#the lens is probably bigger than a human's head!

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon zero dawn (remastered) | dismantling a watcher

[madamecricket]

I know Beastars came out a while ago and it's not really in the zeitgeist, but fuck it. I have some thoughts about Mizuchi Beastars and I'm typing them out.

This bitch.

If you know who this character is, then you too are aware that she's a bitch, but there's some real-world context that adds another layer to her bitchiness. To be clear, I don't think the author of Beastars was aware of this context when writing it, but fuck it, it's a new lens for viewing the character.

Mizuchi is an endangered(?) Harlequin rabbit, whose boyfriend is another Harlequin rabbit. Her boyfriend has sex with Haru at some point, and that's why Mizuchi bullies Haru. (in Haru's defense, it seems like the boyfriend was the one who initiated, and it's not indicated whether or not she was aware he was taken.) But Mizuchi makes a very, VERY big deal out of the fact that she's a rare Harlequin rabbit and How Very Dare You Threaten The Continuation Of Our Race You Hussy.

However, there's a bit of real-world context to harlequin rabbits that adds another layer to Mizuchi's behavior. Harlequin rabbits are indeed a real thing, and they are relatively rare, but they're not endangered.

In fact, I don't think they even can be considered endangered, because Harlequin rabbits aren't a species. They're a domestic breed.

Harlequin rabbits being rare isn't the same situation as, say, giant pandas or whooping cranes being rare. Even if they are uncommon, so long as there are rabbit fanciers who are interested in breeding them, they're not going to go extinct. And they are the same species as every other domestic rabbit in the world, just with a different pattern.

But, okay, Mizuchi and her boyfriend aren't regular IRL pet rabbits who could be bred to create more show-quality Harlequin rabbits. They're Beastars rabbits with human-like bodies and human-level intelligence who choose their own partners and don't necessarily have human owners who will make sure there are more Harlequins in the future. Okay then. Maybe they could actually go extinct in Beastars world.

So, next question: based on Harlequins being an uncommon domestic rabbit breed, what are the implications of their potential extinction?

Answer: not much of anything.

Again, they're a breed and not a species. They're just domestic rabbits with a uncommon coat pattern. There are no ecological implications to whether or not Harlequin rabbits are a thing. If they did go extinct, it would probably just take a few generations of selective breeding to bring them back.

What happens if giant pandas go extinct? Giant pandas can never exist again, and their absence would cause a domino effect with other species that share their habitat.

What would happen if Harlequin rabbits go extinct? Rabbit fanciers would be sad about it.

So if we apply this bit of real world context to Mizuchi and her boyfriend, she looks like an even bigger bitch than before.

Mizuchi and her man don't even really seem to like each other, but they're together because they're the same type of uncommon rabbit and according to Mizuchi, they MUST be together for the continuation of the noble Harlequin Master Race.

What do you want to bet she holds that over his head every time they have a slight disagreement? What does she even bring to the relationship, other than the fact that she's rare?

tl;dr Mizuchi, shut the ever loving fuck up about being endangered. You are not a giant panda, you are not a whooping crane, you are not a bottlenose dolphin. You are a regular-ass domestic rabbit with a slightly unusual coat pattern, so stop fucking milking your "rareness" for sympathy and status every time you have a disagreement with someone. You hear me, Mizuchi? You will never be a goddamn panda.

[yesterdanereviews]

Deep Impact (1998)

Film review #581

Director: Mimi Leder

SYNOPSIS: A reporter who is investigating the resignation of the Secretary of Defence stumbles on a much bigger story than she expected, and forces a public announcement from the President: A large comet is due to collide with the Earth and cause huge destruction. While a last-hope mission to the comet is being prepared, there are also plans to make sure humanity survives if the comet actually makes it to the planet...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Deep Impact is a 1988 sci-fi disaster film. It is perhaps most notable for being released in the same timeframe as Armageddon, a similar disaster film also about a comet heading for Earth. The two have slightly different angles and tone though as we shall see. The film opens up with journalist Jenny Lerner investigating the resignation of the Secretary of Defense. this leads to her discovering (inadvertently) that there is an Extinction Level Event threatening the planet, which forces the President to disclose to the world that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. It's a fairly typical disaster film after that, with the film focusing on a mission to try and destroy the comet, and also balancing that with the human stories of the characters caught up in it. This film, more so than Armageddon, focuses on the latter, with the different characters roles and responses to the impending catastrophe being the primary focus. The main issue with this, however, is that it focuses on human drama, and it chooses the most boring of said drama to show us. The main character is constantly awful: the way she treats her dad for no real reason is childish and nasty, and even when she does something good and heroic, the way she does it hardly redeems her. probably the most interesting thing about the film is the space mission that is sent to destroy the comet, which provides a decent amount of action, but their mission ends half way through, and then their whole story arc just becomes irrelevant until the finale. In fact, the film pretty much runs out of steam at the halfway point, and just gives up at the same time that the characters give up trying to stop the comet. The film mentions a lottery that will choose the people that will be allowed to survive the impact, but doesn't really explore the impact of this, and the usual riots and breakdown of society which usually occurs in these types of disaster films apparently just does not happen, or at least we never see on screen, which is odd to just gloss over, even if it's something we expect and have seen many times before.

Apart from the main character, the rest of the cast are similarly uninteresting. The weirdest ones are the teenage couple who constantly act like they're a middle aged couple. They get split up but then reunite later in a pointless diversion, and their whole characters just feel off. you could easily cut them out of the film and lose nothing. The crew aboard the "Messiah" spacecraft likewise don't have that much development or interesting things happens to them on a character development level. Another aspect of the film that I thought was odd is the focus on journalism and the media at a time of catastrophe. I get it in part, because the main character is a reporter, but nearly everything is done through the media and TV stations, and the film feels like it wants to "glorify" the role of the media and journalism in times of disaster and it being almost the centre of importance, which just feels a bit...wrong and dirty in some way. Maybe the film had to emphasise the significance of the media because it got the rights to use the MSNBC likeness for the backdrop, but either way, it made the film feel like it was focusing on the wrong things, and if the film wanted to focus on the "human" element of catastrophe, then doing it through the lens of the media just obfuscates that.

There are some moments in the film which are decent: the comet striking Earth and the destruction scenes are well done, and it gets some of the emotional scenes right, but these often have no impact on the characters themselves. The science is a bit more accurate than a film like Armageddon, but I'm not sure how much that would matter to the average film-watcher.

[canmom]

i'd assume from the image anime girl eyeballs are like pretty much flat. like flat enough to be indistinguishable from the skin and flesh in a cross section. not sure what can be done with this to give sight but i think its safe to say they at least wouldn't be able to see much

interesting...

so, thinking about it some more, physical human eyeballs are round for two main ‘reasons’. one is that there needs to be some distance between the lens of the eye and the retina (inner wall of the eye) so that the fovea (most sensitive region) can be large enough to have meaningful resolution. the second is that we can swivel our eyes independently of the rest of our head, which requires them to be round. the size of the cornea (lens) also has an effect on the amount of spherical aberration observed. however, the eyes are also competing for space with the rest of the organs of the head, and making larger organs, more rod/cone cells etc. requires energy. so it’s a tradeoff!

in physical humans, that balances out to an eyeball a couple of centimetres across. in other animals such as colossal squids, much larger eyes are possible. some animals where vision is vital to their ability to survive and reproduce have disproportionately large eyeballs (the eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain). conversely, baleen whales for example have relatively small eyes (though still larger than humans) since they tend to spend their lives in deep water and they filter feed pretty immobile prey.

so, what about anime people?

(a specimen of A. akudamadriveii providing several angles of the head)

anime peoples’ eyes obviously vary considerably based on the artist and exact designs specified in the settei (see the wonderful website Settei Dreams for examples), but a few common conventions we may note: they tend to be much larger in the head, they can dilate and constrict pupils to an extreme degree meaning they must have a pretty extreme dynamic range. while the eyeballs look like they must be very flat, this is perhaps only in comparison to their large radius in the other dimensions - they may well have the same depth, and focal length as a non-anime human eye.

(two individuals of A. akudamadriveii exhibiting the extensive iris/pupil constriction, typically a sign of shock, fear, or anger)

i believe that we can posit that the primary pressure shaping the evolution of anime eyes is for signalling. an enormous amount of emotional information can be obtained from the size of pupils, angle of gaze, how closed the lids are. it is very important to an anime person’s survival to be able to recognise that, if they see extremely small pupils or lazy, half-lidded eyes, they are in extreme danger. conversely, the ability to convey sparkling excitement is vital to an anime girl’s life cycle, hence the complex microstructure creating elaborate specular highlights.

(a specimen of A. wondereggprioriti, displaying both the elaborate eye structures and the heterochromia mutation common in many species of Anime. this individual also exhibits a striking elliptical iris.)

however, some troubling questions remain! if anime peoples’ eyes are not spherical, how can they turn their pupils to point in different directions? we might postulate that the anime eyeball is less of a sphere that turns, and something more like an elastic sheet with the iris floating in the middle. this flexibility would explain how the whole iris can contract or dilate, and not just the pupil.

the tensioning muscles could be anchored to a ring of bone around the eye socket. to ensure that the highest resolution foveal vision lines up with the pupil, you would probably need a second elastic membrane to pull the fovea in the opposite direction. alternatively, Anime people may have a uniform density of cone cells across the rear of the eye.

while it is not uncommon for animal pupils to differ from a circle - consider the pupils of goats or cats - some species of Anime have an unusual adaptation where the whole iris is elliptical rather than circular. however, this would be little problem in this hypothetical ‘membrane’ anatomy.

one problem for this hypothesis is that there are images of Anime species suffering injuries which cause an eyeball to be exposed. for example, this remarkable sequence by Toshiaki Hontani demonstrates the internal anatomy of A. battleroyalhighschoolus, which appears to be broadly speaking almost identical to that of a physical human. in particular, we can notice this species has spherical eyeballs. however, there may be variation between different species. it is difficult to imagine A. slayers having full eyeballs:

at this point, all I can say is that further research is needed!

[lihikainanea]

we’ve talked about tiger having moments of insecurity and body image issues and i was thinking, what if she and bill are on a little vacation and he takes a picture of her that she believes is so unflattering. bill doesn’t see anything wrong with it, he thinks she looks beautiful but she’s genuinely upset. and maybe it’s towards the end of their vacation so they’re both a little irritable bc of packing to head home and their getaway ending so it turns into a bigger argument than necessary. the photo gets under her skin in a bad way, planting negative thoughts of “how could be want to be with a person who looks like this?” in her head. and bill isn’t having it, he won’t let her talk bad about herself. but they get absolutely nowhere in the argument because they’re both stubborn. so they walk away from each other to calm down, a few hours later they meet back at their hotel room, and have a long heartfelt talk about the whole ordeal and try to understand where the other is coming from. they’re both still a little upset but willing to talk it out rather than argue. maybe tiger turns into an emotional bean which in turn makes billy emotional because he hates that his girl is thinking this way about herself

You know, I kind of love this for the absolute colossal difference in their worlds that it reveals.

You ever like, listen to yourself? Ever send a voice message to a friend and save it, then play it back to yourself in your darkest moments of masochism? I feel like human beings are programmed to hate the sound of their own voice--and it kind of leads in to many of us also hating to see photographs or videos of ourselves.

Now, picture somebody who....enjoys that. Picture somebody who enjoys seeing themselves on camera. Somebody who is not the slightest bit unnerved at the sound of their own voice.

That's what an actor is. An actor is that somebody who genuinely enjoys seeing their face blown up 18475859 times on screens across the world.

I'm not kidding when I say that I legitimately think actors are probably just one felony charge away from being like, fucking psychopaths. How can anyone enjoy perceiving themselves from the view of others? (Although, I suppose if I was ridiculously good looking and was validated in that, perhaps I wouldn't mind seeing my face everywhere too).

Bill had his insecurities growing up, sure--he looked like a stick insect his whole life. He has big, fucking googly eyes. But his strikingly awkward features are also what made him attractive, so he quickly learned to work with it. Bill never felt any of the typical awkwardness that most people do--people have been taking photos of him for literally his whole life. Before he was an actor, he did some modelling work. And as an actor, he's one of those super intense dudes that wants to watch the playback of every scene they shoot, just to analyze it and see how he could do it a bit differently next time, what he could improve on.

So a lot of the absolute, sheer dread that most people feel when a camera is pointed their way was just...it was never something that Bill felt. And because of his comfort in being in front of the lens, he also developed a fascination for being behind it--Bill loves photography. On vacations he almost always has a camera glued to him somewhere.

And listen, that is just...man, that is tiger's worst nightmare. Tiger hates cameras. She hates having her photo taken. She's working on her confidence, it's getting better, but some people just legit are NOT photogenic and tiger is one of them (bitch, same). She can never manage a smile that doesn't look pained. She always somehow manages to look awkward and is mid-talking when a flash goes off, so the result is everyone looking normal and tiger with a big, gaping mouth and jazz hands while she's trying o excitedly explain something to someone.

And the double whammy here is that it's the end of vacation, right? There are no food boundaries on vacation. Tiger starts her day with rum punch and ends it with fries or Pina coladas or fries and Pina coladas. And maybe her confidence is getting better, sure, but I think it's such an uphill battle--one that maybe wouldn't be so hard if it wasn't for Bill's job. If Bill was just a regular dude, I think tiger's confidence would be okay. But knowing that he makes a living from filming with women who literally look perfect--movies where there are love scenes and kissing scenes--ugh, tiger will always compare herself to those girls.

So maybe on the last morning, it's early but Bill wanted to catch the sunrise--his schedule is packed the moment he gets back and he just wants to relish in those few last moments of peace. The sun is so golden but still so soft, illuminating and warming everything in its path. At one point Bill glances back inside--he left the patio door open--and tiger is snuggled up on her side, facing him. Her eyes are closed and she looks so peaceful, the blanket draped loosely around her chest and then pooling again at her hips. One of her legs are out, Bill can see the curve of her hip, and fuck--she looks like a goddess. She is all soft curves, suppleness. Bernini couldn't have carved her ethereal beauty out of marble if he tried his fucking hardest. The sun is hitting her pillow, her face is so peaceful. Bill can't resist snapping a photo.

She wakes up much later, and it's only when Bill goes to take a shower that she grabs his phone. He took a few photos of the beach yesterday that she wants, so she goes to his photo album to start sending them to her phone. They always do this. Secrets between them are non-existent, hell, THEY are one another's biggest secret.

But then tiger stops--she sees the photo of herself. And she doesn't see any of the beauty or god-like qualities that Bill sees--she sees her love handles, from the way she's lying down. She sees the dimples of cellulite in her thigh, with the way her leg is bent. She sees some arm fat, flattened and jiggly against her side. She sees the potato-like lump tangled in sheets with Michelin-man rolls everywhere and tears sting her eyes. The shower stops, and she rushes to the bathroom and yanks the shower curtain back.

"What the fuck is this?" she says, and Bill jumps a mile. He's not wearing his contacts so he squints and it takes him a minute to see the picture in focus.

"Oh, that was from this morning," he says, and then he looks at her a little scared. "You're....angry."

"Yes I'm fucking angry Bill," she snaps, "Delete it. Now."

Bill's face falls, and he looks genuinely apologetic.

"I'm sorry tiger," he says, "I thought it was okay that I take pictures of you when--"

"That's not why I'm mad," she interrupts, and shoves the phone at him again. "Delete it. Now, Bill."

He wipes his hands dry, and takes the phone from her. But he's still confused.

"Why are you--"

"Are you fucking kidding me? Why am I--" she imitates, then snatches the phone back and zooms in on the image, "I look like a hippo. I'm so fat! I have rolls and you can see all my cellulite and ugh--"

"Tiger--" He warns. But she shakes her head.

"No. Yellow. Red. Pineapple. I don't fucking care," she throws the phone at him, "Fucking delete it. Now."

He sighs, and tries again to calm her down.

"Red Bill," she snaps, and that's enough. Limits are limits, and Bill can't push them. There's no talking her back down from the ledge right now. Bill sighs, unlocks his phone, and deletes the picture. Then he goes into his Recently Deleted album, and removes it from there too.

“It’s gone,” he says, grabbing a towel. He hands the phone to her. “Look.”

She grabs it, flips through it, then hands it back.

“Thank you,” she says curtly--and then she walks out.

The tension between them is palpable--Bill wants to talk to her about what happened, he needs to, but he can’t do shit once she’s said her safe word. The plane ride back is hell, tiger’s anger is pretty evident and they haven’t said more than two words to each other.

And like, I’ll bet tiger is like that for awhile. Bill tries every fucking day.

“Tiger, we need to--”

“Red.”

He’s frustrated, he’s pissed off now, and tiger is pushing her luck. Maybe after a few days of that, he calls her out on it after another failed attempt.

“That’s not what your safe word is for and you know it,” he stops her from leaving the room by grabbing on to her elbow, “Enough, now.”

“I said red Bill,” she snaps and pulls her arm back, “I’m still not ready to talk about it.”

“You get that excuse for one more day kid,” he warns, “One more, and then this little game ends.”

But like, the thing with tiger is she went from being mad to just...being really caught up in her head, really hurt, really self-conscious, all of those things. And instead of asking for help to dig herself out, instead of letting herself be vulnerable--now she just feels like she’s gone too far to go back, she’s gone too far into her anger and into this little facade that she can’t swallow her own pride and let her walls drop, she can’t let him in and let him help her.

But Bill knows that.

And the next day when she wakes up, after waiting awhile for her coffee--she can smell it in the kitchen so she knows its ready, but Bill hasn’t brought her a cup yet--eventually she stumbles out of bed, heads to the kitchen--and she sees him there at the table, his glasses on, two steaming mugs in front of him and his arms crossed.

“Sit,” he says calmly.

“Coffee first,” she mutters.

“Coffee when you start talking.”

“That’s not fair,” she snaps moodily.

“Neither is using your safe word for three days to avoid this conversation.”

Shit. He’s got a point. Reluctantly, she sits down. She reaches for a mug, but he moves it further away and looks at her expectantly.

“I lost my shit alright?” she says finally, “I lost my shit.”

“I know that,” he continues calmly, “And now I want to know why.”

“Because I hated the photo,” she says. She’s flustered, fidgety, running her hands through her hair and avoiding his gaze, “I hated the photo. All I saw was just...bad.”

“What did you see?”

“I saw fat and rolls and cellulite and..and...god, I looked like a cow. I looked huge and--”

“Stop,” he commands, and it’s so authoritative that she stops immediately. “You can have this conversation without putting yourself down. And you will have this conversation without putting yourself down.”

“I hated what I saw,” she mumbles after a long pause.

“Why?”

“Because I just did,” she says curtly.

“And?”

“And nothing. The photo was awful and I wanted it gone. Full stop.”

“And?”

“No and,” she snaps. Bill’s not convinced.

“And?”

She stares at him blankly.

“And?” he presses.

“And nobody else in your little fucking world has cellulite or fat or rolls Bill,” she finally explodes, “God the women you are constantly surrounded with are fucking perfect and they sure as hell don’t jiggle the way I do.”

“There we go,” he says, and he slides her coffee mug towards her, “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

 “Argh I just--”

“Tiger, listen to me,” he says after he takes a slow sip of his coffee, “And listen real good. The women I work with--they’re paid a lot of money to look that good. Millions tiger. They’re paid millions to be beautiful. And I can assure you--they still have fat, and rolls, and cellulite. And the ones that don’t have had their bodies cut open and all of that surgically sucked out. It’s not real.”

Tiger doesn’t respond, and he leans over and taps her nose.

“Hey, do you hear me? It’s not real,” he says, “But you’re real. And I love every single part of you. You’re fucking beautiful, tiger. In every way. Your mind, your spirit, your body--all of it is beautiful. I love all of it.”

“I don’t look like them,” she mumbles softly.

“You’re not supposed to. Nobody is asking you to. And not that I have any say in it--but I don’t want you to. Hell kid, they don’t look like them either. What you see is hours in a makeup chair, and an entire career and millions of dollars based on looking good. But you....god. You’re beautiful. And you’re so fucking soft, tiger. It drives me wild. You drive me wild. All of you.”

“It’s....it’s hard for me to realize that. It’s hard for me to hear it,” she tells him honestly.

“Then I need to do a better job at helping you realize it.”

“I’m sorry Bill,” she mumbles, “I shouldn’t have used my safe word to avoid you. I’m sorry I freaked out. But I just...I really, really don’t want anymore photos, okay?”

“Okay,” he agrees, “But tiger, promise me we’ll work on this okay? No more photos is a bandaid. This needs more care.”

“Like iodine on an open fucking wound,” she sighs heavily, “It’s hard, Bill.”

He reaches for her hands, tugs her up and pulls her over onto his lap.

“We’re good at that,” he reminds her gently, kissing her nose.

[love-and-monsters]

Harpy Model

M harpy X GN human, 6,762 words.

This story is based on this post that I was tagged in by the lovely and talented @p-gretz. Thanks for the inspiration!

You fumbled with the camera equipment in your hands. The tripod kept trying to escape under your elbow, but shifting to secure it would mean losing the lens cap, and grabbing for that jeopardized the magnifier you had balanced against your collarbone. If people stopped dumping things on you at every given opportunity, you probably would have been alright, but being the lowest member on the totem pole meant your status was barely better than a self-propelled table.

The tripod slipped another inch down and you automatically grabbed at it. The sudden movement unbalanced the camera in the center of the pile. With a clatter of plastic, it slipped free, tumbling toward the ground.

A feathered hand snagged the camera strap, jerking it to a halt seconds before it struck the ground. “Need some help?” a slightly accented male voice asked.

“Thanks, but I got it,” you said. A total lie. You could not have had it less if you’d tried.

“Nonsense. At least let me take something so you can get better situated.” Before you could protest again, he had removed several of the objects, tucking them into his feathered arms.

Without the constant danger of dropping something if you so much as twitched, you were able to shift the pile in your arms into a better position. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I-”

You froze. It felt embarrassingly out of character for you to look at someone and freeze, but his face made something in your chest do backflips.

He was elegantly made up, with touches lengthening his lashes and emphasizing his cheekbones. His hair was pale and curling in little waves around his ears. Delicate feathers sprouted around his neck, trailing down toward his arms. They were pale white, with touches of pink. His tail was easily the most striking part of him. Long, green feathers made a train behind him that brushed the floor and gave him the impression of a trailing cloak. He stood delicately on bird-like talons, poised like a dancer.

Fortunately, your freeze only lasted a couple of seconds, and you disguised it by pretending to drop and recover one of your many items. “Sorry. I’m trying to go to studio, um. A12, so I’ll just be heading over there-”

The man laughed. It was more gentle than mocking, but you felt your stomach shrivel in embarrassment regardless. “Really? Then you’re heading in the wrong direction. I’m headed in the same direction. I can walk you there.”

“I wouldn’t want to bother you,” you said.

“It’s not a bother. You seem like you could use the help.” You blushed furiously, but the man didn’t seem to notice. He shifted the camera he’d taken from you into a more comfortable position in his arm. “Are you new here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before.”

“Yeah. I’m, um. The new intern, basically. You’ve been here for a while?”

“I work with a few different photography places as a model. But I’ve had a contract here for some time.” He flicked his tail casually. “If you need help, I can show you around a little bit when we’re done. This place can be a real maze until you get used to it.”

“Oh, I couldn’t impose on you like that. I mean, you’re probably really busy and I don’t want to take up any of your valuable time-”

The harpy laughed. “My time is hardly the most valuable time here. And, if we’re being really honest…” He leaned in close to your ear. His feathers tickled as he put a hand up to his mouth. “I don’t mind making some of the people around here wait. They’re all really stuck up.” He leaned back and dropped you a glittery wink before strolling on ahead. “Come with me! It’s this way.”

You hurried after him. He had a particularly flowing, graceful way of moving. It wasn’t hard to believe he was a model- even if you hadn’t met him in the studio, you would have guessed it. He moved like he was always on a catwalk.

The studio was particularly maze-like. There were multiple winding halls with several doors each. Only a few small signs gave any sign of where anything was, and casual racks of clothes strewn around the hallway blocked more than half of them. The harpy, however, strode through the halls with a practiced ease.

After several turns, you finally came across a door marked Studio A12. The harpy pushed the door open and paused to let you through before stepping in himself.

“Revali! You’re late!” An impatient-looking woman glared across the room at him. You froze automatically, but he just put down the equipment he’d been carrying on a nearby table and gave you a wink.

“I’m here now, aren’t I?” he said. You turned away from him as your supervisor approached you.

“You’re late too,” he said.

“Sorry. I kind of got lost.”

“I know it’s your first week here, so I’m not going to scold you for this, but being on time is important here. At least for the photographers.” He cast a disparaging look at Revali who was chatting cheerfully with the stern-looking woman. “Models get more leeway.”

“He doesn’t seem so bad,” you said. “I thought a lot of models here were kind of stuck up.”

“He’s not stuck up,” your supervisor agreed. “He’s got the opposite problem. He doesn’t take anything seriously. One of those types who float through life on nothing but their good looks.”

The photoshoot started right after he spoke and you were immediately swept up in the business of it all. Your job was essentially doing whatever anyone needed of you, and they needed a lot. You spent most of the time scrambling around, fixing lights, grabbing accessories, fetching camera equipment, and being a general gopher. The photoshoot lasted only an hour and a half, but you were exhausted by the time it was over.

You sagged by the door, waiting for your next task to be assigned. Revali was having some sort of conversation with his manager that seemed to be verging on an argument, at least on her end. Revali looked as casual as ever.

His manager said something stabbing a finger in his face. He didn’t even flinch. He just lifted one of his shoulders in a slight shrug and, with a flick of his tail, strolled away.

“Ready for the tour?” he asked as he walked over to you. He had a particular way of walking, like he was constantly on a catwalk. It really was more of a strut than a casual walk.

“I already said you don’t have to. And, um, I don’t want to get you in trouble.” You made a subtle head motion toward his managers, who was alternating between looking at her phone screen and glaring at him.

Revali tossed his head. “She’s not my mother. She doesn’t control me. I do what I like. And right now, I’d like to take you on a tour of the studio. Why don’t you come with me?”

You glanced back at his manager. Revali shifted in front of you, blocking her from your sight. “All right,” you said. “But it can’t take too long. I’ve still got other responsibilities to take care of.”

Revali nodded and gestured for you to follow him out the door. “Like I said, this whole place is kind of a maze. I swear, they designed every section to look as similar as possible. But, you can figure out where all the studios are because it’s broken into sections. The stairwells are always marked with the sections. Even numbers are always to the right when you get off the stairwells and odd numbers to the left. Here, I’ll show you how to get to a couple of the bigger studios-”

Revali was right- the entire place seemed to have been designed like a weird, spiraling maze. You ended up needing to take notes on everything he told you. When you finally came to a stop, you were almost dizzy from all the turns you’d needed to make.

“Where are we?” you asked, looking around. “I haven’t been in this part of the building before.” It was almost indistinguishable from the other parts of the building, with eh same florescent lights and powder blue walls, but there were larger signs next to every door and they were spaced closer together.

“Yes, you probably haven’t needed to come down here yet.” Revali opened one of the doors and stepped inside. It was a small room with a large mirror taking up most of one wall, a couch, a minifridge, and a few racks of fancy-looking clothes. “They’re the model rooms. Those of us who have long-term contracts here get our own little spaces when we’re not working.” He strode across the room and sprawled on his couch.

You stood in the doorway. One of the models taking an interest in you and then inviting you back to his personal room? It was hard to keep your imagination from going places. “Hey, uh. I don’t want to be rude, but if you invited me back here for some, uh, fun, I’m not really into casual flings, so-”

Revali shrugged. “Whether or not we have sex is entirely up to you. I’ve had a couple flings in here. Honestly, they didn’t do much for me.”

If he had been attempting to make you more comfortable, it had backfired. Great. Now you didn’t want to sit down anywhere. You remained in the doorway. “Why did you bring me here, then?”

Revali shrugged. “You seemed overwhelmed,” he said. “And it’s much quieter down here.” There was a series of thumps and cursing on the other side of the wall. Revali glared at it. “Mostly, anyway.”

You plucked up your courage and settled on the couch next to him. He grinned. “Also, it’s lunch time and I like eating with other people. I make way too much food all the time.”

Revali grabbed a few Tupperware containers out of his minifridge and lay them out on the table next to you. Most of them appeared to be some sort of meat covered in a thick sauce. Revali was looking at you eagerly, so you took the fork he was offering and took a bite.

“Oh!” you said. “It’s good!”

“Yeah?” Revali said. “I cook when I’m stressed, so I always have more food than I need.” You took a few more bites, enjoying the richness and spiciness of the sauce over the umami of the meat. Revali leaned back, watching you eat with a strange amount of intensity.

“Um. Are you going to have some?” you asked, gesturing to the food. Revali made a face.

“Can’t. I have my own lunch here.” He pulled out an uninspired-looking salad with a few strips of grilled chicken on top.

“You make food, but then you don’t eat it?” you asked. Revali shrugged.

“The life of a model. I do need to keep in shape,” he said. “But I’m always cooking, so you can come over any time you want. I’ll give you a free lunch.”

“You could try at least one bite,” you said. You lifted a piece of meat on your fork and held it out to him. Revali lifted a brow. “Come on. You made all this. I’ll feel bad if I’m the only one who gets to eat it.”

Revali’s brow lifted a little higher. “Well, if you’ll feel bad, I suppose I have no choice but to spare your feelings.” You had intended for him to take the fork from you, but instead, he leaned forward and picked the chunk of meat off the fork with his teeth. He sprawled back and chewed, eyes closing. “Mm. It is good.”

You glanced around the room. It was slightly messy, with clothes and makeup strewn all over the place. Nothing was dirty, but it was a little cluttered. “How did you get into modeling, anyway?”

Revali opened his eyes and pushed himself more upright. “It was a few years ago. Just started doing a few local things, then I got scouted by my current agency. It’s not the most fun, really, but it’s pretty good money. Better than flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant, at least.” He shrugged. “Never finished college, so my job prospects are pretty limited.” He eyed you. “What about you?”

“I finished college a month or so ago. Studied photography. I’m hoping that this internship will lead to an actual job in the future, because right now I’m kind of living off my savings.” You gave a weak chuckle. “I kind of wanted to do my own photography thing, but, you know. Better to have a stable job.”

“Don’t I know it. I’d love to do some more interesting projects, but these ones pay well, which is what my manager likes.” Revali checked his phone and grimaced. “I’m going to have to head to my next shoot in a few minutes. You can hang out here if you like. Just put stuff back when you’re done with it.”

“I should probably be getting back now anyway,” you said, standing up. “Thank you for the lunch, though. You’re a good cook.”

“Thank you. Come back any time. Like I said, I’ve always got food. Actually, let me walk you back to the photo area. Just to make sure you get there all right.” Revali held the door open for you as you stepped into the hall.

“I��m not that hopeless,” you said, starting to head down the hallway. Revali snickered and you stopped. “What?”

“You sure?” he said. “Because, uh, you are going the complete wrong direction.”

“Oh,” you said. “I. Um. That’s embarrassing.”

“You’ll get used to it. Eventually. Here, I’ll show you the way.” Revali linked his arm through yours. “This all right?”

“Sure,” you said. “Thank you. Again.”

“No problem at all! Now, we should probably hurry, so I don’t get yelled at twice in one day. My manager would blow a blood vessel.” Revali headed off at a rapid trot, forcing you to jog to keep up.

Meeting him for lunch became a regular practice after that. He usually had something new and interesting for you to try, and he seemed to enjoy your company. Every day, you would slip out of work and head down to his dressing room for at least half an hour. A few times, you lost track of the time and had to sprint to make it back to your next shoot.

“They’re really putting you through the ringer, huh?” Revali said as you collapsed on his couch. He was wearing the sparkliest blue jacket you’d ever seen. Whether it was actually for a shoot or not was up in the air- Revali was the sort of person who would wear it out and about.

“It’s all right. I wish I was allowed to do more than just menial labor, though. I knew I was going to get the tasks people didn’t like when I started, but I wish I had more learning experiences. I feel like I’ve barely held a camera for something other than handing it to someone.”

Revali stretched his arms over his head, wings twitching. It was always interesting to watch the way they moved. They were a combination of wings and arms, with feathers sprouting all along his arms and the wing tip and hands separating at the wrists. Whenever he wore long sleeves, he needed to cut slits for the feathers and tied the ends closed around his wrists. They were usually tied closed with some sort of bangle, so he nearly always jingled when he moved his arms. “That’s a bummer. Have you been able to take any photos at all recently?”

“Nah. I’ve been too busy. When I get home from work, all I want to do is collapse. And I’ve been having trouble getting inspiration. I’ve been trying to get out more and do some shoots in nature, because it’s a lot nicer than the manufactured settings we have here, but I’ve been having trouble finding a model.”

Revali sat up straighter. “Having trouble finding a model, hm? Well, isn’t is just so fortunate that I happen to have some skills in that particular department?”

“Are you sure? I can’t really pay you much. That’s part of the reason I’ve been having trouble getting some models. When your job isn’t paying you anything, you can’t afford to hire someone for an afternoon. And I’m just not connected enough to find someone willing to do it for free.”

“I think we can help each other out,” Revali said. “I do actually need some new photos for my portfolio, and I think it would be nice to have a more natural setting. Let me use the photos and I’ll do it for free.”

“You’d be willing to do that? And you’re not too busy? I know you’ve kind of been running ragged for the past few days,” you said.

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all. Like I said, it gives us both something we want.” He whipped a phone out of his pocket and started tapping on the screen. “Let’s see. I’m free Saturday afternoon, if that works for you?” You nodded. “Wonderful. Text me your address, I’ll stop by and you can take me wherever you want.”

Your phone timer dinged and you jumped to your feet. “Oh, shoot, I need to get going. Um, I guess I’ll see you then? And thank you!”

“Don’t worry about it, cutie. Just go.” He waved a hand at you. “I’d hate to see you get yelled at on my behalf.”

You scrambled out the door, waving goodbye to him once more before heading down the hall.

Waiting for Saturday became the highlight of your week. You deliberated over the best location, eventually picking a slightly secluded, riverside area. Revali had agreed to bring some of his own outfits, which he had allowed you to approve. They were simpler than the outfits he usually wore to work, with more natural colors, but he still looked good in them.

You spent a lot of time fussing with your cameras on the day of the shoot. It would be terribly embarrassing for Revali to show up and see you unprepared.

The knock on your door was startling. You carefully placed your camera on your table and hurried to answer it.

Revali was leaning against the doorway. “Hello, darling. Ready to go?”

He was wearing some fancy-looking gold and silver makeup and he’d done something to plump up his tail. It was long and fancy typically, but he’d added long lines of beads and fluff to his tail, making it look even more striking than usual.

“Wow,” you said. You were suddenly overly conscious about how messy your hair was and the fact that you’d just kind of thrown on the first clothes you’d laid your eyes on in the morning. Would it be weird if you made an excuse to go change? “Uh. Do you want to come in for a minute? I just, uh, need to finish something up.”

Revali stepped into your house. “Nice place,” he said, glancing around. You snorted.

“Please. I’m renting a house in the middle of nowhere that has, like, three rooms. Uh, make yourself comfortable. I just need to, um. Grab a jacket.”

“It’s nicely decorated, though. You have a good aesthetic sense.” Most of the stuff you had was from second-hand stores, but it did all sort of go together in a sort of farmhouse-chic way.

You hurried into your room and swapped your old sweatshirt out for a nicer shirt and one of your nicer jackets. The pants were staying, they were good enough. You hurried back out into the kitchen. Revali was examining a few of the photos that adorned your walls.

“You take these?” he asked. They were mostly nature shots, images of animals or flowers up close or landscape shots of rolling fields or mountains.

“Yeah. Most of them were for class. I just hung up the best ones,” you said.

“They’re nice. I like them. Do you like taking picture of nature better? Than of people, I mean.”

“Um. I mean. They’re both nice, just in different ways. There’s something really meditative about taking pictures of nature. It’s peaceful. Working with people can be harder, but it’s also kind of rewarding? Like, taking photos for a wedding is really nice. You get to capture a really great moment in someone’s life and then, when they look back at it, you help them remember the good moments. I like being able to do that for people.”

Revali looked at you. His eyes were bright, assessing. “Why do you work for the studio? It’s not any of those things you said, peaceful or rewarding. It’s mostly just stressful.”

“It makes money,” you said as you headed for the door. “Why do you work for the agency?”

There was a pause, long enough for you to get in the car. “Because it makes good money,” Revali finally said. “And it also means I get my face out there. I like being well known, you know.”

“I can’t imagine wanting that. I like being behind the scenes way more.”

Revali settled back in the seat and watched the fields roll by. “Where are we headed?”

“Um, there’s this nice little riverside area in a stand of trees. I thought it might make for some pretty photos.” You glanced at him uncertainly. “I hope that’s okay with you. I know you said you’d be okay with a nature shoot, but hope you’re not going to be too upset with a little dirt. I’ll try to keep you out of it, but-”

Revali burst into peals of laughter. You twisted your head to stare at him before realizing that you should probably keep your eyes on the road. “What? What’s so funny?”

“Oh, I shouldn’t laugh! It just struck me as very funny, but you had no way of knowing, of course.” Revali wiped a stray tear away. “Do you know where I grew up?”

“No,” you said. He hadn’t told you, had he? Revali seemed unoffended. He ran a hand through his hair, which somehow still looked artfully tousled. You were temporarily distracted by the way little tufts curled loosely around his ears. Hurriedly, you turned your gaze back to the road.

“I grew up on a farm,” he said. He fluttered his feathers. “I’m a cockerel harpy- I’ve got my fancy show feathers, but I’m not exactly a bird of paradise. It’s a family thing. I grew up working in the dirt and mud, and whenever I go home, I’m expected to do it again.”

“I never would have guessed,” you said honestly. He had the soft looks of someone who had never worked hard labor, but when you looked him over again, you could see how his smooth muscles might have come from farm work. “Your family didn’t mind, then, you going to be a model?”

“You think I have some sob story about running away from my strict farm father to pursue my dreams of being in the spotlight?” Revali smirked at you. “No. My father was disappointed, I think. He did want me to carry on the tradition. But I’ve got two younger sister who are much more invested in the farm life, so he didn’t have any fears about passing everything on and both my parents are the ‘follow your dreams’ sort, so they probably would have let me go anyway. I’m not sure they understand what I see in modeling, but they support me nonetheless.”

It was a short drive to the little grove. You parked out of the way and gathered your camera equipment while Revali looked around the area. “It’s pretty,” he said, inspecting a spray of yellow flowers. “You have a good eye.”

“Thanks.” You carefully placed the tripod. “Okay, first things first. I want to get some full-body portraits first, then we can move on to the up-close stuff.”

Revali was easy to work with, easier than you would have guessed from the number of arguments he got into with his manager. He posed gracefully, responded to your every critique thoughtfully and carefully, and even put up with your artistic considerations with far more patience than you would have expected. Even when you spent several minutes forcing him to hold a pose while you got the angle just right, he didn’t complain.

About two hours after you had started, you called a break. Revali shrugged his artfully-held jacket back on and lounged against a tree. “Can I see some of the photos?” he asked.

You considered for a moment, then handed the camera over with the same care you would with a baby. Probably more, really. “Just don’t break anything, all right?”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Revali said. “I’ve only ever dropped two cameras. And one of them survived with only minimal damage!” You stared at him in wide-eyed horror. “I’m kidding! I’ll be very careful.”

He clicked through the camera’s photo roll. You sat nearby, leg jittering nervously. His expression was inscrutable.

“These are nice,” he said after a few moments. “I mean, they’re quite good. Better than a lot of the shoots I’ve been to recently. I like the shadow and light here.” He tapped at the photo on screen. You leaned over to see which one he was talking about. It was one of the close-ups, where Revali was staring up through the trees. The sunlight dappled leaf shadows across his face and picked up the flecks of gold in his dark eyes.

“It’s just a photo of your face,” you said, a little embarrassed by the praise. “I mean, it’s hard to make you look bad.”

“Oh, you’re being too modest. A poor picture can make anyone look bad and my lovely face can only do so much. You’re the one who set up the shot and was all clever with the lighting and whatnot.” Revali gave a little wave of his hand. “Honestly, it’s better than a few of my modeling pictures. And you’re much better at giving direction than most of the people at the studio. I swear, the number of times I just get told to look pouty at the camera is ridiculous. Or ridiculously esoteric shit. ‘Think about your best friend returning after a long time away’ my ass. Just tell me exactly what to do with my face and I’ll do it.” He stopped and gave you a slightly embarrassed look. “Not to make this about me, of course. But yes, you are quite good. It’s a shame you don’t get more projects.”

You shrugged. “I’d like to do more independent stuff. But I just don’t have any connections and I’ve been having a hard time getting gigs and, well, it’s just hard when you’re getting started.”

Revali tilted his head to one side. “Things will get better,” he said. You huffed out a sigh.

“I hope so. I’m gonna go crazy if I don’t get to do something interesting in my actual job soon.” You fiddled with a few of the camera settings again. “Ready?”

“Certainly.” The photoshoot commenced once more. Revali seemed to be putting his all into the shoot, which you appreciated. He probably could have slipped by with just posing halfheartedly, but he was really putting effort forward.

You spent longer on a photoshoot than you had expected. Revali was nice to work with, cracking little jokes at every opportunity and being patient with any technical mishaps. The sun had started to sink toward the horizon by the time you were done.

“Sorry that took so long,” you said. “I didn’t mean to take up your weekend.”

“I’m really fine.” Revali flicked his tail, combing his fingers through the long feathers. “You apologize a lot, don’t you?”

“I just don’t want to come across as rude,” you said. Revali laughed.

“That’s one thing you certainly don’t do,” he said. “I enjoyed myself.”

“Still,” you said as the pair of you headed back toward his car, “why don’t I buy you dinner? It’s the least I can do.”

Revali looked down at you. His dark eyes glittered with interest. “If you’re offering, then I’ll certainly take you up on it.”

It took some driving around, but you eventually settled on a small café fairly close to Revali’s townhouse. He selected some sort of salad and you picked out a sandwich. Revali was right, the place was quite good. “I’ve never been here before,” you said. “I guess I haven’t been eating out for lunch as much, though.”

“I’m pleased my cooking is so good to you,” Revali said. He picked at his salad, moving the leaves around more than he was eating them. A knot started to form in your stomach.

“Hey.” Revali looked up. Your tone must have been strange because his expression became serious. “Um. You don’t, um. Eat much.”

Revali lowered his fork. “Ah. I did notice you staring during meals, but I suppose I was trying to flatter myself, thinking it was entirely my good looks.”

You felt hot. “I’m sorry, I know it might be rude to bring it up. But I’m just a little worried. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Hm,” Revali muttered. He put down his fork and shifted in his seat. His feathers rustled and ruffled. “I did have some trouble with eating well when I was younger. It never developed into a full-blown disorder, but I have always had a bit of an issue with maintaining my looks. I suppose my current representation isn’t helping with this issue.”

“Your manager?” you guessed. Revali gave a tight-lipped smile.

“Yes. I gained a pound the other week and got a bit of a lecture for it. Apparently, thin men are in right now. Harpies are usually fine boned and slender and all that, but I suppose it’s not quite enough for her.” A swell of anxiety crested behind his words.

You fiddled with a toothpick. “Can you get new representation?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t. She is the only available representative for the company I have a contract with right now. And even if I could switch, I don’t have any guarantee that the next manager would be any better. Extreme dieting is not exactly uncommon in the modeling industry.” He sighed, picking up his fork and poking at the salad a few times before spearing a large bite and shoving it into his mouth. “The contract actually expires in a couple weeks,” he said, swallowing the bite. “She’s not happy about it. She really wants me to sign on again, but I haven’t done it yet.”

“What’ll you do if you don’t sign on again? Try to go somewhere else?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been modeling for a few years now. I’m not sure what else to do. But I’ll admit, I don’t love the culture. It’s not great for my mental health, in all honesty. I just don’t know what else to do.”

He looked so despondent that you couldn’t help but reach across the table and take his hand. He stared at your fingers for a moment before lifting his gaze to yours. “I’m sure whatever you chose will be the right thing,” you said. “I think, if your modeling career is bad for your mental health, then you can quit. You’re more than just a pretty face, you know? You know more about photoshoots than you think you do. You’ve got a good sense for lighting and you’ve even got a better idea of colors than I do. And you’ve got a really great fashion sense. I think there’s a lot you could do.”

Revali blinked at you for a moment, then his face broke into a breathtaking smile. A blush stole across your face, blazing in your cheeks. He looked unbearably beautiful. It wasn’t just the features of his face, though they were all very good. It was the clear and genuine delight that the smile conveyed. “I don’t think I’ve had someone compliment me so sweetly in a long time! At least, not on something other than my looks.”

“Not to mention, you’re a kick-ass cook,” you added. Revali laughed and took a sip of his water. You weren’t sure, because he had quite a bit of makeup on, but you though you could see a hint of pink tinging his cheeks.

“If I’m looking for a less stressful job than modeling, I don’t think being a chef is a good choice. And I’m not quite good enough to be in the industry. But it is nice to have my skills complimented.” He took another sip. “But thank you. Being a model can make it so your looks are the most important part of your life. It’s good to be reminded they’re not the most important thing about me.”

You shrugged. “Hey, I’m not much in the looks department, so I’m pretty good at looking past that.”

“Now, now, don’t be modest. You’re quite cute yourself,” Revali said, dropping a glittery wink. You felt yourself flushing again.

After dinner, you returned home and bid Revali a farewell. You spent the evening examining the photos you’d taken. Most of them were quite good. At the very least, they would make good photos for your portfolio. You considered them for a few moments, then pulled up the bare bones of your website and started uploading the photos.

The next day, you joined Revali for lunch again. He was wearing more than his usual makeup, but even so, you could see the slight puffiness around his eyes. “Tired?” you asked.

“Ughh. My manager and I got into a fight last night, after I got home. Things were said.” He massaged his forehead. “Tell me something good, darling, I need it.”

“Um,” you said. “I set up my website last night? Or I started setting it up, at least.”

Revali focused fully on you. “Your website?”

“Yeah. Um, I hope you don’t mind, I put some of the pictures we took up there. I want to see if I can start freelancing, at least in my free time.” Revali perked up. The tired look slid off his face.

“I don’t mind. I’m used to having my pictures all over the place. So, you’ve decided to start doing your own thing, now?” He leaned toward you.

“At least a little bit. The hardest part will be getting clients. Once I build up a little bit of a base, I can start getting people by word of mouth and stuff. But it’s difficult now.”

“I’d expect so,” Revali said, but he appeared to only be half paying attention. His gaze had become a little unfocused, like he was thinking about something else. “You know what, my next shoot’s in a few minutes. You can hang out here if you want. I’ll see you later.”

You met for lunch a few times in the next couple of weeks. Revali’s mood seemed to have improved. He was much more cheerful and, to your great relief, he seemed to be eating more.

It was almost exactly two weeks after you’d had your photoshoot when Revali sought you out at work. “I was going to come by for lunch,” you said. “Is something wrong?”

Revali seized your hands. “No. Things are great! I just told my manager to fuck off!” He proclaimed it loudly enough that several people in the vicinity turned toward him. You ignored them.

“That is great! I’m so glad for you,” you said.

“That’s not everything,” Revali said. “I have a surprise for you.” His tail twitched and flicked with excitement. “Follow me!”

Revali tugged you through the building, down to his dressing room. “Okay. Remember how you were talking about having trouble getting clientele?”

“Yeah,” you said cautiously.

“Well, I’ve been a model for a while. Which means I have some connections and some favors.” Revali opened the door and tugged you inside. “So, I thought I’d call some in!”

The room did not look different. You looked cautiously at Revali. “Uh. What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“This!” Revali snatched a stack of papers off a table and thrust them at you. You flipped through them. “It’s the information of people who want to have photoshoots! There’s a couple of weddings, one person wants a pet thing, a couple of people want you to take photos for cosplays- I told them all that you were really good and you’re easy to work with and a bunch of people were willing to give it a shot.”

“You got me gigs?” There was a note of incredulity in your voice. “Like, paying gigs?”

“Yes! I told you, I have some contacts and some favors. I pulled a few strings.” Revali fluttered his wings.

“Thank you,” you said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“All the information you need is there. You can contact them all for more information, but it should have the basics.” Revali sprawled across his couch. “I figured that if I was going out, I might as well use my connections for good.”

“Going out?” you said, perching on the couch next to him.

“Yeah.” Revali rubbed at the back of his neck. “I told my manager to fuck off, remember? There’s a solid chance I’ll get blackballed for it, and even if I don’t, I don’t think I want to do this modeling thing anymore. It hasn’t been great for my mental health. And I’d like to be seen as more than just a pretty face.”

“You have plans?” you asked.

“No. I’ve got some money saved up. I figure I can afford to coast for a little bit. And if it really gets bad, I’m sure my dad would be happy to have me back on the farm.” He laughed, but you caught the slight downturn of his mouth. You ran your finger along the edge of the paper stack.

“If you’re interested, these are a lot of jobs. I think I could use a little bit of help,” you said. Revali blinked at you. “I can’t pay much, but it’ll be a little bit of money and if I start getting really good, I can hire you on full time. You’ve already shown you’ve got an eye for this stuff.”

“Really?” Revali said. He stared at you disbelievingly. “You’re willing to do that for me?”

“It would help me as much as it would help you. I mean, you’ve already been a huge help and you’re not even working for me yet. I think we’d make a good team.”

Revali looked enormously delighted. “Oh, thank you! You’re incredible!” With no warning, he ducked forward, his hands came up to the sides of your face, and he pressed his mouth to yours.

Your brain short-circuited temporarily. There wasn’t a single coherent thought in your mind. Just a bunch of sensations. Mouth. On your mouth. Kissing. Revali was kissing you. Passionately. His hands were on your face. His feathers were tickling you. His breath was warm on your face.

He broke away from you before you could gain enough sense to kiss back. Revali grinned sheepishly. “Oh. That was sort of supposed to be the grand finale. We were supposed to go out for dinner first. I just got excited.”

You pulled your thoughts together. “You were going to ask me out?”

“I thought you deserved something for taking me out a while ago. And I’ve been thinking about asking you out for a while. But you looked so cute there and I was very grateful, and I just couldn’t help myself,” he said. “I hope you didn’t mind too much?”

“No,” you said. “I didn’t mind. At all.” Revali smiled. You were drawn to the curve of his mouth, the fullness of his upper lip. “But, maybe just to make sure, we should do it again?”

Revali’s smile got bigger. “You know, I was thinking that I’m not going to have this dressing room much longer. There are a lot of things we could do in here. Celebrate our moving on and all that.”

“Let’s start with kissing,” you said, “and we can see where it goes.”

Revali leaned closer to you. “Start with kissing. I can do that.”

[taggedmemes]

SENTENCE MEME ⟶ RESIDENT ALIEN / S01E04 always feel free to tweak the sentence to fit your muse.

'this disruption is infuriating and very disrespectful.’

‘how am i supposed to sleep or bury the dead guy in my freezer with all these people out there?’

‘well, it must suck to get so much sleep and still look like shit.’

‘i can feel it... in my balls.’

‘you shouldn’t trust your balls. they’re nuts.’

‘all i need is an empty room, a spoon, and a pie.’

‘i also wanted to ask you what you are doing tonight.’

‘i was thinking of chopping up the body in my freezer.’

‘i have food at my house.’

‘we’re having you over for dinner, and i’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer.’

‘i will take your silence as a ‘yes’.’

‘these are the pills from the party.’

‘she’s seventeen, so she’s at least part idiot.’

‘we did tons of crazy shit when we were seventeen.’

‘you kidnapped len peazy’s fish and sent a random note.’

‘i need you to go so you can talk to them and i can sit alone.’

‘that’s a little weird, and i’m busy.’

‘i wasn’t going to pay you. that would make you a prostitute.’

‘is it true she got a speeding ticket on a stolen tractor?’

‘statistically speaking... it was you.’

‘wait, wait. you think that we’re getting a divorce?’

‘she has no idea this dinner will just be a kid screaming and throwing food at me.’

‘this is a date?’

‘he probably uses mind control to unlock doors.’

‘what is this little shitbag up to?’

‘it has women who have sex in the city.’

‘i don’t think we ever officially broke up.’

‘what am i supposed to do? not buy it? then what?’

‘why are you being so nice to me? i tried to kill you two times.’

‘wait. cut your head off with a bone saw, tried to kill you in your sleep, cut your brakes so that you’d die in traffic. three times. i’ve tried to kill you three times.’

‘i was even planning on eating some of you to see what humans tasted like.’

‘you keep tapping those hands, you’re gonna lose ‘em.’

‘i’ll take the rest of the cookies and these seven bananas.’

‘probably need a nightcap, though, if we’re gonna do that.’

‘i heard a lot of assholes live there.’

‘i told a joke earlier.’

‘are you gonna kiss me? i’ve seen this on tv.’

‘it’s rigor mortis! my penis is dying!’

‘i guess none of us get what we want.’

‘see? completely common to find a doorknob in a lake.’

‘what are you doing with those paws?’

‘apparently you can be with other humans and still be alone.’

‘i can feel the happiness welling up inside me.’

‘he was a pretty good writer. and then you killed him. you remember?’

‘so, yeah, things are gonna get messy.’

‘i’m eliminating anything that gets in the way of this mission... which might be you if you don’t stop whining.’

‘do you shiver when you pee?’

‘i had no choice. she forced me to come.’

‘we have some fancy water that tastes like static.’

‘do you have any milk that comes from a cow’s teat?’

‘i see now it’s not the food that brings humans together.’

‘there is a basic human need to feel like you belong.’

‘i’ve never met a white man i couldn’t trust!’

‘we heard bigfoot was on the loose.’

‘sorry about cussing just then. i try not to do that shit around kids.’

‘i’m not allowed to say the d word or the s word, but i can hear them without getting in trouble.’

‘if you don’t use your arms to signal, a truck’ll rip ‘em right off.’

‘i have one rule in here. that’s if you’re gonna start drinking, you have to make sure your gun isn’t loaded.’

‘just one of those days where you question whether you deserve to exist.’

‘you’re gonna need something stronger than lemonade.’

‘he makes me feel so  dumb.’

‘you’re the only cop i’ve ever met that people are actually excited to see.’

‘trust me, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him.’

‘you literally can’t walk.’

‘well, i can laugh without pain. that’s a good sign.’

‘they both run out of rooms when they get emotional.’

‘you’re easy to find, but a pain in the ass to get to.’

‘how bad did i mess this one up?’

‘that’s pretty bad. i’m not gonna lie.’

‘you kept up a really big secret, and it’s gonna hurt a lot of people when it comes out.’

‘you made a really difficult decision at a really young age. and i admire that about you.’

‘even when we’re not okay, we’ll always be okay.’

‘how are they still running? are they cyborgs?’

‘am i supposed to apologise?’

‘i miss home.’

‘i want to go home. i belong there.’

‘everyone needs to belong to something bigger than themselves.’

[x0401x]

Jeweler Richard Fanbook Short Story #5

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Iolite of Cloudy Skies

Iolite. Its Japanese name was “blue flower stone”. The gem was blue with a purple tint stronger than that of a sapphire and had a unique viscosity that made it seem as if it was coated with a bit of dew. The level of hardness was seven. It was called iolite when treated as a gemstone, but when treated as a type of mineral, it was also called cordierite. It was an eccentric stone, which also appeared to have a grayish brown color instead of blue depending on the angle that one looked at it. Etc., etc.

“What happened, Seigi? Your eyes are dead.”

“How can I put it...? Surfeit, I guess.”

“Haah?”

I couldn’t memorize the stones’ names. They were too many.

The client who left just now had come because they wanted to see many sorts of blue stones, so Richard’s treasure box was packed with a great variety of blues. There were sapphires, of course, and also tanzanites, lapis lazuli, blue chalcedonies and this iolite.

Half a year before I had started working part-time in Etranger, the image I had of gemstones was limited to things such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, I believed. Now I knew about the existence of a stone named zircon, which shone in the same way as a diamond, and also knew about the spinel, which was red like a ruby, as well as that the color of sapphires was not just blue, having a wide range from purple to yellow, and I had seen transparent jades that were impossible to tell apart from emeralds.

If I had as much knowledge of minerals as Tanimoto-san, I would’ve managed to sort stones inside my head by the differences the in chemical composition of each, but unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with such things, and I currently didn’t have enough enthusiasm or willpower to study them. If I were to explain figuratively, it felt like going out to hunt for clams at a beach, and when you innocently dove into the lake, you’d see the Mariana Trench spreading out below. It was a beautiful world, thus also too wide and too deep. And endless. To a terrifying extent.

When I told him roughly this, Richard laughed, the depths of his throat trembling with giggles. “It is not as if you are aiming to obtain a GIA or FGA qualification or anything, right? Isn’t it all right for you to observe as much as you like?”

“That might be the case, but...”

I found myself thinking that it was a waste.

After all, I’d be on my knees listening as Richard went, in earnest, through the trouble of introducing all kinds of stones to me one by one. I often heard from my senpais that “job hunting is a connection for people”, so I felt sorry that my connection with stones remained scoreless. Regardless, it wasn’t like I was suddenly going to get any smarter.

As I said this, Richard laughed again and beckoned me with a hand gesture. He then took something out of his suit’s pocket. One of those subdivision vinyl bags that I’d often see when he was handling jewels in the back room. It seemed there was an iolite inside. There was a label stuck to the bag packed with absorbent cotton, and something was written on it in horizontal letters. “Viking sunstone,” it read. Vikings? Like the ones that you’d imagine wearing horned helmets, carrying axes and coming from the sea on a ship? As I asked for confirmation, the jeweler nodded with a “precisely���.

“The words written on this label are associated with the former ‘purpose’ of the iolite. In the past, people used iolites as sun stones.”

“‘Used’ them as ‘sun stones’...?”

I didn’t understand anything from A to Z. What did that mean? For starters, why was gem of such a cold-looking color made into a stone of the sun?

Before I even had a breach to ask, the beautiful shopkeeper began talking, a smile ghosting his lips, “You might already know this, but a portion of the people residing in the current Britain are descendants of those who went through the Norman Conquest that began around the ninth century - in other words, of the Vikings. They were famous for having the skills to travel long distances, which was unusual at the time, so Seigi. If you were someone who travels the sea for long periods, how would you know your way?” Richard asked me.

A means to know the cardinal directions in the open sea. So it was a situation where there’d be no piece of land to act as a mark. The only thing I could use in such a case was a magnet. No, wait. Richard had said earlier that it was the ninth century. The compass would be invented only much later. I recalled memorizing that this was the invention that triggered the Age of Discovery back in high school for history class. If so, I recalled the words on the label. “Sunstone”. Yeah, it connected.

“They knew the directions by using the stone of the sun?”

“Good for you. Exactly. Isn’t it clear?”

“K-Kinda!”

“Then, what about under cloudy skies, when the sun is not visible, Mr. Enlightened Part-Timer?”

Speaking of which, the weather changed easily at sea. I had also heard that England was a country where the skies tended to be overcast. Bad weather must be frequent in those coastal waters. If the sky stayed cloudy for three or four days, what should I do? Was there nothing more that could be done at sea?

When I made a puzzled face, Richard smiled as though he had hit the nail on the head, his white hands displaying the iolite under a fluorescent light. “For instance, let’s try to put a mark on any of this iolite’s faceted sides with ink. Another one on a different side. On sunny days, we would record in which direction we can see the sun from one of these two points at given times, and on cloudy days, we would look for parts where the two points overlap. When doing so, since this stone can detect even the faintest light, we would be able to tell the sun’s position,” he said.

“So we can know the position of light with that stone...? Then couldn’t it be any other stone?”

“Light refracts. If it were passing through thick clouds, the human eye would find its shine in a different direction from the sun’s actual position. Iolites acted as polarized lenses, so to speak. By using this stone, the sailors could tell the correct position of the sun. Yet the most famous sunstone is not iolite, but a type of refraction stone called ‘Iceland spar’.”

A polarized lens. Now he was talking about physics? But I did remember the stuff about light refraction. Got it; so that was why it was a “stone of the sun”.

“I don’t get it very well, but I feel the gemstone romance from it. I like that kinda thing,” I said enthusiastically, Richard giving me a calm smile.

“You do get it. Just as you said, you ‘don’t understand stones very well but like them either way’. That is exactly why your eyes were open, so you thought only about how far your destination was and felt your teeth set on edge at it. You mustn’t expect to be able to understand everything overnight. Go steady, without rushing. Do not waver at the impatience stuck back-to-back to your ambitions. That is different from having no one to depend on due to not knowing where you are headed. The hardest times are probably the ones when you have no idea where you should go, but you know the exact position of the sun.”

So, in short, I knew exactly where I wanted to be?

While I remained quiet, Richard shrugged and added, “Of course, this is a metaphor. Even if little by little, the stones should definitely be leaving a trace inside you. Aren’t you supposed to be treasuring this instead of chasing after what goes away?”

Lastly, Richard threw in the trivia that, in the world of power stones, the iolite was said to be a stone that showed people the “right direction”. Taking the backbone of it into consideration, that was indeed a convincing talk. But more than that...

“It’d be great if you were by my side forever.”

“Hah?”

“You’re an expert at noticing what’s troubling other people, aren’t you? I really think you’re a handy guy, like a compass. Aah, ‘the world’s most beautiful compass’, huh?”

“Those are quite irrational words, on top of being illogical. You were born in Japan, raised in Japan and aspire to become a public servant of Japan, so why are you calling an English jeweler a ‘compass’?”

“Well, I don’t plan to ask you about how to prepare for the public servant exams, but I can rely on you when I run into bigger problems, right?”

Richard sighed with a face of thorough dismay. I could understand how he felt. This was like a child in nursery school saying, “It’d be great if my teacher could always be there to help me out.” Long story short, I was acting spoiled. Even though he was my superior at work.

“That’s right; about the custard pie that today’s costumer brought, it looks like it’s quick to expire. Wanna eat it? I’ll make some tea.”

“If you would. Aah, the sugar...”

“Holding back on it this month, right? I know.”

“Help me with half of it. The amount of sugar in it concerns me.”

“Leave it to me.”

This guy was truly good at leading the mood around, and the same applied for the not-too-straightforward way that he phrased himself when recommending gemstones to the customers. Apparently, he thought I was feeling down.

I cut the crunchy pie in half while the tea leaves boiled, then shared it with Richard in the reception room and we both ate it. Covered with powdered sugar, the pie was a dangerous white little thing, as the colorless powder could scatter around from the pie’s surface just by us breathing on it a tiny bit, so the snack time turned into a moment of silence. I felt like laughing at the much too surreal sight several times, but if I happened to cause a big damage to the beautiful shopkeeper’s high-grade suit by doing that, my pay would be reduced. In the end, I ate the pie entirely while looking at the wall.

On the way back home that day, as I looked up at the night sky, I thought about the Vikings of over a thousand years ago. It was said that they were after new lands. What about me? Where was I headed? Would there ever be a day when I would fall into a philosophical concern, like, “I have no idea where I’m trying to go”? Perhaps Richard too? I insolently prayed that the stones may help us out at least in times like those.

Stars were beginning to twinkle in the purplish-blue night sky. There was no doubt that the stars appearing in the sky had not changed ever since the Vikings’ era. Thinking about that as I walked, I mistook one of the streets I should have turned. I had the feeling that I heard Richard’s voice, telling me to mind at least my own steps. I get it, geez.

I decided to wait patiently for the benefits of the stone. It was best for something like that not to happen, but there was no guarantee that both of us wouldn’t lose our ways at the same time one day.

[jbuffyangel]

The Domino Falls: Arrow 1x12 Review (Vertigo)

It’s officially 1 year today since Arrow went off the air and I thought what better way to mark the moment than by chatting about the show we all love with a review!

We have begun the slow and steady climb to more Felicity Smoak content 

and “Vertigo” is a monumentally HUGE moment in Oliver and Felicity’s relationship. One little meet up at Big Belly Burger is what tips the dominoes over for Oliver Queen.

Let’s dig in...

Olicity

Let’s get right to the good stuff. Of course, there’s other stuff that happened in this episode, but do we care? Only a little. Oliver is on the hunt for The Count – the man responsible for the Vertigo epidemic and Thea’s looming drug trial. The Count is in my Top 5 of best Arrow villains. Of course his first episode coincides with an Olicity milestone. That rat bastard worked the hardest for our ship.

The judge has decided to make an example out of Ms. Queen in hopes of deterring others from trying Vertigo. Seriously, does that ever work? 

So, he chucked Thea’s plea agreement right out the window. Big Bro in The Hood is hoping to serve up a bigger fish – THE FISH – to help get his sister off the hook. Oliver is generally anti innocent people dying from illicit drugs, so there are unselfish reasons at play too.

No one knows the identity of The Count, so after roughing up the streets and getting nowhere, Oliver reaches out to Alexi Leonov. We met Leonov in 1x03, but for those who need a refresher - he leads the Starling City chapter of the Bratva. This is the first time Diggle meets Leonov, discovers Oliver speaks Russian, is a captain in the Russian mob, and can fake kill someone. 

It was a big day for John.

Leonov sets up the meet with The Count and Oliver attempts to buy some Vertigo off him, sans mask and arrow. The cops show up and Oliver tries to run down The Count as he escapes, but is stabbed in the chest with two syringes full of Vertigo. 

Never fear, Oliver has his magic herbs from Lian Yu which apparently can cure drug overdose. (Maybe share with the rest of the world?) Vertigo makes him momentarily murderous (more than usual) and he screams a lot.

THE POINT OF ALL THIS EXPOSITION IS ALL ROADS LEAD TO FELICITY SMOAK.  

Diggle and Oliver think it would be wise to have someone analyze the Vertigo… for some reason. This leads our dynamic duo to Queen Consolidated and to our favorite blonde hacker. 

Felicity rambles about Oliver’s haggard appearance (re: see drug overdose) and a cat being tased (she connects those disparate dots, I assure you). He offers yet another ridiculous lie and we embark on one of the funniest scenes in Arrow’s history.  

Arrow struggled to find its footing for a long time, but “Vertigo” is the beginning of the writers settling on to solid ground. If you ever have to wonder why the show focused on Oliver, Diggle and Felicity as the core characters you only need to watch this scene for the answer. 

The chemistry between all the actors is amazing. Arrow is not known for its humor (especially in Season 1), but between Emily Bett Rickard’s perfect delivery of another one of Felicity’s awkward and inadvertent sexual slip ups,

Stephen Amell’s inability to stay in character as he laughs right along with us,

and David Ramsey’s stone cold straight man reaction –

this entire scene is comedy gold. 

I vividly remember watching it live, laughing my ass off, and wanting more of EVERYTHING these three have to offer. And that’s exactly what we’re going get. 

“I ran out of sports bottles” reigned as Arrow’s funniest scene for a solid two years (until this episode), but it also marks the worst of Oliver’s terrible lies to Felicity. It’s so bad even Diggle has to remark on it in the elevator. Oliver’s lies are horrible, everyone knows Felicity doesn’t buy a word of it, and their need for her help is increasing with every day. Something has to change.

As we discussed in 1x11, Oliver is prone to distrust and very reticent to change his mind – ever. He’s been burned so many times in the past it’s difficult for him to view anyone through a trusting lens. 

And yet, Oliver told his deepest and darkest secret to a man he’d only known for a few weeks. Yes, Diggle had soldier skills Oliver would find useful as a partner. He knew John could hold his own in the field, but it’s not just about his abilities. It was also about the person Diggle is. Oliver did his homework and realized he needed John to survive. There was a wellspring of humanity in John that Oliver wasn’t able to access inside himself. He was subconsciously reaching out for help - like a moth to a flame.

It is the same with Felicity. Yes, Oliver needs her abilities – perhaps even more than what Diggle has to offer. (It’s not like Oliver Queen can’t handle himself in the field). But he is also drawn to Felicity’s warmth, kindness, humor, compassion and openness. Oliver’s heart is encased in iron and welded shut. He doesn’t know how to open it back up. It’s been dark and alone for so long. And yet, Oliver returns again and again to this brightly shining light and why? Because he craves it.  

Something has to change. We need that final push, the first domino to fall, so Oliver can make that final step and tell Felicity who he really is. Diggle was easier. He’d fought a war before. Oliver also knew about Andy’s death. Remember – Oliver brought Diggle onboard when he needed help with Deadshot. Manipulative? Yes, but it worked.

Felicity is trickier. I’m sure Oliver has done his research. 

Well, yes that kind of research, but also into her background. There’s no dead family member requiring retribution. No war zone she’s recently returned from. She’s an MIT graduate with a penchant for hacking working at a global conglomerate as a wildly overqualified IT tech. The girl doesn’t have so much as a parking ticket. The leap to vigilantism would be rather big.

I also think a fair amount of his hesitancy to involve her in anything related to The Hood is the danger. Diggle can handle himself. Felicity is a different story. Oliver is constantly battling the need for Felicity’s help versus the risk he’s putting her at by asking for it. The lies are to protest Oliver’s secret identity, but also to shield Felicity from it.

Whether it is Oliver’s own distrustfulness, his inability to see an angle to reel Felicity in, his desire to protect her or all three – it doesn’t matter. He continues to lie to her. Oliver isn’t ready to make that big leap either.

Source:  yet-i-remain-quiet

Until… Felicity asks to meet him at Big Belly Burger. Oliver waits for her, looking out the window on a rainy night, thinking of Yao Fei.

Oliver feared Yao Fei betrayed him and was really working for Fyers, but neither was true. He convinced Fyers of his loyalty by pretending to kill Oliver. (So that’s who Oliver learned it from!) Yao Fei wakes Oliver just as he rolls his “dead” body into the waterfall. He also slips Oliver a map with a location marked with the words “Survive.” 

Oliver doubted his trust in Yao Fei, but in the end was shocked to find out he had it right all along. Yao Fei was exactly who Oliver thought he was – a good man. That final and literal push cemented Oliver’s belief in his friend and to trust his gut.

There will probably always be a debate as to when the writers began the shift towards Olicity. “We DiDn’T dEcIdE uNtIL sEaSoN 2,” is the standard story, but I’m a firm believer it began in Season 1 and often include this scene in my massive pile of evidence. The last scene in the episode either tees up the next or contains a lot of emotional significance. Felicity beings to carve out a lot of final scene time as the series progresses.

The last scene in “Vertigo” is romantically lit with rain drops shimmering on the window. Oliver and Felicity are meeting outside the office and ALONE.  Soft instrumental music plays in the background. It feels more intimate than any scene they’ve shared before.

Source: andjustforthismoment 

I still cannot get over Oliver “The Sex God” Queen waving at Felicity Smoak like a giddy school boy and then shaking his head over how completely uncool he looked. We watched this man leave a criminal suspended in the air with an arrow through his hand in the first scene and in the last he acts like a puppy. THE RANGE.

It’s clear Felicity is a little nervous as she exhales walking in. Is she nervous to be meeting with Oliver or nervous about what she has to say? Both. She tips her hand a bit by thanking Oliver for meeting her at Big Belly Burger. She did not want to have this discussion at the Queen mansion. (THE PLOT THICKENS).

It seems Oliver and Felicity are having similar conundrums about each other. Felicity is uncertain if she can trust Oliver and has been debating for weeks whether or not to tell him the full truth. SOUND FAMILIAR? Felicity has far more evidence of Oliver’s untrustworthiness. There’s no rambling this time. She lays out the cold hard facts which is Oliver Queen is a big, fat liar and she knows it. He knows it. They both know it. Felicity Smoak is nobody’s fool.

And yet, she trusts him. Even though Oliver has given her no reason to. Even though there are clearly things he’s not telling her. Even though Oliver has yet to show her the same trust. There is something Felicity sees in him which tells her Oliver is worthy of it. It is an unsubstantiated truth. Felicity is going with her gut and her gut says Oliver Queen is a good man.

This doesn’t stop her from asking him the simple question though. Felicity needs that little bit of reassurance before she makes the final leap. 

At first, Oliver plays it off in his smarmy, smart ass and flippant way. It’s the Ollie Queen façade that always works with L*urel, Tommy, Lance, Moira and Thea.

It’s an act that’s never worked on Felicity. She sees through it now just like she’s always has. Her smile fades. Felicity breaks eye contact with Oliver and doesn’t hide her disappointment. She is tired of the games and lies. Felicity wants to talk to the real Oliver Queen. That’s the only man she will share this secret with.

All it takes is five seconds of Felicity’s disappointment for Oliver to drop the façade like a hot potato. 

He even apologizes and promises Felicity he is worthy of her trust. Then, Felicity lowers the boom and hands him The List.

It is difficult to surprise Oliver Queen, but this one has him reeling. She hands the book to Oliver, the same book Robert gave him, but he hesitates taking it. He has no idea where this is going, so he defaults to his standard operating procedure and lies.

Oliver is not doing a stellar job covering his “my world is upside down” reaction, so I highly doubt Felicity believes him, but she lets it slide for now. 

The more information she shares with Oliver the worse it gets. Felicity begins to fill in all the missing pieces to Walter’s disappearance and the guilt is pointing directly at Moira.

This is not the first time Oliver has reason to doubt his mother, but every time he’s able to reason away her involvement in anything nefarious. If he can’t do that on his own then Moira provides very plausible explanations (LIES), which allow Oliver to continuing looking at his family with a blind eye. But this? This is impossible to easily explain away. Particularly since WALTER was beginning to suspect his own wife.

Source: green-arrows-of-karamel

If The List cost Walter his life then Felicity is risking her own by showing it to anyone, particularly a Queen. She is literally putting her life in Oliver’s hands when she handed him that book. The first domino falls, but it’s not Oliver who pushes it over. It’s Felicity. She gives Oliver the truth when he’s given nothing but lies. Felicity trusts him absolutely when he’s done nothing to show he’s deserving of it. She risks everything while Oliver continues to hide everything.

Felicity shocks Oliver no differently than Yao Fei shocked him.  We’ve been waiting all this time for Oliver to make that final step and in the end it is Felicity who gives their relationship the necessary push over the waterfall. It’s a cold awakening, but he can see things clearly now. She is like a flashlight illuminating all the answers clouded by his distrustfulness and hesitancy. 

Felicity reveals so much of herself in this moment. First, she is willing to take risks if the cause is worth it. Giving Oliver that book took real courage. Second, the girl can keep a secret. She never said boo about anything related to Moira or Walter during Oliver’s little visits. Not even a hint! Three, Felicity Smoak sees clearly all the things Oliver is blind to. 

This serves as an important lesson for Oliver. Felicity knows so much more than he ever gave her credit for. Most importantly, his gut was right about her and he was wrong to ever question it. Two mistakes he will never make again.

And now everything will change.

Thea and Moira

I’m not gonna sugar coat this for you guys. I was one hundred percent okay with Thea going to jail. Season 1 Thea is a pain in the ass. A couple episodes with her sitting in the slammer would be a welcomed break from the teenage ‘tude.

L*urel and Lance work out a sweetheart deal for Thea after the judge basically said he would throw the book at her. Thea will serve 500 hours of community service under the watchful gaze of L*urel Lance at CRNI. And Thea flat out refuses.

Now, typically I am a fan of anyone who tells L*urel Lance to go screw herself, but even this was too much for me. Thea wants to go to jail to stick it to her mother because she’s still convinced Moira cheated on Walter. 

She didn’t cheat on Walter, Thea! Your mom just kidnapped him. So it’s fine.

Oliver decides to drop the Robert “I’m not the man you think I am” Queen bomb on Thea and tells her their father was a big hoe. Thea refuses to believe him and Moira is ticked because Oliver told the truth. Queens don’t do that EVER. 

Moira: He loved you. No matter his faults. He loved you.

Thea wants to know why Moira took all the punishment for Robert’s sins and her answer is very simple. She was trying to protect Thea’s memory of her father. Moira Queen is as shady as they come, but her desire to protect her children is always the driving force of any decisions she makes – good, bad and the ugly.

Moira: One day I hope you’re lucky enough to have a daughter and then you’ll know why.

This is the essence of motherhood. We will serve ourselves up on a platter and take the brunt of their hurt and anger if we believe it protect or help our children in the long run. Right or wrong - it’s just the gig.

Source: queensarrow.

L*urel and Lance

L*urel and Detective Lance are really Thea’s only hope of avoiding significant jail time and, despite their history, Oliver has no problem groveling at their feet if it means protecting his sister. Luckily for Oliver, this week L*urel likes him, so she’s willing to do Thea a favor.

But her reason for wanting to help Thea turns out have very little to do with Oliver. It’s about Sara. When L*urel looks at Thea she sees all the wild abandon of Sara with all the red flags.

L*urel: For so long you and I have blamed Oliver for Sara's death, but Sara is to blame too.

Detective Lance isn’t too keen on helping Oliver or Thea, but L*urel calls out her father on his hypocrisy. He had no qualms about bailing Sara out after she shop lifted. The youngest Lance daughter seemed to get herself in to trouble long before she ever stepped onto the Queen’s Gambit and her father always helped her avoid the consequences of her actions. Until those consequences finally caught up with her.

This is the first time L*urel lays any blame at Sara’s feet. I find it wildly disturbing whenever I agree with L*urel, but damn it she has this one right. Oliver wasn’t the only one who cheated. Oliver wasn’t the only one who lied. Oliver wasn’t the only one who was selfish. Sara was all of those things too. Just because she paid for those mistakes with her life doesn’t erase the choices she made and the pain she caused. If someone held Sara responsible without destroying her life, like L*urel is trying to do with Thea just maybe she would have never gotten on the boat. Maybe.

The game of “What if?” is a torturous one. It never gives any definitive answers. But Detective Lance refusing to help Thea to stick it to Oliver isn’t fair. L*urel is right. Sure, it may hurt Oliver, but it won’t bring Sara back.

More importantly, it doesn’t hold Sara responsible in any way. Detective Lance is treating Sara the same in death as he did in life. She wasn’t a saint anymore than Thea is – no matter how much Lance romanticizes his memory of his daughter. L*urel and her father don’t resolve the Sara issue, but Lance helping Thea is an important step towards his acknowledgement of the truth and putting some of the blame where it belongs.

Stray Thoughts

Oliver is shirtless and handcuffed in the bunker is an absolutely wasted opportunity for an Olicity sex scene. Pretty sure I read a fic that started like it though. Source: @olivergifs​

Bratva Oliver is cold, calculating and stylish. I don’t know what it is about that jacket you guys. It doesn’t things to me.

I say this as a person who was very anti murder throughout the show, but sometimes it’s great to watch Oliver do a little violence.

“Whoever you fear, fear me more!” As vigilante lines go this was a damn good one.

“I’m not the one going to prison.” Give it time, Moira. Give it time.

McKenna Hall makes her first episode appearance as the rotation of female guest stars continues while show desperately searches for a love interest Stephen has chemistry because it ain’t Katie Cassidy.  (Psst! You found THE ONE already!!! Call off the search!)

Just for you multifandom folks out there McKenna is also Qetsiyah on The Vampire Diaries.

Why doesn’t Oliver give a sketch to the police of The Count? That could be helpful.

“I don’t need the bow.” Yeah, but you need to walk straight!

Musings of the Kiddo

Kiddo: How many times does he do this to her?

Me: Lie? A lot. She was very patient with him.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[annoyed-galaxy]

Arrival Aftermath

Mass Effect really said "give me your heart strings" with the Arrival DLC. There was a lot to unpack during it and Lyris Shepard needs immediate therapy. Just some small stuff I wanted to write because yes, angst and fluff.

Your galaxy is in sight. You final days are at hand.

I will die never having seen the Reapers’ blessing.

You’ve taken them away from me. I will never see the Reapers’ arrival.

You have become an annoyance Shepard.

Prepare for the Arrival.

The voices floated around in her head, in the mixer in her hand, in the oddly colored liquid that poured into her glass and down her throat. The stars sped past her as she drunkenly stared out of the view port. Each star she imagined getting brighter and brighter before consuming their systems in a massive explosion.

What the hell happened out there, Shepard?

Even as she had filled out the report while Chakwas examined her for any wounds, she really couldn’t have described what happened. God, what if she was going crazy? Was the countdown accurate? It had to be. The Collector General wouldn’t haven’t appeared otherwise if it wasn’t. The Alpha Relay had to be destroyed. Since the keepers at the Citadel had been reprogrammed to ignore the Reapers’ signal, the Alpha Relay was the closest choice they had.

But now it was gone. The Reapers wouldn’t be able to make it across the galaxy to consume the life they wanted through FTL. It would take them years. One star system destroyed to save trillions of lives. It was worth it. She could have warned the colonists within that system, but there were under two hours left when she activated the Project. There was no way three hundred thousand people could have evacuated in time.

Still...maybe she could have saved some of them. But they were batarians. They wouldn’t have been grateful for her help. She was human. They would’ve probably cursed at her, claiming she destroyed their homes for nothing. After all, literally no one else wanted to believe her about the Reapers except for those working with Cerberus.

Maybe they were all insane. Maybe Saren was manipulating them all.

Lyris shook her head and threw back another shot of the awful tasting, yet strong, liquor. She just committed mass murder. She has killed many people in her life, but never quite the way as destroying a mass relay and causing a supernova-like explosion. If Ashley was right and God did exist with Heaven and Hell, Lyris knew she had a one-way ticket straight to Hell.

The door to the port observatory opened as Lyris poured herself another shot. She could have sworn she asked Kasumi to give her some space. Maybe so much time had passed that Kasumi wanted her room back. But that wasn’t the case as Lyris saw in the corner of her eye a familiar shape grab one of the stools by the bar and place it next to her.

She had been with Garrus long enough to learn his turian facial expression of worry and concern. Shit, it felt like just an hour ago she was holding in a laugh at the obscene metaphor he had made. She felt something touch her leg and looked down to see his hand resting on her thigh. The guy must’ve done some research on human contact, that’s for sure.

Lyris didn’t say anything. How could she? She had committed mass murder for what may or may not have been a real invasion and possibly thrown her entire race into a war against the batarians. She had officially reached the status of a monster. Yet, Garrus was sitting next to her, staring at the stars, slowly caressing his thumb in comforting circles on her thigh.

Lyris downed another shot before offering the glass to him. “Want one? It’s dextro-DNA friendly.” She loved the way his mandibles lifted away from his face whenever he chuckled. Turian facial expressions were so interesting.

“I’m good. Someone has to stay sober to make sure you make it to the toilet when you throw up,” he replied. She could hear the joking tone in his voice layered with worry and concern. Probably more about her mental stability rather than physical injuries. Chakwas had cleared her of all those when she got back.

“Your loss,” Lyris shrugged and took another shot. The events of what happened at the asteroid hung over them like a thick cloud. A knife could cut through the unspoken tension between them. She sighed and then finally put her hand on top of his. “Look...I don’t want to talk about what happened,” she whispered, looking down at their hands. For someone with only two fingers, his hand was still bigger than hers.

“I know. I want to ask about it, but I figured it’s probably best to just...be here,” he replied, his dual-toned voice quiet.

She smiled a little bit. “You’ve been doing some research.”

He chuckled. “Humans have different emotional needs compared to turians.”

“That tells me you’ve been considering more than our little tiebreaker,” Lyris nudged him with her elbow.

He finally turned and looked at her. He wasn’t wearing his lens so both of his eyes were clear to her. Eyes, no matter the species they belonged to, spoke millions of words, expressed thousands of emotions. They truly were the window to the soul. This was especially true for Garrus whose eyes looked at her with such a fierce emotion, she couldn’t quite place her finger on it. “I told you before, you’re the only damn friend I have left. I care for you. I know that what you did was something you didn’t do lightly. Shit, we all know you’re not afraid to punch your way to an agreement but destroying an entire system? That’s not even on your level of extremes.”

She couldn’t tell if he was trying to be comforting or guilt tripping her. “Ouch,” was all she could say.

Garrus sighed and she felt his hand shift under hers and grab it. “I didn’t mean it like that, Shep. I just mean...you’ve been through hell. You’ve done a lot of things that most of us could never do. I’m just concerned if this was one of the final straws. I feel like you’ll break at any moment. Even before you died, when we were busy fighting Saren and the geth, I could tell you were dealing with some deep shit beforehand.” Garrus looked down at their hands. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

She didn’t know whether she should cry or smile. Someone in this galaxy was looking out for her. She squeezed his hand. “I’ll be okay, Garrus. I promise. Just...stay by my side.”

His mandibles moved slightly in which she interpreted as a smile. “I can do that.”

She was not mentally stable at all. She knew that. But just having someone next to her, making sure she could still push on even after she dragged herself from hell...the future looked promising. If she died on this suicide mission, then so be it. But if she lived...she would have something to look forward to.

[obeiii-mee]

Hi! Could you do some hcs for the brothers reacting to seeing MC wear their glasses for the first time?

Aww, that would be so cute. I love writing fluff for the brothers. I also added some hcs for how they would deal with an MC who wears glasses regularly. As a person who owns glasses, it can be kind of annoying to have glasses for a lot of reasons and I based it on that.

Thanks for the request!

*gender neutral MC*

————————————

The Brothers’ reaction to MC wearing their glasses for the first time:

Lucifer:

-Lucifer being Lucifer didn’t give you much of a reaction when he saw you wearing glasses for the first time

-However, inside he was quaCKing

-Why must you be this cute?

-He’s completely mesmerised

-Not to mention, the glasses made you look really elegant and professional

-He is strangely turned on by this

-He complimented your glasses and briefly mentioned how good they looked on you

-Besides all that, since we all know Lucifer is the mother hen in the House of Lamentation

-He would probably be reminding you to put on your glasses when he sees you straining your eyes

-Or when he notices they need to be cleaned

-Sometimes, he finds them lying around and wipes them clean for you before placing them in your room

-“Lucifer, I can do that pretty damn well myself y’know?”

-He knows those glasses are not only important but necessary for you at times so he won’t tolerate it if any of his brothers break them by accident

-One time, Mammon tried selling them and got chased around the house by Lucifer which I’m sure was not a fun experience for either

Mammon:

-W h a t

-No, seriously, what?

-You gave glasses???

-Since when? Why do you need them?? Are your eyes broken?? *Gasp* can human eyes brea-

-It took a while but you explained to Mammon why exactly you needed your glasses

-He would make fun of you in a non offensive way

-“Ahaha, ya look like such a dork MC. Pfffttt.”

-In reality, he actually thinks that they are really cool, especially if you have any patterns or different colours on them

-He watches in pure fascination as you wipe them using a cloth and contact lens solution

-Only pokes fun at you because he means the opposite

-Is the type of person to grab your glasses, put them on himself before asking you how he looks

-He likes to joke about how serious you look with glasses on

-Please don’t let him look after your glasses

-He’ll break them in under two minutes

-Will get really fired up if someone else were to tease you about wearing glasses

-“Excuse you! Do ya know who this is? This is my human and they are the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me, glasses or not. And ya don’t have the right to throw any insults at them because you’re not exactly good looking yourself y’know? Maybe you need some glasses since you clearly can’t see how-“

-Cue an hour long rant about why you’re amazing

Levi:

-You pulled out your glasses while playing Mario Kart with him

-He was amazed

-You have glasses? That’s so cool!

-Bonus points if you had the design of any kind of anime on them

-Of course, he wouldn’t be willing to say this to your face because he’s still a tsundere

-“You look like a bigger normie than you already are while wearing those.”

-“Thanks Levi.”

-“I-I didn’t meant it like that!!”

-Asks if he can hold them from time to time

-He doesn’t try them on or anything but he likes to admire them sometimes

-Why are all of them acting as if they’ve never seen glasses before??

-He thinks you look really cute and dorky with those on, he can’t help but stare at you every once in a while

-You remind him of a variety of anime girls who wear glasses

-But you look much better than any of them in his opinion

-Will openly glare at people who insult you for wearing glasses

-Knows your glasses can be very fragile so he probably places them next to his Ruri-chan collection to make sure they’re safe

Satan:

-He was stunned into silence

-He asked if you could come over to read a book or two with him at the library

-He certainly didn’t expect you to pull out a pair of glasses and put them on when you came to sit next to him

-pleasantly surprised

-I feel like he would be one of the least to make a big deal out of it

-He wouldn’t tease you or anything

-But he loves complimenting you and your glasses a lot

-Knows that every time you put your glasses on, you’re paying attention to the book he’s showing you

-It also makes you look even more independent and intelligent than you already are

-If you were to ever lose them, he would probably be the first one to find them

-Like Lucifer, would probably not deal with anyone’s bullshit on the matter

-No one will make fun of you for wearing glasses if they know what’s good for them

-He often takes them off your head when he feels you’ve been up reading for too long

-Probably has extra cloths and solution on him at all times in case you ran out

-He will always be prepared for everything when it comes to you!

Asmo:

-HELLLLL YESSSSSS

-He finds people who wear glasses so damn attractive

-Is it even a surprise at this point?

-He fusses over you constantly

-This one’s also horny

-Bitch went shopping the next day and bought an identical pair for himself

-So now both of you look FABULOUS

-So many selfies!

-He knows it must be a bit difficult to wear glasses since you need to take care of them all the time

-So he relieves you from a burden and buys you a bunch of quality made cloths to clean them

-Will proudly show you to everyone (before proceeding to pull out his own glasses to accompany yours)

-He finds himself wanting to kiss you a lot when you have them on

-If anyone says anything to you about those glasses, he will personally take offence

-“What did you say? Did you just say that we have the most stunning pairs of glasses you’ve ever seen? Did you say we are the prettiest people you’ve seen all day? Because I know you did not just say my lovely partner’s glasses are ‘weird’. I’ll have you know-“

-This one also likes to rant

-Subtly hints about how you should wear glasses more often

Beel:

-He didn’t notice at first

-He was concentrating on his food

-But then, he sensed that you were in the kitchen with him and he looked up

-He almost choked on his cheeseburger, mind you

-Actually he almost dropped the whole platter of food on the ground but he didn’t because Avatar of Gluttony skills baby

-He immediately thinks about how you’re the most precious thing he’s ever seen in his life

-Blush blush blush

-Almost dies when you ask him what he thinks of your glasses

-“They’re really nice. You look very pretty.”

-pls give this boy all the happiness in the world

-He can’t keep his eyes off you at times

-He loves it when you wear them because he genuinely loves how you look with them on

-He is awfully gentle and careful with them if you ever ask him to look after the pair

-Y’know, since he has such big hands

-He’s scared he might crush them

-Likes watching you clean them, it’s sort of therapeutic for him

-He asks a lot of questions about them and why you need them because he is genuinely curious

-He’s really comforting when other people make fun of your glasses

-He just needs to stand over them and glare down at them until they stop

-And then he gives you lots of compliments because Beel is a sweetheart and you can’t convince me otherwise

Belphie:

-He really acted like he couldn’t care less at first

-OK you have glasses, so what?

-But his heart was threatening to burst inside

-Damn it, why must you do this to him?

-He teases you whenever he gets the chance and that’s whenever he’s awake

-“Are those to make you look smarter than you actually are?”

-He doesn’t mean any of it

-He just wants a reaction out of you

-As much as he wants to deny it

-Belphie is still a bit curious about the human world and their antics

-So he’ll ask you lots of questions about your glasses

-He realises that having glasses can be a bit of a hassle so he offers to clean them from time to time

-He’s so straightforward about how much he likes seeing you with your glasses on, he will bluntly ask you wear them more

-God forbid anyone say anything remotely bad about you or your glasses

-He will hunt them down and kill them himself, despite his laziness

-He would be totally impressed if you had a cool space design on it!

Al~

[nonsensegnomes]

There are two people in the room and they are enacting violence upon each other, or, That Moment in PARTIZAN 28.

All credit to Friends At The Table (friendsatthetable.net). You can support their patreon (friendsatthetable.cash), which also has their Best Work™ : Bluff City.

Transcript below the cut!

(Courtesy of vesta, transcriber for Transcripts at the Table)

JACK: Yeah I think Clem just like, turns her head and screams at this person carrying the- the plastic cups and just says like,

JACK (as Clementine): Go below decks! Take your friends with you!

JACK: Like, even at 15 feet away, what is being said to Clem is so embarrassing that she’s just like, everybody get the fuck out of here.

AUSTIN: Uh huh.

AUSTIN (as Gur): Clem, that was unnecessary. 

JACK (as Clementine): Fuck you it was unnecessary! Now you want to talk?

AUSTIN (as Gur): I’ve always been available to speak with you.

JACK (as Clementine): Yeah, not to listen.

AUSTIN (as Gur): You need friends if you want someone to listen to you, Clem. You have none. Not anymore.

JACK (as Clementine): I have friends.

AUSTIN (as Gur): Name- name one.

[pause]

AUSTIN (as Gur): Regardless,

JACK (as Clementine) [overlapping]: Sovereign Immunity is-

AUSTIN (as Gur): Oh. It’s not my place. Regardless, there are no amount of friends that you have that will change the outcome of this. I’ve done what I can for you, Clem. Out of… a misplaced sense of loyalty perhaps. There are those who want you killed. You have until mid-week to leave this vessel with all of your things. I don’t care where you go. I would advise not going to Cruciat.

JACK (as Clementine): [dripping with petty sarcasm] I would advise not going to Cruciat. You- is this a funny joke? You making a funny joke? As you wave me away?

AUSTIN (as Gur): They’ll string you up there.

JACK (as Clementine): Mmm. Mhm. Do you like to think about that? The- the enemies of your revolution getting- getting strung up in the streets.

AUSTIN (as Gur): No, which is why I petitioned to let you live.

JACK (as Clementine): Oh, what a gift! You know what I'm gonna do? I’m just gonna- fucking where am I gonna go? You’re sending me off to die.

AUSTIN (as Gur): I’m sending you off to d- you are one of the richest people on this world, Clementine Kesh. Every- if this is what counts as being sent off to die, maybe you’ve gained a little perspective of what it is like to be anyone else on Partizan.

JACK (as Clementine): You took my fucking throne away from me!

AUSTIN (as Gur): You never had a throne!

JACK (as Clementine) [overlapping]: You have probably warmed your hands around its fire. I bet you’ve fucking taken that thing and burned it, can’t stand to look at it.

AUSTIN (as Gur): [frustrated] You don’t listen, we build tables with- [sighs]

JACK (as Clementine): Bullshit! All of that sanctimonious bullshit that we spend, we spend hours workshopping the nitty gritty of this “build thrones, not tables”- are you gonna put it on a fucking banner?

AUSTIN (as Gur): That’s not even what it is. [sighs] Clem. This is not a thing I can change any more than I already have. 

AUSTIN: And there is a moment here- so. I wanna communicate there’s a moment here where Gur looks a little bigger. Just like, stands just a little bit taller than we’ve seen them before. And- and the rain is here.

JACK: Yeah. Can it start raining? AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s the rain. The rain is here.

JACK: Just like- lens flare the red lights around-

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.

JACK: -the, like red warning lights flashing on the like-

AUSTIN: Uh huh.

JACK: the balustrades.

AUSTIN (as announcement) [overlapping]: All personnel please return below deck.

AUSTIN: You know, that style of-

JACK (as announcement): Heavy storm approaching.

AUSTIN: Yes, exactly.

JACK: We have a computer system that just says stuff like that, it’s great!

AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s fantastic.

JACK: Um. Hm.

JACK (as Clementine): Yeah but there are things you can change, can’t you? You were quite happy to make this fucking- make this fucking boat disappear. You waved your hands, the boat disappeared- as soon as- as soon as I stop being useful to you, I- who took this fucking vessel for you?

AUSTIN (as Gur): I never- I have never underestimated your value or what you’ve done for this cause.

JACK (as Clementine) [overlapping]: You keep saying this, and then you keep demonstrating that you are underestimating it.

AUSTIN (as Gur): Because of what you’ve proven. I once estimated great things for you. I saw the world you wished to build. One more liberal, more fair in- in margins. And I thought, perhaps that world would be better than ours. Not utopia, but a step. And now I know you can’t even achieve that. You’ve had every opportunity! You're right, you did take this vessel. And within moments you’d lost it. Because you have no idea how to build anything around yourself. You’ve no idea how to do anything other than dream of a throne.

JACK: Just like rain, sideways, like plastering- Gur Sevraq does not have hair, do they? Just-

AUSTIN: No, no.

JACK: -a bald metal top.

AUSTIN: Yeah, bald metal hai- head, yeah.

JACK: Plastering Clem’s hair to her head, just bedraggled.

AUSTIN: Ohh. Yeah.

JACK (as Clementine): You know I know exactly what you’re going to do. I know exactly how this is gonna go for you. You’re gonna send me off to god knows where, where I’m gonna get fucking pecked apart by birds in two weeks, just you see. The money will go really quickly. 

[MUSIC - “MINUTEHAND. GLACIER. BITTERTASTE.” starts]

JACK (as Clementine): [continued] And then you- you and your friends, are gonna fucking- you’re gonna sit around some little table. Some- some puny little table, and you’re gonna be really cold. And they’re gonna say, “oh, Gur Sevraq! W-w-what magic trick can you do for us now?” And then you’ll say, “the time isn’t right-” and then the time will be right one day, and you’ll snap your fingers and you’ll make something fucking disappear, or something appear, or you’ll let someone see a dog that they’ll get one day. Because you fucking love that stuff! You- you love those moments where you-

AUSTIN (as Gur) [overlapping]: [brimming with anger] Do. Not. Make a joke of my faith, Clementine Kesh.

JACK (as Clementine): Of- of the magic tricks? Of the little golden ball? I’m grateful for the fact that that ball means that I can use my mech a little better. The ball doesn’t speak to me in any kind of way. I don’t think the ball speaks to you in any kind of way other than-

AUSTIN (as Gur) [overlapping]: I took the ball when I killed the Elect that came before.

JACK (as Clementine): Yeah, yeah, we’ve all killed people. You like to stand up there, and you’re going to at that table. They’re gonna say “oh no, Orion’s coming. Columnar’s coming”. Because they will come. Those ships are moving now. I will be long dead before they arrive, and I will be grateful for it. But you’ll stand up, and you’ll hold that little ball up, and you’ll do something and they’ll go ohhh-! clap clap clap clap clap [clapping sounds]. And you will be so fucking happy at what you are able to offer those people in that little moment.

JACK (as Clementine): [continued] I don’t think you worship your god. I think you just like to feel like you are one.

[music ends]

AUSTIN: I push you off the edge.

JACK: [laughs]

AUSTIN: I push you off the edge of the ship. I push you off the edge. Just like, nothing. Like it’s nothing. Like, push.

JACK: Just like- a weightless body-

AUSTIN [overlapping]: Or, Gur tries to do that, I don’t know that that’s Clem- Yeah, yeah it’s your character, 

JACK [overlapping]: I think there’s-

AUSTIN [overlapping]: I cannot just do that.

JACK: No, no, it’s amazing! It’s great! [chuckles] It’s great. I think there’s just a moment of perfect shock. Of- of having been- we have seen Clem get outflanked in basically- 

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: -every way a human can get outflanked? But I think being pushed from the top of Fort Icebreaker-

AUSTIN [overlapping with Jack]: Fort Icebreaker Prime, yeah.

JACK: By a- by an ascetic monk? [Austin chuckles] Is so monument- like, her mouth is in an ‘O’.

AUSTIN: Right.

JACK: Just backwards, just lift- lifted partly by the wind, backwards off the top of Fort Icebreaker-

AUSTIN [overlapping, crosstalk]: The wind is blowing, the thunder is hitting,

JACK: Lightning strikes.

AUSTIN [overlapping]: Lightning hitting, yeah.

JACK: It’s like fucking lightning hitting the ocean.

AUSTIN: I think there’s a beat. 

[MUSIC - “SOFTPOINT. UMBRAL. TOUCHPAPER.” starts]

AUSTIN: [continued] And then I think Gur Sevraq like, the actuators in their face just go like bwaaah, and like there’s a moment of recognition of this terrible thing that- that they’ve done? He’s like, [sighs] and then, like, rushes over to the edge to look over the edge if you’ve hit the water yet? Or if you’re still falling, or?

JACK: I don’t think it’s either of those things. I think- I think with one hand, [Austin chuckles] with the strength of somebody who has been piloting a mech. Who- who has been fighting on the front-

AUSTIN [overlapping]: Had been working out in the cells, uh huh!

JACK: [chuckles] -and has been working out in the cells! Clem just pulls herself up to the up- up to the surface. They are like- they are like- they are like a foot from the edge, right?

AUSTIN [overlapping]: Oh yeah. They’re right against this thing. Yeah.

JACK [overlapping]: They’re like, they are now standing right on the edge.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: And I think Clem just pulls like a little knife. Like a knife from a- what’s the most stylish and craven place to pull a knife from? Is it the boot.

AUSTIN [overlapping]: It’s the boot, yeah.

JACK: It’s probably the boot.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Uh huh.

JACK: Just pulls the knife from her boot and just goes- just furious, screaming, goes at Gur Sevraq.

AUSTIN: I mean, the thing about Gur Sevraq is we don’t look under the robes very often, but Gur Sevraq has eight limbs.

JACK: That’s bonus limbs! That’s more limbs.

AUSTIN [overlapping]: Bonus limbs. You know, he’s like a spider under there, and each of those limbs ends in like this sharp metal arc you know? And they just- I think that- we just have to- if you’re good with this, just like the most Coen Brothers five to seven seconds of weird violence. Upsetting-

JACK [overlapping]: Weird- upsetting like, asymmetrical violence? Like you know the Coen Brothers, the way they do fights where it’s just like oh Jesus, there are two people in the room and they are enacting violence upon each other.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Uh huh.

JACK: I think Clem- I think Clem shears a plate off Gur Sevraq.

AUSTIN: Right. The robe goes- gets cut open and gets caught in the wind. In fact the wind just catches it-

JACK [overlapping]: Snatches it off, yeah.

AUSTIN: This incredible, robotic spider humanoid body underneath.

JACK: Is this sort of- is this a sort of like, is Gur walking on more than one leg, or?

AUSTIN: They can- sometimes they can- sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. And that’s part of like when they stand up, they like, push themselves up with four different limbs, you know what I mean? Like really tall, big, like, so much- you know. Eight times- like Thisbe height, if they want to be. But they don’t ever do that. And then- and then yeah, I think we get like, the- one of the blades of his limbs just goes like right through the shoulder blade of Clem. You know?

JACK [overlapping]: Oh Jesus. Yeah. There’s like Clementine-

AUSTIN: Like it’s nothing. Like it’s putting knife in bread, you know? JACK: Clementine goes down, Gur picks her up again.

AUSTIN: Right.

JACK: How do we- what is the- okay. We are-

AUSTIN: I think, is this-?

JACK: What do we do?

AUSTIN: I think the knife is- we’ve stabbed each other. And we’re a foot from the edge of this thing. And I think the thunder hits, and the lightning hits, and the lightning lights the entire sky and we see them silhouetted against-

JACK: Knife goes off the edge.

AUSTIN: Knife goes off the edge, Cruciat’s behind them, you know? 

AUSTIN (as announcement): Please- please- all personnel, (laughing) leave the top decks and return-

JACK [overlapping]: And like a claxon going-

AUSTIN: Yeah like, waah! waah! waah! And then the lightning hits again and they’re gone.

[klaxons sounds twice in music]

JACK: Oh Jesus!

AUSTIN: And we just, we see them falling- fall-

JACK: We see them fall. Is there any impact on a piece of- on a piece of Icebreaker as they fall?

AUSTIN: Yeah, definitely right? This is not a clean fall. This is not the- this is not the Broun and Thisbe fall where it’s like loving embrace of two friends who are caring for each other-

JACK [overlapping]: No, the violence of the fight continues on the way down-

AUSTIN: It doesn’t stop- right! They land, they hit, they slam against some outcropping, and then like there’s another stabbing motion.

JACK: A limb breaks.

AUSTIN: Yeah! And then, and then a tumble, and then both of them. Both of them. I- it always had to be. It’s almost- [chuckles] I always- since the two of them met.

JACK: [chuckles]

AUSTIN: Had to be they stab each other-

JACK: And just down. Just down into the water. Blast doors close on the top deck.

AUSTIN (as announcement): All personnel please return below deck. 

AUSTIN (as announcement): [continued] All personnel please return below deck. 

AUSTIN (as announcement): [continued] All personnel please return below deck. 

AUSTIN (as announcement): [continued] All personnel-

[voleurdesoleil-archive]

Lucky Escape

Fandom: The Wayhaven Chronicles

Pairing: Male Detective (Jonah Rafferty) x Adam x Nate

Word count: 2.6k

!! cW !! mentions of blood, insults and toxic relationship

read on ao3

Today could have been a peaceful day, and it was, at least until someone came in to report that their van had been stolen. At first, Jonah didn’t pay much attention to it as Douglas was doing a surprisingly good job taking the owner’s statement. The voice sounded familiar, but Jonah couldn’t place a name or a face on it, so he didn’t linger on it. That was until the man started making a scene in front of the whole station.

“Are you even listening to me!”

The guy was yelling in Douglas’ face who was throwing distressed looks at Jonah. As he rushed out of his office, the guy turned around and Jonah stopped right away.

“If it isn’t Jonah Rafferty!” The man said mockingly.

“Luke…”

“So it’s true? You’re the new sheriff in town?”

Jonah ignored the question and walked to the front desk. He glanced over the report that Douglas was filling, but didn’t see any reason for the scene Luke was making so he asked: “What’s the problem Douglas?”

The Mayor’s son opened his mouth to answer but Luke interrupted him. “The problem is that your secretary doesn’t take his job seriously!”

“Officer Friedman isn’t a secretary,” Jonah said, stressing Douglas’ function. “And for all I see, there are no mistakes in his report.” Jonah added, giving him a reassuring smile to which Douglas let out a sigh or relief.

“Of course you’re gonna defend him! Is he your little boy toy?”

A shocked silence settled on the station as the officers quickly went back to work pretending they weren’t listening when Jonah took a look around him. Jonah’s jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists as Luke looked all proud of himself, a smug grin settling on his face.

“If you cannot respect my officers, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave this station and start looking for your van on your own.” Jonah spoke each word clearly, trying to be as stoic as possible.

“Oh…” Luke let out, his grin growing even bigger on his face. Deciding to ignore Jonah’s warning he added: “So you’re the boy toy this time, aren’t you? Exactly like you were with that reporter! What’s his name again? Bobby something…”

“We have your report, I’ll put someone on the case.” Jonah stated trying to ignore Luke.

“Can you put that cute little chick on the case? No offense but I don’t want your deviant ass near my car -” if Jonah didn’t know him better, he could have believed Luke’s apologetic smile, until he gestured to Douglas and added: “-nor your little boy toy."

“I’ll put Officer Len on the case.”

“Oh come on Jonah! Be a sweetheart and put Poname on my case, I’ve been trying to land that ch-”

“That’s enough! Can you have some respect for the officers of this station? You don’t like me fine! I couldn’t care less! But those people did nothing to you and deserve to be treated with respect so if you can’t do that I’m gonna ask you once again to leave!”

There was a moment of silence after Jonah had finally bursted out, but the sneer that grew on Luke’s face told him he had only fueled his stupidity.

“Or else what?” He had gained everyone’s attention. “Do you want me to tell them how much of a slut you are? I know about a lot of your boyfriends, or should I call them boy toys?” He was turning the station into his own little stage on which he was strutting proudly. “I’m afraid that little reporter of yours is incapable of holding his tongue…”

Jonah knew that whatever Bobby had told Luke, it was probably lies, but nevertheless he couldn’t risk losing his colleagues’ respect. Not now. Not after he’d worked so hard to gain it.

“What do you want?” Jonah resigned.

But Luke wasn’t even listening to him. “So let’s see! There was Taylor, Lucas, Zeke, Ryan, the guy from the bookstore, the exchange student, the delivery dude, that one was very low Jonah, Simon, Chris, who else? Jack, Frank, another Taylor, Percy…”

Jonah stopped listening as Luke kept enumerating the names of guys who actually had just been his classmates, or guys Bobby cheated with. The only ones he had actually dated were the exchange student, whose name was Arthur, he was also his French tutor, one of the Taylors and Lucas.

“Are you done making a fool of yourself?” Jonah asked as Luke stopped talking. “If you’re done, I think you can-”

“Oh, but I’m not done sweetheart, there’s one last person to talk about…” Luke cut him. “How about we talk about Bobby Marks now? I thought he was a slut, just like you, but turns out he’s actually a really nice guy. He told me a lot of things about you that I probably shouldn’t talk about-”

“Then don’t!”

Jonah looked over Luke’s shoulder and saw Tina standing in the doorway. She was coming in to start her shift.

“Officer!” Luke exclaimed, embarrassed. “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to know you should probably be leaving.” She said, stepping aside to hold the door open. “Have a nice day, sir.”

She waited for Luke to get out and be out of view to step back inside the station. But before she even reached Jonah’s office, he had already left his gun in his desk and grabbed his coat.

“I need some fresh hair.” he simply said walking past her.

___

"Jonah! We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Tina said-” Nate froze in the middle of the training room. “Jonah?"

Jonah was kneeling on the floor, his bloody hands laying on his laps. His ragged breath was interspersed with sobs. The punching bag above him, was stained with his blood and so were his clothes. He didn’t react when Nate called his name another time.

Nate wanted to rush to him but the intense smell of his blood made him scared to even take a step.

"What happened?"

"Get out…”

“Jonah?”

“Get out!” Jonah yelled. His teary eyes were filled with an indefinable mix of rage and despair as he turned his head towards the vampire.

The door burst open as the other vampires rushed to the training room. Seeing the bloody mess surrounding Jonah’s hunched figure, none of them dared to say anything, but Adam rushed to Nate’s side.

“Get! Out!” Jonah yelled one last time, almost pleading as Adam took another step forward.

Morgan walked to Nate and grabbed his arm. “Nate…Come on…” she said as Farah was pushing Adam out of the room, leaving the detective alone.

___

A couple hours later, Adam was knocking on Jonah’s door. He slowly opened the door, only peeking his head in the room. Jonah was sitting on his bed, trying to bandage his left hand. Bo was sleeping next to him. “Can I come in?"

The detective simply nodded.

Adam walked to Jonah and sat at the foot of the bed. Seeing that he was struggling with the bandage, Adam scooted closer and took Jonah’s left hand in his. “Let me help you…” he whispered, to which Jonah gave a grateful smile.

Blood was already seeping through the layers of gauze and, as he gently wrapped Jonah’s hand, Adam couldn’t help but wonder how long he had been in that training room, punching that bag, before they found him for his knuckles to be as bloodied as they were. Jonah winced as Adam wrapped his hand one last time.

“I’m sorry, did I wrap it too tight?” he instantly worried.

“No, it’s okay.”

Adam could feel Jonah’s pulse under his fingers as he was holding the bandage in place while Jonah was cutting a piece of medical tape. Even though he could hear his heartbeat, feeling it, feeling its irregularity when their hands brushed over the piece of tape and exchanged a gaze, was a wonder for Adam. It was something so simple and yet something he would never get used to.

His hands lingered on Jonah’s after he was done and they stayed like that for a while, not saying anything, simply holding each other’s gaze and hands as a comfortable silence settled around them. The world blurs and blends together until all they can feel and sense is each other.

"How are you doing?” He eventually asked. To which Jonah only shrugged. “Do you wanna talk about it?” He was once again given a shrug as an answer.

Seeing Jonah like that made his heart clench in his chest. His mission was to protect the human but he had failed so many times already. He felt so helpless. “Is there anything I can do?”

That’s when a tear rolled down Jonah’s cheek, quickly followed by way more and Adam, in a blurred movement, immediately closed the gap between them to envelop him in a reassuring embrace.

His hand softly rubbing Jonah’s back as he was slightly rocking them on the bed. He could feel his tears crashing on his skin and his cheeks becoming hot from the crying against his shoulder. He pressed a soft kiss on his hair, right above his ear.

“Je suis là, tout va bien,” Adam whispered, holding Jonah a little bit closer.

He held Jonah until the sobbing stopped and when the detective pulled away, Adam’s hand remained on his waist. Jonah rubbed his eyes and, with the back of his hand, wiped away his tears.

"I’m sorry…” Jonah said, his voice hoarse.

“No please, do not apologize Detective…"

Jonah chuckled upon hearing Adam calling him Detective and a smile grew on the vampire’s face as he heard that sound he loved so much.

"Are you feeling better?” Adam reached out to wipe away a stray tear but his hand lingered on the human’s face, cupping his cheek. Jonah leaned in the touch and, putting his hand above Adam’s, kissed his palm.

Jonah nodded. “Thank you…” he whispered against the vampire’s palm.

After a kissin on Adam’s knuckles, the detective grabbed his phone on the bedside table, and after quickly typing, threw it on the bed. The motion drew Adam’s gaze to the bandages wrapping both of his hands.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.” Jonah said as he noticed Adam’s worried gaze.

“I just wish you would have come to us instead of hurting yourself like that…” Adam’s voice was filled with regret.

“Adam… You being here right now is more than I could have wished for… ” Jonah reached up, gently cupping the vampire’s cheeks. “You are more than I could have wished for.”

Slowly, Jonah closed the distance between them, until their forehead touched. Until he could feel Adam’s breath tingling on his own lips.

Adam was the one to lean forward and capture Jonah’s lips. The kiss was surprisingly soft despite its intensity. The minty taste of Adam’s lips contrasted with the heat taking over Jonah’s body as his whole being was set on fire and that any remnants of sadness was instantly replaced with pure bliss.

Jonah’s heart pounded in his chest as Adam’s hand slided down his back, sending a shiver down his spine as his fingers barely grazed his skin through the fabric of his shirt. Slipping his hands on the back of Adam’s head, Jonah pulled him closer, deepening the kiss and slightly parting his mouth a bit more, wanting, needing to taste more of the vampire.

But the kiss was cut short by a soft knock on the door. Adam let out a frustrated groan against Jonah’s lips before parting as the door opened revealing Nate.

“Am I interrupting something?” The vampire asked as he felt the electrified atmosphere of the room.

Despite his desire to send him away, Jonah answered that he wasn’t and Nate closed the door behind him.

He waited for Nate to sit with them on the bed and took his hand while he gave a gentle squeeze to Adam’s. He knew why he asked Nate to join them, but having them both in front of him, looking at him expectantly, Jonah wasn’t so sure he had made the right decision.

“First of all, I want to apologize for what happened earlier. Today wasn’t a good day but that wasn’t a reason to take it out on you.” He pulled them both into a hug. “I’m really thankful to have you both and I know you just wanted to help, so I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“Hey!” Nate cupped his cheek. “It’s okay, you needed some space, I think we can understand that.” The vampire said, to which Adam nodded in agreement.

Jonah nodded in return. “I cleaned everything, not sure if the smell is still there though…"

"We’ll take care of it, don’t worry about that.” Adam said.

“Now, apologies are great, but I think you at least deserve an explanation to my being in such a state."

"Jonah, you do not have to give us any explanation if you don’t feel like it.” Nate said sensing the uncertainty in Jonah’s voice.

“I know, Nate, but I want to.”

Upon those words, Nate gave him a gentle smile, which was all Jonah needed to gather up the courage to finally speak but, as Jonah started retelling the altercation he had had with Luke, everything he had tried burying deep down came back into ravaging waves.

Everything he had been planning on saying for the past hours was thrown out the window. His structured speech came out to be an overwhelming mess. Things he had told only to Tina and things he had never told to anyone came barreling out of his lips before he could stop them and through a curtain of tears he told them everything.

He told them about his high school band and his best friends outing him out in front of the whole town after kicking him out of the band for being polyamorous or as they would call him for the next few years “for being deviant”.

Adam and Nate weren’t saying anything. Adam’s gaze was completely focused on Jonah and Nate’s fingers were drawing incoherent forms on the back of his hand.

He told them about his hard time with the town and his hard beginning in the Wayhaven PD because of that. About being the talk of the town. About his colleagues giving him crass because he was only a slut in their eyes. About the people of Wayhaven yelling insults at him when they discovered he had been assigned to their case.

A worried frown immediately appeared on both their faces as Jonah stopped to avoid choking with his own tears. Adam and Nate both reacted at the same time and hugged their little human until he couldn’t breathe.

And he told them about Bobby. That still open wound. He told them about Bobby’s manipulation, about him using Jonah’s polyamory to explain his infidelities, about Bobby taking away pieces of himself so slowly that he never noticed until he was left with nothing.

Jonah could feel Adam’s grasp on his hand tighten as he told them about his past with Bobby and, both looking for comfort and to reassure Adam he made some space in between his legs and wrapped Adam’s arms around him like a blanket. With his back against Adam’s torso, he pulled his other boyfriend to him. Nate laid on the human’s laps who instinctively started raking his fingers through his hair, the vampire melting in his laps as he did so. They all chuckled when Bo started whining and came to sit on Nate’s stomach seeking affection.

They stayed like that for a while, until Jonah fell asleep. Nate held the human in his arms while Adam was opening the bedsheets. He gently laid him down before they both crawled under the sheets to cuddle their boyfriend. Pressing a kiss on Jonah’s they both sworn to protect the human so dear to their heart.

[hesther-mcg]

blue dragons, part one + chapter nine

pairing: eventual asami x oc

character appearances: ursa, uncle iroh :) 

summary: the one where ursa goes to the spirit world and meets a very important person 

warning: none! 

a/n: another update!! we’re getting close to the end of PART ONE, and then we’ll get into PART TWO!! part two is full of korra + ursa content and i’m super excited to share!! we probably won’t get into where the show picks up until part three, meaning this is going to be a long ass fucking series haha. buckle up! 

p1, chap one  p1, chap two  p1, chap three  p1, chap four  p1, chap five  p1, chap six  p1, chap seven  p1, chap eight  p1, chap nine

tags: @noodlesfluffy @bigbuckyenergy @appa-gaangnam-style @strawberisapphic @fullybakedavatar @graciefullygracie 

creds: avatar wiki 

Bright blue skies. Soft green grass. Colorful plants. Winding trees. Adorably odd creatures. 

The Spirit World was pretty and peaceful; almost everything lived in harmony with something else and human disturbance was practically unheard of. Until a certain Fire Nation Princess kept winding up there every time she closed her eyes to sleep. 

It started when Ursa was ten. She would lay her head on her favorite of the many pillows on her bed, hair brushed and sheets fresh. And when her eyes closed and breathing steadied and mind drifted off she would awaken in the strange place. Every. Single. Night. She didn’t come across anyone or anything that could help her the first few times, she just had to wander around aimlessly.  When she finally did find someone she couldn’t believe who it was. 

The Princess had plopped down on a fallen tree, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands, and sighed. It was so lonely there. She never asked to come here when she went to sleep, and although it was an interesting world, she would have preferred to stay in her own. At least there she knew where she was and could communicate with people. Nothing seemed to want anything to do with her here. 

The crunch of leaves behind her was what alerted her to whatever was approaching behind her, and she jumped up and whirled around. Her hands were raised defensively, though she knew she couldn’t use her bending here (she had already tried.) But the tension in her shoulders eased when her mind registered who the person before her was. 

She had seen the great Uncle Iroh in many pictures and heard many stories about him, and here he was. "Ah, Princess Ursa, what are you doing here?” He asked her in a light voice, eyes squinted as he smiled at her. 

“You-you know my name?” She stuttered, her posture relaxing as her defenses eased. 

“Of course I know your name,” he chuckled. “We’re family! Do you know who I am?” 

“Uncle Iroh. You’re my grandpa’s uncle; and my daddy was named after you,” she replied. Her head tilted sassily, “did you know that?” 

The old man gave a great big laugh. “I did indeed, my young niece. I like to watch over my family from time to time. Which brings me back to my question,” he sat down on the other side of the tree, head turned towards the girl before him. “What are you doing here, Ursa?” 

But she didn’t know the answer to that question. She had no clue why she was there, how she arrived, or even where. Iroh informed her that she was in the Spirit World, and that if he had to guess, he would say that she was able to cross over much like how the Monks did when meditating. Only she was asleep; she didn’t even have to try. How peculiar. 

“Maybe I’m just supposed to be here,” she stated bluntly. “I don’t know how or why, but maybe I’m here because I just need to be.” 

“Perhaps. Life can throw things at us that might not make sense at the present, but all secrets will be revealed in due time,” he spoke wisely. “We are all a part of a master plan, something greater than us.” 

“What was your master plan?” Ursa asked softly. She looked up at the older man and appreciated the wisdom that she had heard so much of from her family. Her eyes were wide and she listened intently.  

Iroh sat silently for a moment, humming softly. “I believe that my master plan was to nurture the change in our family. The change that would steer us on a new path, a change that would allow us to right the wrongs of the people before us, and even some of us. I like to believe that change was your great grandfather, and I did my best to guide him. I made mistakes in my past, and I participated in wrongdoings of my nation, and I did my best to keep Zuko off of that path. He had a great destiny before him. ” 

“I think you did good,” the young girl whispered. She was grinning slightly and Iroh could see his niece and nephew in her expression. 

“Thank you, little one,” he bowed his head appreciatively. “I cannot tell you much, but I will say that you are an integral part in a master plan that will change the world. Be true to yourself, Princess Ursa, and your path will be clear.” She nodded her head in response, and made a silent promise to the man that she would always do just that. “It is time for us to part now, my dear niece. But do not worry, this is not the last time we will meet.” 

And he was right. She continued to travel to the Spirit World every night, and Iroh continued to give her the advice she needed; he tried to be there for her like he was for Zuko. Years went by, and she met with Iroh and learned from him, and bonded with him. She understood why her great grandfather loved him so much, and why her father was named after him. She couldn’t use her bending there, so they practiced stances and breathing. They went over the fundamentals of firebending, and then the other elements. He instructed her on how to practice new techniques and tricks when she returned home. 

She kept her visits to herself, for reasons she couldn't really explain because she really didn’t know. It would be too much to explain, and nobody would understand. This was just something that she would deal with on her own, and she felt she had the right to that. 

Slowly, Ursa was learning what Iroh meant when he said that everyone was a part of something bigger. Things were never as they seemed when she returned from speaking with him. She began to see things in a new light, and look at people through a different lens. He told her he was proud to call her family; she told him that meeting him was the greatest thing ever. 

[crypterion-moon]

Tiamat: Rise in Shadow p.3

Summary: Fresh from their missions, the team finds intruders stepping into their new territory. But the mad scramble nearly costs Tim his life and limb, if it weren’t for a mysterious stranger saving his life. But it isn’t over and a clue is left behind

Tags: Violence

Dick let out a heavy breath as he tipped back in his chair, eyes straining from working at the computer for too long and legs, jelly and aching from standing for hours trying to piece together information the team had found while fighting the Light, while trying to pull up whatever he could on what had killed those men and what little he could find, any possible leads always went nowhere. No evidence of alien activity lately since the Reach, it was too sudden, no reported similar sightings or cases that led to their island and no motive except maybe revenge or a contract but those seemed unlikely as well, Dick couldn’t tell with so little evidence. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t seen sickos do things like this before, that’s why generally, the team is told to avoid Gotham, not because Batman was possessive but because only he knew how to handle cases like this. If Dick had to be frank, they were lucky to have to deal with alien invasions and crazy robots mostly. Difficult, but easy on the mind and eyes, most of the time. It was too easy to underestimate how perverse the mind of a human could become and the Joker was evidence of this. But he was only one psycho in the midst of seven billion other possibilities some, probably capable of sicker methods, less efficient but as long as it was...fun. And Dick had seen too many of these since he became Robin, it made him wonder how he managed to not go insane as well. He tapped a key on the console, which brought up a new window, the camera overlooking the team’s kitchen where they were all congregating, over cake. Bart eating most of it, as usual, and Dick remembered, the reason he hadn’t tipped himself over the edge, the Young Justice, the team he, Kaldur, SuperBoy and Wally started all those years ago, disobeying orders and causing mischief, were the ones keeping him together. He had to protect them, protect what they had. He sighed, closing the window, great job he was doing. If only Wally was still around. If only he could go back to the way things were, he missed the way he could goof off as Robin. But people grow up and superheroes grow up even faster, lose that innocence even before they could enjoy it. That’s just how it was. The responsibility grows heavy on his shoulders. It was easy to underestimate how cruel and disgusting the world could be. For their sake and Tim’s, he had to protect what was left.

Suddenly, the alarms began to wail and it startled Dick so hard that he fell out of his seat, instinctively, when he picked himself up he immediately dropped into his combat stance. Already, the rest of the Young Justice were running out though half in uniform, half not in Beast Boy’s case, who managed to pull on the top half of his suit but was still in boxers. M’Gann and Cassie were still in sleepwear.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked as soon as he reached Dick, now tapping away at the console, flicking through camera to camera.

“Not sure yet, but the perimeter sensors were tripped, we’ve got someone snooping around outside.”

“Sure it isn’t some deer or something?” Bart said earning him an elbow to the gut from Jaime.

“Course not, why would we put them there if they kept picking up animals.”

“Jaime’s right, those sensors are designed to detect intruders and suspicious activity, if they’re going  crazy, there’s definitely someone out there,” Dick said, as he checked each camera, suddenly his eyes caught a fleeting shadow out of 14b, just outside the third entrance, west.

“There!” Dick turned to the team, “Alright, Robin, Superboy you guys are coming with me, everybody else, cover the exit points, make sure that whoever has trespassed doesn’t leave. We don’t have much time, let’s go.”

As Bart was the fastest, he was gone before any of the others had reached the mouth of the cave. Very soon, Robin, Nightwing and Superboy reached point 14b, right where the disturbance was picked up. Of course, there was no sign of anything but following in the direction of the shadow, they continued the pursuit.

“M’gann put us into a mind link.” Dick said through his comm.

“Already done,” came her reply.

“Kid-Flash, see anything?” Dick asked through the mental link as the three continued the chase.

“Nuh-uh, pretty dark here and all I see are trees and more trees, I must’ve run in circles about a dozen times now.”

“Keep looking, they can’t have gotten far.”

There was nearly no sound, nothing stirred, if this was an infiltration by the Light they would’ve come out by now for a fight and a large group geared to take down superheroes wouldn’t be this quiet. Dick grimaced, it could only mean one thing, that their murderer was prowling nearby. Time to change tactics.

“Listen up, I want everyone to take caution and keep a careful eye out,” he paused, “There’s a possibility that our mass killer is here. Engage from a distance if possible and pull out if you can’t beat him, I repeat, engage from afar, retreat if the threat is too much.”

Just as Nightwing was barking orders, Robin who trailed behind the two, looked to his left and noticed a glint of light, shining from the cover of bushes as they ran past. Suddenly he felt overcome with the urge to look, forgetting to notify Superboy or Nightwing, He slowed down to a stop, eyes still glued to the two little lights and began to walk towards them, all thoughts leaving him with only his overwhelming curiosity. As he got closer, he saw those two dots flicker and move, retreating further into the dark of the woods. Against all his trained instincts screaming at him, he followed them in. His legs taking him forwards until he was very much lost within the thick clumping of trees, in that exact moment, his senses returned and Tim realized he’d just broken off from the group without them knowing. He attempted to call out mentally but no one replied, his link to them broken or blocked somehow. He could feel fear slowly building up inside.

“Okay, breathe, you can do this,” he muttered to himself as he gripped his bo staff tighter, “You faced Killer Croc, Ivy, Clayface and Two-Face, you can beat this creep.”

He advanced, though he could try find his way back to the cave, but in the minutes he’d walked further on like a zombie, Tim was unsure of where his location was, and the forests surrounding HQ was, simply put, vast. With the mind link gone, he felt alone and lost. This was bad.

“Miss martian, Blue Beetle?”

No one answered as he called out loud, “Nightwing? Superboy?”

How far had he walked? This was embarrassing, getting so lost even though technically he was so close to base. And it looked like it was getting darker than night, the deafening silence surrounded him. There was no way one of them wouldn’t let him go with this, especially Gar. The thickening shadows was lowering visibility further and further that for some reason his night vision lens was becoming less effective, then without warning, they malfunctioned and he had to switch back to normal vision. This was bad, he shouldn’t have wandered forwards. Robin decided to turn on his heel and attempt to trace his steps back. The moment his back was turned, a large, roaring mass slammed into him, sending him down onto the ground with its weight pinning him there. Robin grunted and struggled, trying to unbalance whatever was crushing him. It growled in response and Robin felt its grip tightening, claws digging into his armour which must have made it through the first layer. He swallowed, sincerely hoping it was just Gar playing a stupid prank on him.

“If that’s you Beast Boy it’s not funny. Get. Off.”

Robin tried to elbow his assailant lightly, just enough to take Garfield by surprise and hopefully get him to move but when he swung, he realized that it wasn’t Beast Boy at all. Not with that growl, that look. He’d never seen a creature like it, a hulking, oozing beast that was more bone and spines than flesh, pus and boils covered what skin it had, and it’s teeth, oversized, filthy spikes, constantly drooling. It’s breath was reminiscent of any rotting thing Robin could remember. Nothing should be that hideous and yet here it was pinning him down and savouring the moment before it tears him apart. And all at once, he felt the terror rip through him. Thinking fast, he took out the taser and attempted to knock it out or at least stun it with a jolt. It roared and reared it’s ugly head for a moment, seemingly distracted Robin attempted to kick the beast off him but before he could wriggle away, it turned back to its prey, visibly irritated now. Great, he thought, that did nothing accept piss it off even more. Think Tim, his mind running through various scenarios, any possibilities on how to dislodge the creature. You’ve faced bigger, badder, uglies than this from invasions and mutants. Suddenly, Tim’s mind blanked as he watched the creature rear up, staring right into his eyes past the mask, reading him, his mind, his life and regurgitating all the negative things from the empty void. No soul, no life, not an extraterrestrial mammal built for survival. No words just things Tim could see in it’s glowing eyes, and he couldn’t look away. A deep guttural growl bellowed from it, the creature now bearing all its rotten teeth, black oozing from its jaws. It seemed to be laughing, he couldn’t tell through the fear that was now bubbling through. This thing was playing, a mortal toy in its grasp and it knew nothing Tim or anyone could do would stop it. Suddenly, he couldn’t help but wonder, if he’d see Jason. He wanted to shut his eyes tight but he couldn’t, that thing was holding his gaze, all he could do was hope for a quick end. The teeth and pain never came. Instead, he heard a distinct hissing followed by something far quicker than the eye colliding with the monster. Caught off guard it bellowed with a deafening roar and was launched away, and then, Tim couldn’t feel it pinning him down anymore. He propped himself up feeling the weightlessness again, almost lost in relief before his eyes blinked in the dark, seeing two glowing eyes not looking at him but past him. He still couldn’t move, something was nagging the back of his mind, his comms but his hands weren’t listening.

“Did you really think I would be fool enough to assume you and your damned ken wouldn’t follow me here? You think little of me.”

A figure emerged slowly from the shadows, glowing blue eyes stared down yellow ones. A young man maybe only a few years older than Tim, dressed in all black in what looked like a dress shirt and pants, grinning like a devil, he was oddly...attractive. Which was an alarming thought to have for someone who literally just walked out from nowhere, but unable to help feeling himself drawn to the stranger. If it weren’t for the blaring danger that he’d been trained to be aware of, he’d have forgotten entirely about the multi-legged slime monster growling from in front of him. He looked to and back from them both as they continued their little stare down. The man didn’t seem to have acknowledged his presence and the monster, he hoped, had temporarily forgotten about him.

“You,” it growled, oh, it talks, “I could smell you coming.”

The young man gave a dark chuckle, “Flattering, seeing how you chased me around I take it that you like it?”

“We will have you, your kind won’t hear you scream here,” the demonic hound growled, leaning back on its haunches.

“I think you will find I can fend for myself, mutt.”

At that, it launched itself with a screech at him, with Tim only just managing to scramble away. The stranger not missing one moment, reached behind him and brought that hand back around, a long weapon in his grip. The shaft slammed hard enough into the creature to hear a squelch and crack of what Tim could assume was bone and something else. He didn’t really want to think about what it was made of. The weapon was completely materialized by the time the monster had stumbled back on its feet. It resembled a bo staff like Tim’s except it was black, not painted, black like obsidian or onyx. Was it possible for a weapon to be completely forged out of a mineral? Attached at the end was a weighted blade, curved and warped, a series of sharp edges wrapped around a crescent.

“Now, depending on you answer, I can make this quick or you can make this enjoyable for me.” he said, whirling the staff in hand, “Where is he?”

The creature answered with a roar and pounced again, jaws gnashing. The strange took a step back and before it could come crashing down on him, he brought his knee back and up into the its gut. It howled and crumbled into a trembling heap, snapping at nothing. Tim watched as the stranger strode up to it, crouching just a couple of feet away.

“I’ll ask you again, where is Reavon?”

A low, wet sound rumbled from the creature, it took a moment for Tim to realize it was laughing. The young man instead of looking frustrated or even slightly offended, smiled. A smile disturbingly beautiful in this current moment. Before he took the creatures head, slowly and carefully twisting it off. Tim gaped in shock and horror, watching as the young man examined the head like it was an interesting object. Reaching inside and pulling out some kind of red matter. Tim couldn’t hold it in anymore and threw up.

“Well, I didn’t expect you to enjoy the sight but you have quite a weak stomach for a Gothamite.”

At that, Tim looked up in surprise, “How-?”

He attempted to scramble to his feet.

“I wouldn’t move yet, you’ve been caught in his curse,” the stranger took a step towards him, his hand reaching towards Tim, “This won’t hurt.”

“Tim!”

Suddenly, the sound of Dick’s voice calling his name brought him back to reality, he’s still on Mount Justice island, still alive. A sharp hiss like a snake brought his attention back to the stranger, his face pulled into a look of irritation. As backed up into the shadows again, his eyes turned back to Tim, giving a knowing nod and vanished. It seemed he didn’t plan on sticking around for them to question him. Tim wanted to call out, ask him to wait. Just as soon as the thought materialized, it vanished along with the stranger’s presence and his mind went blank.

Dick arrived in time to see Tim collapse back, slouching limply in a sitting position and just in time for his sharp eyes to catch part of a figure, disappear into the shadows. But his attention focused on Tim. H knelt by the boy, removing the mask.

“Hey, hey, you okay? What happened, are you hurt?”

Tim was unresponsive, numbly staring up at Nightwing’s eyes and occasionally glancing back at the mutilated monster and the space where the figure was only moments ago. Dick caught the look and followed his gaze behind him.

“Shit!” he cursed under his breath. He finally took the black mass in all its horrible detail, there’s nothing natural about it, things in places that didn’t make sense. Flesh that wasn’t really flesh at least not one kind of flesh, torn out and realized, this creature wasn’t built for survival, it was built to kill, built for fear. If the things Zatanna had told him about magic were true, he was looking at a good example of the bad kind. He checked Tim all over for any signs of injury, knowing these types they probably carried venom or worse in their bodies. Dick sighed in relief, luckily, Tim seemed fine on the outside but his eyes still stared blankly ahead, as if his mind had shut down. He had no way of helping him here, at least not out here while it was dark. They’d have to deal with any traumatic stress back at base. Sounds of leaves rustling and feet running approached and the other heroes finally caught up. Bart came to a skidding stop as he closed in on the scene, his eyes taking in the creature lying in a pool of its own blood. He replaced the mask over Tim’s eyes.

“Robin!” Connor ran up to the two, eyes widening in shock, “What the hell happened?!”

“He was attacked,” Nightwing stated bluntly, reaching into his belt.

“Yeah, I can tell! I want to know what the hell is that thing?” Connor’s voice was close to yelling his lungs out as he pointed one angry finger at the bloody mass. Which Bart was now toeing cautiously, then retreating with a shudder.

“Oh man, that’s nasty.”

“I don’t know, okay? Not exactly,” Nightwing took a swab of the substance that coated the Robin uniform, analysing it, he narrowed his eyes, “But I’ve got a gut feeling that says I need to talk to Zatanna.”

Superboy calmed down as his face settled into worry, he seemed to understand what that meant. Nightwing pocketed the sample and lifted Tim up, whispering something barely audible to the others. Tim finally nodded, blinking a few times and muttered something back, he dug the heel of his palm into his eyes.

“Is he alright?” M’gann asked, tentatively resting her hand on Tim’s shoulder, “Do I need to...take a look?”

“Not right now, let’s go back. We’ll let him rest then we can find out what happened here.”

Suddenly, something further into the distance caught his Dick’s eye. A small light, blue and shining in under the dark of the trees. He could be sure that it wasn’t there before when they passed. He paused for a moment, staring, a moment too long. Superboy’s voice snapped him back to the present.

“Here I’ll take him back,” Connor offered. Nightwing handed Tim over gratefully. The boy hung limp in Connor’s arms. He and watched for a moment while they flew away.

“Beast boy, Kid-Flash, M’gann come with me and M’gann, tell everyone you have on the telepathic network to return to base and stay there.”

When he looked, the light was gone but he had its approximate location, though the distance was uncertain. Nightwing led the group on. But was silent, no orders, no comments, just an unsettling silence even for him. M’gann watched him with concern. She could read his mind, know what he is thinking and it could help her act appropriately but he’d no straight away she used telepathy, that would be rude. She hung back a bit before deciding to speak up.

“You must be really worried, for Robin I mean. After what happened...last time, you must be terrified for him.”

Nightwing sighed, “I am, I don’t know what happened exactly, or what that thing is. But it could’ve killed him I’m sure of it. I got samples but I have a feeling it won’t answer our questions. Especially who got to him before us,” Nighwing paused, hands clenched, “M’gann, I wasn’t there, I didn’t save him. Someone did but I didn’t get there in time. If it weren’t for, I don’t know who, that thing could’ve torn him apart and I still wouldn’t make it there, to save him. Just like I couldn’t, for him”

The martian put her hand on Dick’s shoulder, “You’ve got to stop blaming yourself, you can’t be everywhere at once. I’m at fault too for not noticing. Compared to you, a lot of us have failed a lot more. I don’t want anything like last time to happen again either but blaming yourself, won’t help. We don’t even know what we’re up against.”

“Shouldn’t we?” Nightwing said a little to harshly. M’gann flinched, hurt.

“I’m sorry, you’re right, I’m letting it get to me. I just can’t be helpless, I can’t fail and lose my friends again.”

M’gann flung her arms around him, “Me too.”

“Hey guys, what’s that?” Garfield said, pointing a finger up ahead. It was the shining object again, it certainly was farther than Dick had expected, but it seemed no more and no less brighter.

“That’s what I saw earlier, could be a clue.”

“Or could be more of those things, eugh, I really don’t want to see those monster dogs up close and ready to eat us.”

As they walked towards the glowing object, the air seemed to change. A presence that pervaded all around them now, it was heavy and empty at the same time. For Dick, it almost felt like the time he walked through the cemetery at night to see his parents, an oppressive atmosphere that left him feeling empty and cold and frightened. He forced the sensation down and glanced at the rest of the team. Both Kid-Flash and Beast Boy looked twitchy, something that nagged at their every instinct while M’gann was beginning to falter, hovering closer and closer to the ground, he face scrunched up in discomfort or pain.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Don’t feel so good,” Gar said, his tone on the edge of queasiness.

“Me neither,” Bart added wobbly.

Garfield suddenly shifted into gorilla form, letting out a frustrated roar and beating his chest. For a moment, he almost seemed unable to recognise any of them, fearing an attack. Dick stepped up in front of him.

“Beast boy! Stop, hey it’s me,” he said, holding out both hands trying to calm down the disorientated shifter. Bart, wobbly on his feet had to lay down. Beast boy looked uncertainly at him, at Nightwing and M’gann who now hovered unstably above, then back at Nightwing.

“Easy there. You still with me?”

Gar nodded, finally speaking, “Yeah, yeah, sorry, just something messing with me.”

Whatever the glowing thing was, it was seemed to be affecting all but Dick. M’gann not much later couldn’t hold herself in the air anymore. She drifted just a few inches above the ground before landing unsteadily on her feet, stumbling towards Dick. He caught her just as she was about to fall, visibly in pain.

“Something is interfering with my psychic powers, it’s messing with my mind. Nightwing...”

 “Stay here, don’t come any closer, okay, stay right here all of you,” he said as he gave her over to a gorilla beast boy. The object still glowed brightly but with how it was messing with all their powers, he left the rest behind. He could feel something but if anything, it was more like pressure, like someone had put him in a pressure chamber and turned it up to eight. His legs felt like they were slogging through marsh but nothing more. When he finally walked right up to the little dot of light, it dimmed considerably. Now he could see what it was. A small stone, crystal. Blue, somewhere between a sky and deep sea. He reached down hesitantly, tapped at it. No shocks or pain, so he picked up the crystal. It fit into the palm of his hand surprisingly no bigger than a pebble when it was shining so brightly only moments ago.

He turned it over, examining it, “What is this?”

“Nightwing!” he turned to see the other three making their way towards him, visibly disturbed but no longer in pain or discomfort.

“You guys okay?”

“Yeah, whatever was messing with our powers, it’s gone now,” M’gann said.

“I think it’s this,” Nightwing held up the stone had completely stopped glowing, turning into a deep midnight color, the surface was smooth as a gem and it felt like one to. If reflected light like a crystal normally would, he would’ve thought it was some kind of gem, like the one Klarion used before in his ritual. It was shaped like an opal. Truly like a pebble, if it wasn’t glowing, he would’ve missed it. The other’s looked curiously at it too. He observed how they seemed to be perfectly at ease now around it, now that it had stopped emitting that strange light.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, we’re fine now,” M’gann said.

“Still a bit off from feeling the mode but all good.”

“Kinda weird though, I swear something was making me to go full ape, literally. Like it was talking to my instincts, that sound weird even in my head.”

The now dormant object had lost all of the oppressive aura from earlier, slightly cold to the touch almost too cold. M’gann used her telekinesis to hold the object aloft. It didn’t react.

“Whatever it is, it seems to have stopped for now. Let’s go back, I need to see what it is and where it came from.”

[aion-rsa]

20 Underrated Wrestling Games

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Whether you don’t know the difference between a mark and a bump or you can name the main event of every WrestleMania, you’re probably aware of at least some of the absolute best wrestling games of all-time. Titles like SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain, WWF No Mercy, and WCW/NWO Revenge have transcended the popularity of professional wrestling itself and have become a part of many gamers’ fondest memories.

Yet, there are some forgotten wrestling games that are still worth remembering. While it’s true that there are well-defined tops and bottoms in the wrestling game hierarchy, there are also a few titles somewhere near the middle that have been unfairly lumped together even though some of them deserve a spot near the top of the card with the undisputed legends of the wrestling game scene.

So join us as we look at 20 of the most underrated wrestling games of all-time:

20. Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special

1994 | Human Entertainment | Super Famicom

Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special’s status as one of the earliest wrestling games with a substantial story mode is noteworthy enough. However, what really makes this one special is the fact that one of the game’s scenarios writers was Suda51: the legendary game director known for some of the weirdest games ever made. 

True to form, this game is weirder than you could ever imagine. I can’t think of another wrestling game that ends with the protagonist killing themselves after realizing that their championship win is hollow due to the pain and losses they suffered along the way, and while I’m grateful no other game has tried something like that, this title’s dark and bizarre story should at least make it more talked about than it typically is. 

19. Natsume Championship Wrestling

1994 |  Natsume  | SNES

This is hardly the best wrestling game on this list (clearly), but it does represent a fascinating turning point for wrestling video games that is sometimes overlooked. 

This game combined two eras of wrestling games by featuring the more simplistic arcade style of many early console wrestling titles with a few concepts (such as an advanced fatigue system) that would go on to help shape the more complex wrestling games that would define the years to come. If you like that classic style of wrestling game, this is one of the best ways to revisit it. 

18. Wrestling Revolution 3D

2014 |  MDickie  | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac, Ouya 

Let’s be clear: this is a very bad game. It’d go so far as to call it objectively bad in many ways. However, it’s the fact that the game is so bad that makes it so much fun. 

Considered by many to be maybe the only example of a “So bad, it’s good” wrestling game, Wrestling Revolution is slow, awkward, broken, and clearly made with love. At a time when so many of the recent yearly WWE games end up being glitchy messes anyway, there’s something to be said for a game that embraces its glitchiness and usually leads to a lot of laughs. 

17. WWE ‘13

2012 |  Yuke’s  | PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

As suggested above, there’s a point where it’s hard for all but the most hardcore WWE game fans to distinguish recent WWE titles from one another. Maybe that’s why WWE ‘13 is sometimes forgotten when we’re talking about the best relatively modern wrestling games. 

This game’s best feature has to be its “Attitude Era” story modes which let you relive some of the best moments from WWE’s most beloved period. More importantly, this game benefited from pretty good animations and a hit detection system that made it feel good to play years before the clutter of this series’ engine would drag these titles down. 

16. WCW vs. The World

Given that PlayStation gamers spent years lamenting that N64 owners got to play WCW/NWO Revenge and WWF No Mercy (two of the best wrestling games ever), I’m shocked that we don’t hear more people praise WCW vs. The World. 

Essentially the predecessor to those brilliant N64 games made by AKI, WCW vs. The World is by far the closest PlayStation gamers came to getting a wrestling game on the level of the best N64 titles. It’s pretty rough compared to those titles, but I can’t help but think of the years I spent missing out on this true gem.

15. WWF War Zone

1998 | Sculptured Software, Acclaim | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy

Granted, it’s not nearly as good as the best wrestling games of its era, but at a time when WWE (then WWF) was enjoying an incredible popularity resurgence, WWF War Zone allowed fans to live out a truly special era of wrestling.

War Zone’s roster is a time capsule of that era that includes a fascinating blend of big-name stars and notable novelty acts. Its gameplay could have been much smoother, but the game’s presentation and graphics made it feel special. It’s still one of the better PS1 wrestling games of its era and is sure to invoke a strong sense of nostalgia.

14. Legends of Wrestling II

2002 | Sculptured Software, Acclaim | PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance

Legends of Wrestling II’s appeal was (and always will be) its roster. This game’s roster of legendary wrestlers includes some names that still haven’t been included in modern WWE titles. The list of superstars in this game includes Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Mil Mascaras, Bam Bam Bigelow, and many more legends.

The game’s appeal goes beyond its roster, though. The game’s territory-based story mode, which lovingly recreates the structure of ‘80s wrestling, is one of the most inventive ever featured in a wrestling game. It even lets you recreate the famous feud between Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman.

13. TNA Impact!

2008 | Midway Games | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS

TNA Impact was not a great game. Its roster was thin, its gameplay needed a few more months in development, and it just didn’t have nearly enough modes and features to compete with WWE titles. However, the one thing TNA Impact did have was the benefits of the TNA name.

It turns out that counts for quite a lot. Developed during the arguable peak of TNA’s talent level, Impact allowed you to play as everyone, from Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe to AJ Styles and Abyss. On top of that, the game benefited from its impressive presentation and a surprisingly deep story mode. It was far from perfect, but it was and is a must-have for any TNA fans.

12. MicroLeague Wrestling

1987 | MicroLeague | Commodore 64, Amiga, DOS, Atari ST, AmigaOS

MicroLeague Wrestling is arguably the most obscure, odd, and fascinating game on this list. Released for Commodore 64, Amiga, DOS, and Atari ST, MicroLeague was actually a professional wrestling strategy game that allowed you to decide matches and careers through a series of turn-based commands.

It may feel hopelessly outdated today, but MicroLeague Wrestling was a surprisingly advanced concept at a time when wrestling games were dirt simple. It would be fascinating to revisit this concept through some kind of modern wrestling management game.

11. The Main Event

1988| Konami | Arcade

You’d think that a wrestling game released by Konami in 1988 would be better known, but The Main Event has somehow managed to mostly escape the scrutinizing lens of history. That might have something to do with its unlicensed roster that was only vaguely (and hilariously) based on actual wrestlers.

Still, The Main Event should have been a stepping stone for bigger Konami arcade wrestling games to come. It featured deep wrestling gameplay (for the time) that served as a preview of some more notable wrestling games to come.

10. WCW Wrestling

1989| Nihon Bussan | NES

The NES wasn’t exactly known as a haven for great wrestling games, but WCW Wrestling still deserves to be remembered above most of its console contemporaries. Somehow, though, memories of it remain relegated to the few that played it and are not always as fond as they should be.

WCW Wrestling not only offered WCW fans the chance to play as some of their favorite wrestlers of the era, but it included features such as an expanded ringside area and customizable move sets that were ahead of their time. This game certainly remains one of the most playable of its generation.

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9. WCW Mayhem

1999| EA | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy

It’s generally agreed that the N64 got better overall wrestling games than the PS1, but it’s simply a fact that the N64’s WCW games were better than those featured on the PlayStation. However, WCW Mayhem did offer PS1 gamers a taste of something pretty good (especially if they missed out on WCW vs. The World).

Granted, Mayhem was a poor man’s version of the WCW N64 wrestling games (its canceled sequel was going to be developed by the same team that made those N64 games), but it was unfairly overlooked by many PS1 gamers who were burned by too many bad wrestling games over the years. Of course, the game’s N64 version was less impressive in comparison to its direct competition.

8. Power Move Pro Wrestling

1996| Yuke’s | PlayStation

Power Move Pro Wrestling was originally based on the NJPW promotion, but it seems that fears over the international popularity of that promotion (at the time) caused the NJPW stars to be replaced with generic wrestlers with NJPW move sets. That decision stands as this game’s most glaring weakness.

Otherwise, this is a solid wrestling title for its era. Power Move Pro Wrestling was released on the cusp of an incredible generation of wrestling titles, but even though it lacks some of the refinement and features of those games, it does boast some admirable 3D gameplay that was head and shoulders above many other wrestling games at the time.

7. WWE Raw 2

2003| Anchor Inc. | Xbox

The WWE Raw games for Xbox were generally not as strong as their GameCube and PS2 counterparts, but they have been unfairly swept under the rug by fans that feel that they had very little to offer.

WWE Raw 2 actually boasted a few features that would soon become standard. The most notable of those features is the game’s “Create an Entrance,” which not only let you create custom Titantron videos but even let you import your own music. Raw 2 also featured an interesting RPG-lite story mode that complemented its more arcadey elements.

6. Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado

1994| Human Entertainment | Arcade, Sega Saturn

Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado was a 1994 Arcade/Sega Saturn game that combined elements of Saturday Night Slam Masters, Street Fighter, and more “traditional” pro wrestling games. It was a strange hybrid that was sadly overlooked by too many gamers.

Blazing Tornado is more of a fighting game than a wrestling game, but the ways that it incorporates grappling and other pro wrestling elements make it one of the more notable games of its kind. Its visuals are also enjoyable in a cartoonish kind of way.

5. WWE WrestleMania XIX

2003| Yuke’s | GameCube, Wii

While WrestleMania X8 and XIX would eventually be spun into the overall superior Day of Reckoning titles, WrestleMania XIX deserves to be remembered both as the forerunner of that series and for its wonderfully absurd story mode.

WrestleMania XIX’s story mode saw you seek revenge on Vince McMahon by fighting regular employees and other wrestlers across construction sites, barges, malls, and other random locations. The goal is to cause enough havoc to ruin WrestleMania. It’s a glorious piece of “who came up with this?” game design.

4. Wrestle Kingdom 2

2007 | Yuke’s | PlayStation 2

Wrestle Kingdom 2’s release date is notable not only because it’s the newest game on this particular list but also because it was released at a time when major wrestling games were veering more into “simulation” territory, a time when wrestling games stopped catering to more casual players.

Well, Wrestle Kingdom 2 happens to be “arcadey” and accessible in all of the right places without sacrificing depth. Its gameplay is deep enough for genre masters, but can also be picked up fairly quickly. The fact that it so happens to feature some brilliant tournament modes along with an impressive collection of Japanese stars is just the bow that tops this gift to wrestling.

3. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2006

2005| Yuke’s | PlayStation 2, PSP

“Underrated” might be a bit of a stretch in this instance considering that those who love this game place it alongside the greatest wrestling games ever made, but the fact remains that not enough gamers know that this is an absolutely brilliant wrestling title.

In fact, some believe this to be the perfect middle ground between SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain’s lovably ridiculous gameplay and the more grounded games that would follow in this series. SvR 2006 includes an unbelievable number of match types, a very welcome general manager mode, and pick up and play gameplay that some at the time compared to the timeless WWF No Mercy. It deserves to be remembered as a classic.

2. King of Colosseum II

2004| Spike | PlayStation

While there are quite a few Japan-only wrestling games that would qualify as underrated in the West, many consider King of Colosseum II to be the crown jewel of that particular crowd. With its massive roster, deep grappling system, and incredible create-a-wrestler mode, this game is often thought of as the closest we’ve come to a 3D successor to the Fire Pro Wrestling series (it was made by the same team responsible for many of the early games in that series). It’s a shame that it was never exported to the West.

1. Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation

2002| AKI Corporation | GameCube

Many people know that AKI Corporation, developers of those classic N64 wrestling games like WWF No Mercy, went on to develop the first two excellent Def Jam titles. What fewer people remember is that AKI also developed this absolute gem of a wrestling game.

Essentially an anime wrestling game, Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation sees good and evil wrestlers battle across the universe. Bolstered by AKI’s all-time classic grappling gameplay, Ultimate Muscle proves to be a wonderfully over-the-top wrestling game that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play. Imagine if DragonBall FighterZ and WWF No Mercy had a video game child. This is what you’d get, and it’s better than you can imagine.

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