better, but it’s story is far weaker. So Last Starfighter it is.
In backwoods tiny-ass American town there lives completely normal teenager Alex Rogan. He doesn’t have that much going for him. He lives in a trailer with his mom and younger brother and has just recently had a scholarship rejection. Frustrated with his life and with little else to do in the trailer park, Alex spends most of his time playing the only arcade machine called “The Frontier”. After a lot of play and effort, Alex manages to get the high score on the machine.
After doing so, he is approached by the creator of the machine called Centauri, who is there to offer him a ride in his fancy car as a prize for holding the grand score. Having been taunted by the other teens around the area, Alex decides to take Centauri up on his offer, only to get abducted. And not in the “Teenager kidnapped by a creep” kind of way, but the alien kind of way.
It turns out there is a very real intergalactic war going on between Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire. And the arcade machine had been placed on Earth as a sort of recruitment tool for new pilots to fly for Rylan Star League.
Given the chance to actually have something happen in his Life, Alex has to learn how to be a Starfighter with the help of Centauri who reveals himself to be an alien, and the rest is simpy fighting the Ko-Dan Empire and saving the day.
Most notably, The Last Starfighter’s space battles were all done using early CG and it has… .not exactly aged that well tbh.
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But is still incredibly impressive for 1988 and helped paved the way for special effects, leading to their peak in Jurassic Park in 1993. But although the CG might be why the movie is important to the genre on a technical level, the reason most people remember this movie is nostalgia in its purist form.
Who wouldn’t want to be so good at a video game that aliens come and give you a spaceship and ask you to save the galaxy?
I personally find the scenes on Earth without the CG to be the better parts of the movie, but it does what it sets out to do. To be a sci fi adventure film for teenagers and kids to watch and enjoy and see the hero win. Uncomplicated, fun, and easy to digest as a movie.
I was gonna leave it at that but I gotta add one more
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11: 2010: The Year we make Contact (1984)(pure Sci-Fi)
in 1968, a year before America landed on the moon, Stanley Kubrick made the groundbreaking movie “2001: a Space Odyssey”. The movie is a sort of horror movie in space, but also not quite. It tells the story of an enormous black rectangular monolith being found on the moon in the year 2001. Upon human astronauts touching it, it sends off a signal into space. Not long afterwards, another monolith, this one more than several kilometers in size appears orbiting Jupiter.
A crew of 5 men and an AI computer are sent to investigate. But the AI, called the HAL 9000 goes mad and kills off all the crew except for one, named David Bowman, who takes the HAL 9000 offline before leaving the spaceship and entering the Monolith.
The original movie is a masterwork of film, suggesting that the monoliths are responsible for jumpsarting human evolution. But it is also a very SLOW film. Famously taking 40 minutes before the first line of dialogue is spoken. And its horror of distrusting computers maybe be seen as rather old fashioned by today’s standards.
Then in 1984 they made a sequel. 2010 takes place 9 years after the first movie (obviously). Several American astronauts and scientists are approached and recruited for a secret mission joint sponsored by America and the Soviet Union. Their mission is to travel to the long abandoned space station, find what information was retrieved from the monolith, and try and discover what caused the HAL 9000 to malfunction. Time is of the essence as the abandoned space station will crash on Jupiter’s moon Io soon. The Soviets want to know what caused the disaster, but they need the Americans’ help to get into the space station, and an uneasy joint mission is formed, lead by Dr Floyd who was in charge of NASA when the original disaster occurred and had since been disgraced, but who would prove the best person to find out what happened to cause the disaster.
The movie, although perhaps slow by modern standards, moves at a much better pace than the original, and although you could say its plot is more basic, it’s also easier to follow and understand. There are moments of extreme tension from multiple areas. Reactivating the HAL 9000 and having to try and NOT repeat whatever it was that caused it to murder the original crew. The time limit before the space station is set to crash on Io, the mystery of what happened to David Bowman. The presence of the silent monolith orbiting Jupiter. And the seemingly unimportant political differences between the American crew and the Russian crew, despite being hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth.
It also has some of the most incredible space cinematography I’ve seen in a film. Rather than the modern depiction of space in movies as a swirl of navy and stars and colourful nebulas, the space of 2010 is pitch black, with endless stars and enormous looming planets in the foreground, and nothing but a wall between you and the endless void.
Anyway those are my reccomendations.
Please consider donating to my kofi…. this took like 4 or 5 hours to write.
☕️Buy me a Ko-fi ☕️
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murasakinohoshi · 5 years ago
Text
[Fanfic] Reunite
I needdd to write this before the idea leaves me. I don't own Vrains and don't write it for money or something. Please forgive mistakes because I write this on the mobile. Enjoy~~~
@yenphungnguyenqndk @frostseraph @kitameguire
[[MORE]]
~.×.×.×.×.×~
Ai didn't expect that he could wake up again. The last thing he remembered was him disappearing in arms of his partner - Playmaker. He didn't know anything since then.
But now, he already woke up. Yeah, if he was human, maybe he would think he was staying in the heaven. But it was bad, he was an Ignis, so he could only trying to seek another answer.
Ai tried to jump a step, but then he realized it was so hard. It was strange. It wasn't the first time he was an eye, but even that time, he could still move easily.
"Hey guys, Ai wakes up!"
Ai was frozen when heard that voice. He realized it - Flame's. He couldn't mistake. That guy was here.
"It's so late. Hmm, alright, I know he won't be able to wake up quickly."
Windy's voice!?
"It's why you're Wind Ignis. Ai isn't like you. He loves resting."
I didn't hear it wrongly, did I? Earth's voice...
"Alright, don't tease him anymore. He just had a hard duel, after all."
This sweet voice... Aqua?
Ai tried his best to move, and he cried. In front of him, his friends were there in forms of four balls. He blinked a few times. This wasn't a dream, it wasn't...
"I don't know how we are here. I guess it's what humanity calls 'the miracle'."
Aqua looked at him, smiled softly. At that time, she was ready to disappear. She only hoped that Aoi, Miyu and others could survive. What she gave Ai was her last power, right after she no longer felt anything. But now, she got the second chance. Nothing could make her happier.
Ai smiled back. He understood what she thought. They were created from hurts of those children, and they owed them. What they should do was to protect humanity, protect their partners, no matter what.
Like how he accepted to die in Playmaker's arms...
Hmm, say about that...
"If you wake up, why don't you leave and look for your partners? Ah, I know it! You don't want to leave me alone."
The next thing Ai knew was something just hit him and fell down. He shook himself then looked around, only to realize the green ball was in front of him.
"Windy! What did you just do?" Ai frowned, asking.
"I wanted to knock at your head, but this's everything I can do," Windy replied. His voice revealed he was annoying and uncomfortable. To be honest, he hated this form, and of course he hated Ai's joking as well. He glared at Ai, then continued.
"I believe you can realize our problem. Moving was so hard for us now. There is a barrier around this area. If we were in our normal forms, we could escape easily. But..."
Ai rolls a bit as a way for him to nod. Then he blinked when saw a yellow ball near there. "Hey, isn't that Lightning?" he worriedly asked. That guy was the last one on the world he wanted to meet.
"Yeah," Aqua replied. "But don't worry, now he's harmless."
Ai looked at Aqua doubtfully. How could he can trust what she just said after things the Light Ignis did?
"He didn't remember anything but his name when he woke up," Aqua explained. "I guess it was because he used his data more anyone of us. Maybe it's a good thing. He can learn everything again since now. I'm sure he can become a good Ignis."
~.×.×.×.×.×~
"Hmm, Revolver!?"
Hearing the voice of the person next to him, Revolver turned to look questioningly. Spectre seemed to be doubtful. But in the exchange, Spectre simply pointed at a figure who was on a D-Board near there. Revolver smirked. It was Playmaker.
"I didn't think Playmaker would come back so early," Spectre commented. "There is no event here."
Playmaker flew towards them. He looked at his old allies with something like a smile. Maybe this was better putting them in the prison. With their skill, they would protect Link Vrains well.
"What brought you here again?" Revolver asked.
"I sensed Ai," Playmaker simply said.
"Ah, I thought you saw something made you shocked more," Spectre shrugged.
.
.
.
.
.
"WHAT!???"
Being started because of the person who just said calmly, Playmaker almost fell out of his D-Board. Revolver shivered. He could swear that since they met each other, he had never heard Spectre to yell that loud. He could understand though. They believed Ai disappeared totally.
"I thought it was only my imagination, but after it repeated a few times, I decided to log in," Playmaker explained. "I always hope I can meet him again."
Spectre looked down. He didn't know how he was feeling, maybe happy, or hopeful. Because if Ai really came back, so Earth...
"You can go with Playmaker if you want."
Spectre looked up and got a nod from him leader. However, he shook his head.
"I guess I need a little of time," he said. "I'm not ready to meet Earth, not yet, yeah in the case he does come back."
Playmaker chuckled. He didn't image that Spectre could be that awkward.
"So meet you later," he said and left. He'd like to talk to them more, but he had no time.
After a while, Playmaker saw a barrier. He could sense clearly that Ai was in there. But no matter what he did, he couldn't still break it.
"I guess I need the help," he chuckled then pressed a button on his Duel disk.
~.×.×.×.×.×~
"Kusanagi-san, are you fine?"
Aoi worriedly asked when Kusanagi kept sitting on a chair like a rock. Because there was no customer, he let Jin have a nap and rested in a while. But looked like there was something else in his head.
"Ah, I'm fine," Kusanagi replied. "Hmm!?"
His phone vibrated. Kusanagi took it out and frozen when saw the name on it. He took a deep breath then answer it.
"Yusaku, finally you contact me," he softly said. "I miss you a lot."
"I miss you as well," Yusaku replied. "We can talk later. Now I need your help. I'm staying in Link Vrains and I just got Ai's mark."
"What!?" Kusanagi startled. "Stay there and waited for me."
Before Aoi could react, she had been dragged into the truck by the owner of Cafe Nagi. He closed the door of the truck. Right after, screens of computers appeared in front of them.
"Whoa, so this's how you work," Aoi admired.
"I didn't do this recently," Kusanagi smiled and continued working. Aoi curiously watched, then covered her mouth when saw Yusaku. She missed him a lot.
"Hey Yusaku, can you hear me?" Kusanagi asked.
"Of course," Yusaku nodded then pointed at the barrier in front of him. "I sense that Ai is in it, but I can't step into."
Kusanagi stared at the barrier. Then he chuckled. "Ah, so he's there."
"What are you chuckling for?" Aoi curiously asked, looking at Kusanagi.
"Didn't you remember this place, Yusaku?" Kusanagi asked, ignoring Aoi.
Yusaku blinked confusedly. He tried to watch it carefully, then widened his eyes. It was! He can't mistake it. It was the place where he and Kusanagi created together to be the hideout for the Ignis. Because of the result of the war, he forgot it. Nobody could expect that finally Ai was here.
Kusanagi smiled with Yusaku's expression. He knew his ally remembered it. "Wait for me, I'll open the barrier for you now."
Yusaku was nervous when the barrier slowly opened. He rode his D-Board, but in a moment he stopped. He feared Ai wouldn't be there. He feared he would be disappointed.
~.×.×.×.×.×~
"Hey, someone is coming here," Windy said.
The Ignis looked at each other worriedly. In this form, if the enemy wanted to destroyed them, they barely had any way to escape.
"Hey, don't worry," Ai spoke. "It's only someone who we'd like to meet."
"Huh!?"
The other Ignis looked at Ai questioningly. However, Ai didn't need to say anything because their answer came right after.
"Hi, Playmaker-sama," Ai said. Although he tried to show the calm face, tears still flowed. He had never felt this happy.
"Ai!"
Yusaku yelled then ran towards to hug Ai. "Please forget all those simulations. They have no value. You're my best friend, my best partner. You don't and will never give me any threat. Don't think about them anymore."
Yusaku said, crying loudly in the happiness. And maybe he would have cried forever if other Ignis hadn't coughed to reminded him of their existence.
Aoi cried like a child when she saw Aqua. Even when the Ignis was only an eye, she could still realize her. She was so happy, and she was sure her friend Miyu would have the same feeling.
"But... now what plan do you have? I and Kusanagi originally created this to become your hideout from humanity."
Yusaku hesitantly asked. He really wanted to live with Ai, but he didn't want to force. After everything happened, maybe he wanted to be here.
"What are you saying about?" Ai asked. "Of course I want to live with you, and others also want to stay with their partners."
Yusaku smiled and put Ai on his shoulder. It was what he needed to live happily. He didn't want to separate from Ai. Never.
"Welcome back, Ai, guys."
(TBC)
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dimensionhoppinghybrids · 5 years ago
Text
The tale of Hawkwood (Drabble)
Before I start, I want to share of what in my canon happened to Hawkwood. For those that don’t know, Hawkwood is a character in Dark Souls 3 that you inspire in a way after being downtrodden and utterly defeated. He was one of the Abyss Watchers but defected. After you defeat them in the game, he becomes more inspired, and feels a little bit confident in himself. If you continue his storyline and collect 2-3 special stones called the dragon stones, which allow you to transform into a sort of psuedo dragon. Hawkwood goes to a place called Archdragon Peak to find the last piece.
After that you have to face him where you faced off the Abyss Watchers, and fight for the right of donning the full set of the dragon stones. This is the tale and a little backstory on my part, on what happens between Joseph and Hawkwood.
-----
Joseph stared at where the silhouetted figure of Hawkwood had stood. He had seen the sign laid out, and when he had touched it, like he had so many times before when needing help in his gods forsaken world, he had seen it was his friend and mentor Hawkwood.
Hawkwood had helped Joseph to at least get the basics of fighting here in this world when he started out. He can’t remember when it was. Time here flowed differently. In most cases it was at a certain stand-still, at least until he could finish what needed to be finished. With each Lord of Cinder he defeated, the further down the sun went at the castle Lothric, and more dreary things seemed to become in certain ways. Though he knew, after asking the Fire Keeper about it, that it was to mark his progress. For as he finished the task of calling all the Lord’s heads, their representations of being on the throne (He still found that very disgusting) and enacting the final right of challenge at the Shrine’s coiled sword would he be able to finish his quest at its final stretch. Though there were still a lot of things he had yet to do. He had been encouraged to do a lot of things over the time he had been here. And one of the things that Hawkwood had urged him, well asked for him really. Was to finish the set of the dragonstones.
Joseph hadn’t known what he meant until he found a strange stone one day. It had the engraving of what seemed to be a part of a dragon. And after some inquiring to the mage Orbeck, a mage he had managed to convince after showing him his magic which he had first thought of as a miracle to join the Firelink Shrine’s repertoire of people in a safe haven.
Orbeck had given Joseph the tale of the stones. They had great historical value, and great power. Joseph wasn’t sure he would use it, but, Hawkwood had urged him to find them, so he did.
Archdragon peak had been the final hurdle, and after a lot of fighting, facing down a fire breathing Wyrm, snake men and whole lot of other things he had.. To be honest no way of describing.
But he had made it this far and to the coiled firelink in a corner room near a bell tower of sorts where he would be resurrected if killed.
So now finding his mark here, where the past incarnation of Hawkwood had helped him get towards this peak. The battle had been rough and brutal. The snake men or whatever they were had not been kind, and had been more vicious then many of the foes he had faced down before. There he had turned towards Joseph and mouthed two words. “Abyss Watchers.” And then simply disappeared.
He stared at where the figure had been. His eyes strained, and feeling weary after so much fighting. He had no idea what that had meant.
He went towards the shrine, or whatever it was that was before him, but found no stone. After searching from each side and even the back. The conclusion of the why came to him.
Hawkwood had taken the stone, and what he had mouthed had been a message.
Feeling a sense of foreboding dread run down his spine, Joseph made it back down the stairs that led towards the peak, past the slain bodies of the snake men and darting towards the coiled sword with haste.
Sitting near the firelink made that strange haze wash over him again, and the warmth of the fire, which somehow just made you feel a bit better. A bit whole. That feeling served to dash away his dread for just a moment. But only a moment. Joseph focused back on the task at hand, reached out his hand towards the coiled sword’s fire. And willed himself to go to the Abyss Watcher’s keep.
He felt the world go dark, shrinking down before his eyes and down to a small pinprick. The feeling always felt creepy. Because whenever this happened, and the pinprick opened again into a wide expansive destination, he always felt like he was being thrown down a long tunnel that had no light nor sound. Just blackness.
He felt solid ground beneath him again, and he blinked away the after image of his last point of origin and looked around.
He found himself to be in the familiar crypt like hall of the Abyss Watcher’s keep. Where the legion of men had fought each other in unending waves. The still bodies of the forebears of the battle still lingered. There was no odor of rot. There never was. Just the lingering silence of death.
Standing up and taking more stock of his surroundings, he saw the figure of a man just a few feet away. He recognized the figure immediately as Hawkwood. Taking his mace in his hands and shouldering it, as the large Mace was bigger then himself, he rushed over to the figure.
“Hawkwood its so nice to see you!” Joseph said happily to his friend. As he drew closer, he saw that Hawkwood looked a bit different. He looked.. Solemn, but resolute. He also had a familiar set of weapons. A dagger and a longsword. The sword and dagger of the Abyss Watchers. Why had Hawk donned on his old weapons? He had defected from the group, if he remembered correctly.
“I wish I could say the same, old friend.” Hawkwood said as he looked to Joseph. He offered him a smile. It was a kind one, but it also was strained, sad, but firm.
“What are you talking about?” Asked Joseph as he looked towards the human.
There was a silence as Hawkwood considered his words.
“Do you know why I asked you to gather the two stones?” He finally asked, and Joseph shook his head in the negative. “Well..” He said as he drew in a sharp breath and finally said. “Its for a trial. A very important trial.” He said and looked towards the winged Umbreon that had become a valued ally and friend. Someone he had helped when he had come to the shrine. When he had been like a lost pup in need of guidance. But now that he looked at him, he the firm image of a survivor. A warrior, ready to face anything on. He had defeated and conquered many a foe, and grown stronger for it. Hawkwood couldn’t say that he wasn’t proud, because he was. Immensely. But it was why this must be done. This was the final hurdle for Joseph to overcome.
“The two stones are important for the trial of the dragon. I have the third and final, as you have concurred in my message left for you. This trial has been initiated by us both. But.” He said as he paused. “There can only be one victor. One keeper of the set.” He told him.
“Oh, if that’s all then I can just g-” Joseph started but he was cut off by Hawkwood’s more stern tone.
“No. That cannot be possible. This trial is a trial by death. If you do not face me in battle and I defeat you honorably in a duel then the trial will be for nothing. It won’t work. There can be only one you see? If I kill you, then I have by right the ability to loot the last two stones from your corpse, do you understand?” He stated firmly and Joseph was taken aback by the firmness in his tone.
“N-No.” Joseph admitted. He was willing to give up the two stones for Hawkwood, and would let him cut him down if it meant he could have it.
As if sensing his thoughts, or simply predicting them, Hawkwood smiled at Joseph. “I know what you are thinking, and it won’t work like that. I won’t strike you down if you don’t intend to fight me.” He said and then paused as he looked down. “You don’t deserve such a slight on your honor Joseph. I know you to be a capable fighter, as you’ve made it this far in your many quests. Yhorm was your last hurdle, now you only have the Prince of Lothric to finally face.” He said and he shifted. “And if you are to face them, you will need all the strength you can get.” He said to him firmly.
“But.. Hawkwood. I don’t want to fight you.” Joseph pleaded.
“But you must!” Hawkwood said fiercely. “You must Joseph! Do you understand? If you do not then I will never be able to rest, never be able to prove myself..” He said as he drew near the vulpine and shook him, startling Joseph.
“This is also for me Joseph. Please.” He begged. “I have been nothing but a coward in my heart. Please. Let me do this. Let me face you. My friend. Let me prove something to myself. Even if I lose, you will have helped me prove..” He said, halting as he choked on his own words. “You will have helped me prove, that I am not a coward. That what I did was worth it.” He said and he looked at him with deep, soulful eyes. Eyes that burned with a passion for wanting to prove himself. The look he gave him felt desperate.
“I-” Joseph started. “I just-..” He said then finally he sighed. “I don’t want too.” He admitted.
“Neither do I my boy, neither do I.” Hawkwood said. “But this is your final lesson from me pup.” He said to him as he held him firmly. “That in this world. Not everything is fair.” He said and he gave him a sad smile.
Joseph felt his eyes watering, the meaning of his words hit him emotionally like a high speeding truck filled with logs. Unable to bear it. He held the human close to him. It was clear that this would be Hawkwood’s final stand if he lost.
“Please Joseph.” He said into his ear. “Don’t hold back. I beg of you. Give me a fight worth remembering.. Please?”
Unable to speak, he only gave a nod. He cried softly into his shoulder, and Hawkwood did his best to console him.
Once he had calmed down, the human gently pushed Joseph away, and backed off. “Shall we, old friend?” He asked him as he got ready with his sword and dagger.
Joseph backed away too, wiping at his eyes. “Yeah, just give me a minute.” He said as he did his best to wipe away his tears.
The two men stared at one another, each readied their weapons. “Thank you.” Said Joseph.
“For what?” Asked Hawkwood.
“For being my friend.” Answered Joseph.
Hawkwood looked at Joseph. A more sincere smile coming to his face. “My dear sir Joseph. The honor was mine.” He said in finality, and with a roar of battle, Hawkwood lunged at Joseph with all his determination. His heart singing out to Joseph to fight on!
Joseph was spurred on by the move, and he dodged away, and the two came at each other blow for blow. Blocking, parrying and landing hits on each other.
The battle was fierce and loud as the two fought on. Clanging metal on metal, scraping against stone, and the howls of two men, both hurt in the fact they must fight each other.
Hawkwood had entered the crypt, the Abyss Watcher’s keep.
And he had never returned out.
There was a silence that deafened the area outside the crypt. The goat like creatures that guarded the place looking towards the entrance with curiosity and trepidation at the repeat of battle inside. But their heads lowered slowly as they heard the anguished scream of loss and hurt. The din of the noise echoed in the forest outside its keep. Giving its toxic lake filled swamp, a breath of anguished hurt before going still once more.
Joseph had been the victor. And Hawkwood had found his rest with the last of his brethren of the Watchers.
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duhragonball · 6 years ago
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Dragon Ball 101 :(
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This is it!  The finale of the Tien Shinhan Saga and the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai!  We got a lot to cover, so let’s get moving.
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Tien’s final gambit to win the tournament was to destroy the entire ring.   Since he can fly and Goku can’t, Goku will have no choice but to land out of bounds, thus giving Tien the victory.   Unless Goku was destroyed along with the ring, of course.  No one can find the li’l guy.  
Which is why I love Chiaotzu’s ominous “He’s alive...”, accompanied by the bead of sweat on his face.   Sometimes, Goku is like this movie monster in the form of a little kid.  You can run, you can hide, you can beat the crap out of him, you can kill him, but then he keeps coming back for more.
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Tien’s mistake was in thinking that Goku would only jump high enough to avoid the destruction of the ring.   It didn’t occur to him that he would jump even higher than Tien was floating.   So he flies up to meet him.
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You gotta hand it to the tournament announcer.  He came prepared.   There were a few midair battles in the last tournament, but I don’t think any of them required binoculars.   Even so, he brought a pair with him just in case.
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Tien is ecstatic to find Goku survived the destruction of the ring.   This might be the happiest he’s been, probably because he’s starting to think ahead to the day he can Goku can fight again.  
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As for this fight, the only thing Goku can do is fall, and as soon as he hits the ground it’s all over.   And yet, Goku insists that he has one more attack to secure a victory.  
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Goku starts charging up a Kamehameha, putting everything he has into it.   Tien doesn’t see what good that will do, since it won’t save Goku from getting eliminated from the match.    Master Roshi takes that reasoning one step further.   When Krillin suggests that maybe Goku can make a really BIG Kamehameha, Roshi says that it won’t matter, because Kamehameha waves simply don’t work on Tien, regardless of size or potency. 
I’m not sure I understand that.    The only time Tien took a Kamehameha was when Yamcha tried it on him in the first round, and he deflected it, sure, but that’s no different from anyone else blocking any other energy attack.   If Yamcha had been stronger, or if Tien had been tired, things might have gone differently.    At least, that’s what I always assumed.  
Roshi seems to be suggesting that you could shoot a Kamehameha at Tien while he’s asleep and it still wouldn’t hurt him.   If this is true, then Goku seems to have intuited this as well, since he never actually tried it.   The only Kamehameha he’s deployed in this match was to save himself from a ringout a couple of episodes back.
The reason I bring all of this up is because there’s a power-up item in the Xenoverse games called “Haaaaaaaaah!” that just makes your character immune to any Kamehameha moves from any opponents.   It’s especially handy in this one bullshit stage where you have to fight Goku, Gohan, and Goten, and all they do is spam Kamehamehas over and over.   But it’s a Tien thing, and I never understood why it was a Tien thing until now.    I think whoever came up with the item must have been referencing Roshi’s dialogue here. 
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In any event, Goku doesn’t use the Kamehameha to attack Tien directly.   Instead, he points it the other way, which drives him head-first into Tien’s gut, which knocks the wind out of him and sends them both falling to the ground.   
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So now it’s just a question of which one of them will hit the ground first.  Tien was exhausted from destroying the ring, and he only had enough power left to stay aloft, so taking that headbutt has left him in the same predicament he planned for Goku.    Once again, the World Tournament Announcer came prepared, and he has a little air-cycle that allows him to follow the boys and track their descent.
For a moment, Goku’s actually at a slight disadvantage, but he fires one last Kamehameha, and it’s incredibly weak because he used up all his power on the last one, but it’s just enough to give him a bit of altitude
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But that all gets shot to hell about six feet before they hit the ground.   The boys fall over a road, and a truck just happens to crash into Goku, which changes his trajectory enough to knock him to the ground a split second before Tien.   
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So there it is.   Your winner and World Champion of Martial Arts, Number One Under the Heavens, Tien Shinhan.   Give him a minute, folks, he’s still kinda groggy.
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Everyone at the arena goes nuts and rushes out into the street to find the fighters.   
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Huuuuuuge babyface pop for Tien when they find him.   The spectators congratulate both Tien and Goku for putting on such an awesome match, but Tien has no idea how to process this.   Then he sees Master Roshi nod to him and it starts to come together.
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Tien would probably have gotten a very different reaction if he had cheated and killed Goku as Crane Hermit had wanted.   But by repudiating the Crane School and embracing his own fighting spirit, Tien has won over the people.   Instead of fearing him, they respect and admire him, and he’s overwhelmed by it.  
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Two huge dudes carry Goku and Tien over to each other, and they do the whole mutual respect thing, and Krillin gets all verklempt.   
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So does Puar, but he’ll cry over anything really.
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Yamcha starts doing the slow clap, and everyone joins in and applauds.   Man, how much would it suck if you did this in real life and no one joined in?  I saw a TV show where that happened and I thought it was funny, but it also filled me with dread.   I’d never dare do the slow clap in real life.   The risk of it backfiring is too great.
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Goku doesn’t even mind losing, even though it was so close.  
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Goku’s clothes are all wrecked from the fighting, so Krillin gives him his own Turtle Uniform to wear, just like the last tournament.   Tien shows up and offers to split the prize money with Goku, because as far as he’s concerned, their match was a tie.   But Goku doesn’t know how to spend money, so he declines the offer.   What a guy.
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Then Yamcha shows up and congratulates Tien on winning the title.  Tien apologizes for breaking Yamcha’s leg, and Yamcha’s like “No worries, bro.”   Yamcha’s a class act all the way.
Roshi asks Tien and Chiaotzu where they’ll go next, and invites them to stay with him, which leads to this moment:
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So yeah, Launch (the blonde one anyway) is in love with Tien.   This is not a filler scene.   She says this in the manga too.  But here’s the funny thing I learned.
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I had fallen behind on the manga, but I went back and checked to see how things played out with Bulma and Launch, because in the comics, the tournament was done in a single day, while the anime stretched it out into four.  So in the anime, it made sense for Bulma, Launch, and Puar to eventually go back to the stadium to watch the rest of the matches.    In the manga, there wouldn’t have been time for that.   So whenever they show Goku’s friends in the audience, it’s just Oolong and Turtle, because they were the only ones who didn’t go with Yamcha to the hospital.  
That means all the scenes of Launch watching Tien fight after the Yamcha match were filler scenes.   She was in the hospital the entire time, although we do have these panels from the comics showing them listening to the tournament on the radio.   Launch apparently sneezed at some point, since she was Blue during the Tien/Yamcha match, and Blonde here. 
I guess what I’m driving at is that, if you go by the manga, Blonde Launch never actually witnessed Tien’s character arc.   She only got to hear play-by-play of Tien vs. Goku, and maybe Tien vs. Jackie Chun.    At first I wondered if she admired the way Tien broke Yamcha’s leg, except she was Blue Launch when she saw that fight. 
So I’m not entirely sure what Lanch is referring to when she says she’s fallen in love with him.   We in the audience have seen Tien’s “wildness”, so when I first watched this episode, it didn’t surprise me at all.  But in the original story, Blonde Launch missed most of it.   
You know, maybe I’m looking at this all wrong.    Maybe what really got Launch’s attention was Tien’s contrition in the aftermath of the tournament.   She sees him offer Goku half of the purse, and she sees him apologize to Yamcha, and she sees Roshi invite him into his home, and maybe it reminds her of how she got accepted into this group.    She knows of his savagery, but mostly indirectly, and what she sees in person is the other side of his savagery.   Maybe that’s what she connects to.   I’ll have to think about that some more.
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Anyway, Tien says that he and Chiaotzu cannot join the Turtle Hermit, although I don’t understand why not.    They’ve already betrayed the Crane Hermit, and I get why that’s a big deal, but that line has already been crossed.   I guess Tien feels that turning against the Crane Hermit was necessary, but dishonoring him further would not be, so he won’t.  
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Tien doesn’t say no to being pen pals with Launch, though (sly goku face).
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So with all that out of the way, Roshi suggest they all go to dinner, and Tien offers to pay for it.   The only trouble is that Goku left his Nyoibo and Four Star Dragon Ball back at the arena.   Krillin offers to fetch them for him, since he knows Goku’s exhausted and hungry.
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Then there’s this super weird lull where Goku watches Krillin run off, and he calls out to him, and we pause on every character’s face while they wait for Goku to say whatever it is he’s going to say, and then he admits that he forgot, and they all sort of laugh it off.   This whole sequence is still ominous to me, after all these years.
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But Krillin is late getting back, and everyone’s tired of waiting for him, so they agree to start without him.   Look at Turtle’s little kiddie table, that’s great.   How’s he gonna use those tiny salt and pepper shakers?    That’s adorable.  
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Goku gets this weird feeling, and he bolts out of the restaurant without even touching his plate.    He gets to the arena and finds Krillin and the World Tournament Announcer down on the ground.   The Announcer is dazed, but okay.   Krillin, on the other hand...
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FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU---
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This image of Dead Krillin still haunts me.   I watched Z first, and I’d seen Krillin die on that show.   I even half-expected Krilln to die in this show, because in DBZ Goku said that Krillin couldn’t be wished back since he had died once before.  But I never knew when or how, or why it happened in Dragon Ball.
I’m just imagining what a crappy 4k!ds style dub would be like for this scene.  
GOKU: Kevin!  What happened to you, friend?
KRILLIN: (without moving) Land’s sakes, Goku!   Ah was just mindin’ mah own beeswax, when alla sudden this monster moseys on in and grabbed yer Four Star Dragon Ball!   Ah tried to fight the low down dirty varmint, but he was tougher’n a Mississippi mule!  He even spilled some ketchup on me!
GOKU: It’s okay, Kevin.  The important thing is that you weren’t hurt.
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Well, this ain’t no 4!kids production.   Krillin’s dead, and someone’s got to pay...
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scripted-dalliances · 6 years ago
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Rest In Peace: Chapter Two
Title: Rest In Peace
Chapter: 2
Summary: A part of Faithless Fairy Tale, a more in depth look at how they brought Laura back to life. Appearance of old faces, creation of new ones and if you’re looking for canon, it left a long, long time ago. If you squint you might be able to see some pieces from the book.
                                                 “Ut Vidi, Ut Perii”
                     “When I saw you, how I perished.” -Virgil, Eclogue VIII
Oh.
Laura doesn’t know what to say to that. She had presumed his reason was about her being dead. Of the possible rancid taste or scent of her…she had planned to tease it out of him but ultimately pop a mint before the big move. She had even expected it was due to him being awkward about Shadow being so near.
She did not expect this.
“Got a crush, asshole?”
Sweeney sniffs indignantly, “Fuck off, cunt.” Then later adds, “Maybe.”
She laughs at that, she really does.
“I am, in your constant -and loud- opinion, a dead bitch.” She leans up, placing her small hands on his chest for support as she does. Under her palms she feels his heart, quick paced but daunting with every assured beat. “I have kicked you through walls, nearly popped your balls from the sack and oh yeah, a walking corpse because you killed me but you still caught feels? You are one sick puppy.” The nickname slips out without too much thought, but honestly she isn't surprised that it pisses him off. Unlike Shadow, he doesn't take it like a cutesy nickname, unlike her ex-husband, he knows an insult when he hears one.
“Ain't no fucking puppy.”
Laura, still perched on him with all the grace and dignity of a queen on a throne, nods. “Yeah. No. Puppies are more enjoyable. You're more like a tick, one with like, the plague or some shit.”
“Oh, yeah keep whispering sweet nothings, dead wife.”
-and just like that, he is giving her that insufferable smirk, all teasing and delighted despite or maybe even because of her un-creative insult.
“I'd never thought I would have to kink shame a leprechaun, but here I am. Don't get a boner about me insulting you, weirdo.”
Mad Sweeney chuckles darkly to himself, all low and twisted, and if she was alive she thinks she might even like it. “Ain't your half assed insults, love. And I ain't a corpse fucker, as pretty and pleasant as you are with half your guts on display.”
Laura doesn’t even bother hiding her confusion. In her vast knowledge of the workings of men, their actions tended to really boil down to two things. Their dicks and pride, and everything else derived from those.
Even love. 
Shadow had loved her because of what he thought she was, what he could build for her (never mind that she was bored and borderline suicidal) and she had even enjoyed that to a point. Playing a role, hoping he would break it. Help her become someone better and new.
Just as she had hoped he could bring her back to life.
She is not unaware of the bitter irony that is her shitty afterlife.
“Then what is it?” She finds herself demanding. Curious despite him being an insufferable prick with a matching smile about it. Like it's cute that she can't imagine the reasons.
She can't. She has nothing to offer a man, she is dead. She was broken long before that. She has no warmth, no heart or softness; she never has, she has lied and tricked her way into people's affections. Like the gods of death painting and sewing her up to look like a real girl.
Truth was, she has only ever been this: a bitch, bored and cruel, who only ever felt anything when it hurt. Who did more in death than she ever did with life. Laura was empty and cold, even before they scooped out her insides and buried her six feet under.
“A girl cuts the head off an ancient and powerful god to save a boy, and that boy might get some ideas.”
Laura huffs in laughter and rolls off him. Joining the idiot on the floor, who looks over as she makes herself comfortable. Hands resting on her stomach, legs down and out. She feels her death more now than ever, in this position with the growing silence and stillness. So she breaks it.
"Don't get any ideas then, idiot."
"Oh, why not? Go about slayin' gods often do ya?" Sweeney counters, tone false and sweet as if he was flirting badly and knew it. She suddenly wants to twist his flesh between her fingers just to make him stop, but just as easily, she lets the urge slip out of her. She's growing tired of this. Of only feeling alive when she's tormenting him. Or when he's doing the same to her.
It's a toxic game, forged by two people who are broken in the same way. Like fucked up puzzle pieces that have lost their original shape and now only fit to each other and nothing else. They exchange barbs, crass truths and hard hands, and to anyone else it's impossible to stand. Anyone else, and they would hurt, and flinch away from that pain.
Sweeney and Laura are just two insufferable kids, pressing their thumbs into each others bruises to get that ache and reaction, because no one else wants to play that fucked up game.
For a second she feels alive, he gets his earned punishment, and in any other relationship this kink would only happen behind closed doors and probably involve a safe word or two. And a ball gag.
(Laura's brain supplies x-rated images of herself bent over his lap, his hand covering her whole ass, each smack hard enough to leave her pale flesh red with soon to be bruises, just as easily as she can picture herself in mile high heels walking across his back as he curses her out.)
She is well aware of their twisted natures, their shared broken edges and only kind of exhausted at pretending she isn't. He is her killer, she his victim, but it is not roles they fit or play well for long.
After all she 'stole his coin' and is holding it hostage until she gets what she wants. He calls her a cunt and she breaks his hand and then calls him a dickhead. Both of them are total assholes to each other, and so neither can stand too tall on the moral high ground for long.
Worst yet, neither of them are willing to walk away from this. Not without a fight.
He has tied himself to her just as much as she has to him. For better or worse, it's his hand she's got a fucking death grip on because like hell she's letting him go.
(She refuses to do this alone.)
But there's a price, with never letting go and it's paid in revelations.
At all times she is exposed, from her bitter mouth to her rancid guts. The worst of her is unwillingly on display, and he doesn't ignore it. He complains, pisses and moans and laughs at her but she does the same back.
How could she not?
This is without a doubt, his lowest. He is without luck, weak and hides not an ounce of how much that ruins him. Everything about him that would shine, is buried in her like a bullet and she isn’t giving it back any time soon. Just like her, he's missing a vital piece of himself and the world tears them asunder, for daring to be without it. Just as unrelenting and vicious as a hungry vulture would rotted meat.
How dare you be less than what you have always been. How dare you stand and be without faith or luck.
Better souls would forgive each other, learn and heal.  Better people would want to rid themselves of such poisonous actions and words, that got them screwed in the first place. To let death take her, to ask for forgiveness, to let go of the past.
-but that's not who they are.
As much as she hates to admit it, they are matching pair in that regard.  
They will never forgive, they will never fully recover and they don't want to.
They would rather let this pain become gangrenous, let it twist and boil, let it dig in like a parasite and replace the pieces of themselves they've lost. It's this pain that fuels them, to push on and keep going because fuck the world, fuck the blood they've unwillingly spilled to earn their place in it. 
They will not bend just for the spite and salt of it.
She wants her life back, but she doesn't want to do it with false promises. She doesn't want to be tricked and conned into some life long affair of faith, to surrender herself, heart or soul. She doesn’t want to sacrifice some other innocent idiot, or shove some different magical relic into herself in hopes no one down the line wants it back. Laura wants what is her's. Nothing more, nothing less.  
-and she isn't stupid. She knows she only got this chance because of a magical coin accidentally given to her by a man who didn't want her back. That without it, she'd be nothing but road kill…
The image of the ice cream truck, on it's side. Window busted through and how she awoke on warm pavement with Sweeney above her flashes through her mind.
Holy shit
"You gave me the coin back."
Sweeney doesn't answer, and she continues. Tilting her head just enough to catch his expression. Haunted hazel eyes that are glued to the ceiling like it holds the lucky lotto numbers.
"When the truck flipped, and I went through the front. I was a mess, like...splat." Laura uses hand gestures to further her point, "-and I remember that, but not hitting the ground. Which wouldn't be weird, if I wasn't already not alive, and it's not like I got brain damage or something. So. From my perspective, I crash, I tumble out and then blank. Come to your ugly face above mine touching my tits."
"I did not touch your tits!"
She smirks, "Bet you wanted to."
"Fuck off."
"It's okay to admit it. I mean, I've got a decent rack, right?" Dead or not, she did.
"For the last bloody time, I did not even look!"
"Ah, but you did put that coin back, didn't you?" Silence again is the answer she's looking for, because he's never silent unless she's right. "So. You gave me a second...maybe third chance I didn't deserve and still tried to get Ostara to help me.”
Sweeney grunts in response. He is mad, she can tell, that she has figured this out. His dirty little secret.
“Then, for whatever reasons I haven't figured out just yet, totally stepped up to Odin to defend me...for like half a second before he kicked your ass, but I'm choosing to ignore that bit." Laura positions herself onto her side, “I’m starting to think you liked me before I slayed a god to save your skinny ass.”
He still refuses to even look at her so she takes her time looking at him instead.
There hasn't been much want to check him out, in the start of their adventure. All she knew was from what she noticed first. That he was tall -stupidly so- and ginger. With a smart mouth that pissed her off and hands that could wrap around her throat.
Now, she adds that he's also got freckles everywhere (and she wants to count them, connect them…probably into a shape of a dick), a wide chest with matching shoulders, that probably makes other women swoon with lust. That he weirdly smells like cloves and the best kind of beer -despite knowing that he hasn't showered in days- all with a jaw line that makes her want to trace with her fingertips because it looks sharp enough to cut her.
Everything about him seems like an exaggeration of a man; his height, his build and his hair. Large and not in charge, but that's only when he opens his mouth and then it becomes pretty obvious under all the flash and very nicely built body, is a rotten fucking attitude. Just like her.
Laura smirks to herself, aiming to poke a bruise she knows is a mile wide. This is who she is after all. "What is it really. Guilt because you killed me? Need someone to spank you, while you confess your sins and tug one out?"
Sweeney's expression hardens, and his lips form a mulish pout. "Ain't that."
"–because I'm well aware that it wasn't you. I mean it was. But I'm gonna go and firmly place the blame on Odin. Hey, speaking of, do gods have a hell? Like for themselves?"
He sighs, "No, cause if there was, it be here. Listening to you go on."
"Don't make me kick you in the balls.”
He gives her a manly snort in reply, one that seemingly comes from deep within his chest as he sits up and fishes out a crumpled up cigarette packet from his pocket.
He offers one to her, more out of habit than anything, that she takes and lights with her lighter (that she stole from him) and hands it over. Watching as he mirrors her actions, and slips the stolen piece back in his pocket.
She is mentally making plans to steal it back when he starts talking again.
“Its not guilt. Not really. Not what…what I think it means to your lot.”
“And the giving me the coin back part?”
He inhales and exhales. Buying a bit of time.
“Part of it, I suppose, but ain't all of it.”
Laura rolls her eyes, “Way to explain fuck all, Gingerbread.”
Quick as wild fire, he becomes furious. Suddenly standing and glaring down at her like he wants to burn her down to ash with just his eyes and nothing else. It’s powerful and violent enough of a reaction that even she takes pause.
“What the fuck do you want me to say? My life ain't some easy by the by poem you read on the back of a bleedin' cereal box. I was a king. I was a bird, and a mad man. I was all of these things and more, but saying them to you, do they have any meaning to them? Do you understand or even believe them? No.” He sneers, and she frowns deeply. Thinking about her reaction in the ice cream truck and knowing he's right.
Hating that she can't defend herself.
“Just as reading all these damned books is fuckin’ useless. You could read them all but it doesn't make a lick of difference to your state of being. You have a limited scope of understanding. By nature of what and who you are. Even dead and crawling out of your own grave hasn't changed that. You'll feel no heart beat from me like your lover boy, kiss or no kiss, Laura Moon. So don't even bother trying to test ya little half baked theory.”
He has called her cunt and bitch a thousand times over, but never before has he insulted her to this level.  With so much truth and venom. Never has it been so painful to hear. Laura likes to pretend she isn't affected, but she is.
For a long, drawn out moment they merely look at each other, poised at the edge of some great cavern of suffering. His. The one that is fathoms deep with age and unknown truths that as he so rightly stated, she can not understand. It seemingly grows wider in their combined silence.
Slowly, the massive angry fire in his hazel eyes fades and he turns his back. Stalking from the room, from her without another word.
Laura remains, lost in thought.
>
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