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opultea · 7 months ago

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Eons Ago

You and your husband listen to a tale of the mythology from your homeland, and from your lives.

A.N. - Zhongli and Cloud god reader origin story! This pair originated from my Where's My Kiss? drabbles and then had a cameo in my Babe, Look At Me! headcanons. Maybe I'll make a masterlist for Zhongli and Cloud god reader?

Zhongli x Cloud God GN Reader (No Pronouns) - Romantic - SFW - Fluff

Word Count: 1.7k

When the sky and earth were first created by Celestia's light, they were intended never to meet. If the sky and ground ever touched, the world would be crushed between them, all life lost to the weight of the heavens. But it seemed that even despite this fundamental law of Teyvat, when influenced by the force of love, not even the gods could help but disobey.

The world was young when the God of Contracts and the God of Cloud were born. The great dragon and shimmering white tiger roamed the lands alone, observing and discovering the world. The land was not as plenteous and grand as it is now, for the gods were young and had not created the wonders we marvel at today. The two gods wandered, familiarising themselves with their land and growing their power. And then they met.

Rex Lapis was the first to notice that he was no longer alone, and he was the first to fall. The dragon stared above as the white tiger lay in the clouds, the gentle shimmer of its fur the only way to tell its form apart from its bed. The god of contracts observed the calm and loving gaze held within the creature's glowing eyes, admiring the world below. Feeling himself pulled toward the god in the sky, Rex Lapis spoke;

"Oh great creature above, pray tell your name so that I might worship it as I do your beauty,"

The illuminated beast peered to the earth below, where the dragon perched on a mountain peak. Leaping down from the highermost clouds where it lay, the god observed Rex Lapis curiously, before speaking its name.

"I am the one they call Oculi Caeli, the one who dances in cloud.” The formality behind the introduction was dropped at the soft smile the cloud god formed, head tilting. “Although, neither this name nor this form needs such dutiful reverence. After all, it seems we are of equal power and beauty,”

Rex Lapis, intrigued by the god’s disposition, proposed a contract.

“Then, let us forever consider ourselves equal so that we may always treat each other as we deserve."

The contract was sealed, and a love was born between the sky and the earth.

Your hand flew to stop any tea from bursting from your mouth. Your hidden giggling caught the amused gaze of your husband, who took the teacup from your shaky hold.

"Are you finding the story amusing, my love?" Zhongli teased, though he lovingly stroked your back to calm your spluttering.

"I just wasn't expecting such an abrupt statement," You cleared your throat. "I'd like to think there was a bit more to it than simply 'and then they fell in love', wouldn't you agree?"

A deep chuckle resonated in Zhongli's throat.

"Yes, perhaps you are right. Though let us honour our dear storyteller and allow him to finish his rendition of this tale,"

When the first humans were born, their fragility was coddled by the god of clouds, who shrouded them from the burning sun of old. Their intelligence and fairness were nurtured by the god of contracts. Together, the two gods raised the people of old to lead them to the greatness of our nation today. The people adored their gods, touched by their kind-heartedness and inspired by their great love. Temples were erected to celebrate them, and not one was ever complete without a statue of the holy tiger and dragon mid-flight, locking eyes, tails intertwined.

"I've always thought it'd be quite difficult to fly with our tails intertwined," you whispered to Zhongli, brought out of the tale by imagining the silly action.

Zhongli chuckled, patting your thigh before nodding toward the storyteller, refocusing you.

However, two familiar voices make your head swivel. "Aether, Paimon, come join us," You call, waving your hand over toward the duo.

Paimon waves excitedly as the pair approaches your table at Third Round Knockout. Aether smiles apologetically.

"Are you sure we aren't interrupting your date?" He asks, concern mixed with some level of teasing in his tone.

Zhongli chuckles, his eyes glowing with a pleased sense of pride. "Nonsense. You are most welcome to join us. We indulge in your company, after all."

The pair take a seat, Paimon quickly helping herself to the red bean bun you offer her. She looks curiously toward Iron Tongue Tian, swallowing her food swiftly before she asks; "What's the story about today? You two seemed pretty interested in it,"

You and Zhongli share a look, knowing smiles exchanged. Zhongli takes your hand in his, affectionately placing the joined hands on his thigh.

"It is a story very close to our hearts," He says mysteriously. "I'm sure you will gather exactly what makes it so as you listen,"

Aether and Paimon tilt their heads, interest piqued as they listen carefully to the storyteller, who continues the tale.

But such prosperity could never last, for Celestia felt great unrest brewing, and the Archon War broke the world.

The world turned red, the land splattered with blood and the sky angry with the hatred that seeped from below. The cloud god walked through the war-torn plains of Teyvat with heavy sadness. Tempest and blackness had been forced from the sky, causing great tiredness and discontent in the god who had always adored the pure white clouds.

"My love," Rex Lapis' voice rang deep through the open plain. "It is not safe here; Osial plans an attack. We must make haste."

"This place used to be a bamboo forest, teeming with life." The soft tone took the god of contracts from his battle-framed mind. He kept his silence and waited for his love to continue. "Now it is torn apart. Not even the weeds grow here anymore."

"Caeli, there is nothing we can do for this place, but we can save our haven from the wrath of Osial if we go now."

"Osial and his wife are not much different from us Morax; they are two gods that will do anything to protect their love for each other,"

"That may be so," The god approached, bringing his hand to his love's waist. "But they are lovers on the other side of a war. Bloodshed may not be ideal, but it is the only path we have left."

The cloud god was despondent. The deity pushed Morax's hand away.

"I will not come to watch you tear them apart."

Rex Lapis did not understand. So he left and did exactly as they both knew he would. As he knew he had to.

When he next returned, Oculi Caeli was still on the ground, staring down at the earth.

"Why are you not amongst your clouds, my love?"

"It is too painful. To be up so high, and to have such an encompassing view of all the destruction and pain in the world below." The god gripped the dirt. "I wish you would bury me. So I did not have to see anything at all,"

Rex Lapis rushed to Caeli's side, on his knees to hold his love close.

"Do not speak this way," He pleaded, bringing his lover's head to his chest. "I will cover and covet you. I will shield you from all that troubles you. But I will never be the reason you are lost to me. This, I vow forever,"

In the years following, no one saw the cloud god. Some believed the deity to have died in the Archon War. Others theorised that Rex Lapis had sheltered his love away in the mountains, so he could protect and love Oculi as he had promised. Even today, no one truly knows what occurred, why the god left this earth, and whether the great Archon Rex Lapis has since had to mourn his love.

Today, our temples still carry statues of the two gods, tails intertwined and eyes locked with an eternal love that echoes through the sky and earth even after their death.

The audience applauds as Iron Tongue Tian takes a bow, some dabbing their eyes at the sentiment in the ancient tale. Paimon rubs her eyes of tears, shooting up from her seat and flying toward you and Zhongli, fists curled.

"What actually happened? You guys can't make us listen to that story without telling us the real ending!" She demands.

You giggle behind a crooked finger, settling a hand over her shoulder to calm her. A pensive look of remembrance passes over your eye.

"The theories are not so far off. I- Oculi Caeli could not take the pressure and tragedy of war. So Rex Lapis hid the god away in Jayeun Karst, where he placed Caeli into a deep sleep. The adepti watched over the mountain heart where the god slumbered, and for centuries, Caeli lived in a dream."

"They say Rex Lapis grieved as if his love had fallen, in the years they were apart," Zhongli continues for you, his smooth voice edged with an old pain. "But he also took heart, knowing that Caeli would not have to see him committing the atrocities he knew made the god's heart break,"

You squeeze your hands around your husband's, moving your knee so it sits against his.

"When Caeli was awoken, after the war, there was a bond to repair between the sky and the earth, as our storyteller put it," You smiled softly, your eyes meeting Zhongli's, a gentle understanding present in the silent exchange. "The time they had spent apart had changed them both. Living in the dream world for so long had placed a haze over Caeli's mind, and the war and bloodshed had hardened Rex. But they fell in love once, and they were more than sure they could fall in love again,"

The two of you share a small smile, and you lean to place your head on Zhongli's shoulder, a gesture he meets by placing a hand on your opposite shoulder to squeeze you discreetly closer.

"Aww, you guys," Paimon places her hands on her heart, evidently touched. Aether smiles at the scene, his heart warming at the prevailing love you shared.

Notes: Oculi Caeli - Latin for 'the eye of heaven' (When Morax calls you 'Caeli' it means he's calling you 'heaven' 😚)

Literally never thought this would get out of my wips, but somehow it's here. Hope you enjoyed!

#genshin impact #genshin x reader #fluff #gn reader #genshin impact x reader #zhongli x gn reader #zhongli genshin impact #morax x reader #zhongli x reader #rex lapis x reader #no pronouns #romantic #fanfic #oneshot #zhongli x cloud god reader #god reader #rex lapis x god reader #rex lapis x gn reader

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piratefishmama · 6 months ago

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I Wish | Part 6

It was a clean sweep, the guys called it quick enough, which was disappointing for Eddie since he’d never come across a monster quite like the beast he had to play with, but no amount of quick thinking from his band mates could save them from the untimely demise of their characters.

They didn’t have enough spell slots, hit points were straggling, their potions mysteriously vanished, the weaponry they were sure they had in reserves had been used, and only one real lucky saving throw wasn’t enough to save them the following turn.

The False Hydra lurking in the cliffside caves of Rainwund snatching sailors, their ships, townsfolk, and livestock got them. Each and every one of them.

They knew what it was too early though, with Eddie’s flippant dismissal of characters his bandmates were supposed to know, his adamant insistence that no, the town was always that quiet the hell are you talking about, Gare?

Jeff made a spot on educated guess.

It still hadn’t saved them in the end, Dougie’s character lost first with a frankly dreadful saving throw, followed by Gareth’s own little gnome who lasted one full turn longer than he should have, and then finally Jeff himself, but he’d called it. Eddie knew his own friends back home wouldn’t be so quick to catch on, which was the only saving grace for this short jaunt into futuristic DND possibilities.

He could completely blindside his friends.

Probably for the best given this whole thing was meant to fit into a neat little segment on a talk show. Not to span across hours and hours of gameplay, they were already cutting it close to too long.

So, Eddie wrapped it up. With Jeff’s demise, Eddie rose to his feet, arms extending in a great sweeping arc “You fought bravely, oh daring soldiers of ill-fate, however upon this sorrowful day, the town of Rainwund was lost to the song of the False Hydra, it, and it’s victims, would be forgotten by the world and all who walk upon it. Perhaps one day, one fateful day, a new team of would-be heroes will find and defeat this deadly foe, but until then… I humbly bid you fallen soldiers, a peaceful journey to the great beyond.”

The lights dimmed, and for a moment, there was silence while set personnel found their places, then the lights overhead relit with the cameras refocused on the desk and chairs, where Jimmy had relocated.

“Everyone give a big hand to the members of Corroded Coffin!” Applause and cheers rang through the studio, over which he made quick work of reiterating album release dates for them, followed by a quick request of, “stay tuned after the break we’re joined by the cast of MARVEL’s new—” Eddie tuned him out for the rest of it, they were being guided off by stage crew, their segment was over, it was done.

The bubble of imagination popped, the activity giving Eddie a modicum of comfort was over and done with, and maybe he’d stretched it on just a little longer than necessary with peppered suspense, but he couldn’t hold off whatever came after anymore.

Steve met them behind the curtain, beyond the veil of stage lights and TV magic, he gifted the boys little Tupperware containers which they plucked from him as they walked by full of snacks he’d apparently pilfered from the catering tables, Eddie however, he gently manoeuvred Eddie into a side room out of the way with a chirped little “and you’re coming with me, hotshot.”

The room which was dressed up like some kind of fancy dungeon, had curtains pinned to the walls, fake candles flickering on tables, and in the middle, surrounded by chairs, was a table topped by a haphazardly drawn dungeon map and a few mini figs, it looked a little bit like a discount version of his drama room domain in high school.

“What’s goin on?”

“Jimmy wants to do a little opener introduction thing with you as the frontman of the band, it should have been filmed before but you were a little in your own head, so to make you feel better they figured it’d be best to do it afterwards. It’s nothing scary, it’s to go with your little DND thing out there, he wants to basically ‘walk in’ on you as a dungeon master, scheming with a few of your mini figurine things. Maybe throw in a little maniacal laugh for him to walk in on. Is that okay?”

“Oh, uh… yeah, okay, yeah that’s fine, I can do that” one last thing to do, not that it mattered much, but it was part of the experience! But then… thinking about it, “is there any point to that though?” Steve raised a single brow in question “I mean, I’m going home right?” The second brow joined the first and Eddie couldn’t help but panic a little. “I am, right?” He couldn’t imagine going through all that without the assurance that he was going home after it all.

What a wild thought, considering fame and fortune had been the goal for so long, just one interview and he was ready to throw in the towel, and it wasn’t even a bad interview. He just… didn’t feel the happiness he thought he would.

He felt… lonely.

His band were off with their snacks, hadn’t even looked back as he was guided away from them, his ‘partner’ had ditched him before the whole thing, he’d ‘blocked’ him, whatever that meant, and even the fun opener with the host wasn’t a whole band thing, just him. On his own.

All alone.

“If you want to, sure, just say the word. Didn’t you wanna experience this first though?”

“I guess…” Steve took one prolonged look at him, then snapped his fingers, the flickering faux candlelight froze, the sound from outside the room stopped, everything just. Ceased, and Steve dropped the mirage of normalcy he’d adopted to blend into the masses, returning to the damn near ethereal looks he’d had when he’d first appeared “Steve?”

“I’m not going to force you to experience something you’re emotionally done with, Eddie.” Steve stepped closer to him, just close enough to take his hand and give it a gentle squeeze of reassurance. His hands were warm, big… comforting… fingers smooth but they tingled against his skin, as if the digits themselves were wrapped in a magical field of energy. They probably were. They were an instant balm to his drooping mood in any case “If you’re done with this… if you’re tired, you can opt out, leaving this time behind wont hurt anyone here, you can go back home, and we can do something else.”

Gods there was just something so dangerous about Steve, not in the literal sense, although probably yes, in the literal sense too, but he was so… everything. He was everything. His eyes alone, the worlds most valuable golden trinkets couldn’t compare to the shimmer in those eyes of his, as subtle as it may have been, there were flecks of gold in that hazel-green hue. Eddie could have probably lost every single minute, second, millisecond of his available lifetime, just looking at him.

How did he ever think this man was just a random homeless stranger wandering in from the cold? Better question, how was he going to manage being even remotely normal around him going forward?

“I feel like, if I stay… I’m going to walk directly into like, the worst possible thing an it’s gonna make me feel like shit, what’s the odds of that?”

“Mmmnn” he squinted an almost pained expression, tilting his head just a little as he thought about it “ninety percent chance of a bullshit experience.”

Eddie took one more look around the room, then down to his aged and weathered hands clasped within Steve’s own, nodded in self-affirmation, and then met Steve’s eyes once more. “Steve… I wish we were home.”

With a twinkle of the golden flecks in his eye, a warm smile on his lips, and a snap of his fingers, the makeshift dungeon room melted away out of existence. He hadn’t witnessed this the first time around, getting to that time had been a black out, and then he’d woken up to it all. This time, Eddie got to watch.

He got to watch as the world reshaped, formed around them, he got to watch his hands de-age, the wrinkles of time worn into his skin disappearing before his very eyes, tattoos that’d marked his arms vanished until only the ones he recognised remained. His clothes returned, his body regained its youth and all the aches and pains that’d lingered in the back of his mind as a rockstar faded away.

And just like that, the trailer materialised around them. It was dark outside, as if nothing had changed. As if no time had passed. The smells, musty cigarette smoke, the faint scent of coffee, the pitter-patter of rain hitting the roof and gravel outside. He was home.

And Steve was still there, smiling at warmly him, as if he hadn’t just reshaped reality around them, as if everything was normal.

“Better?” His voice even sounded warm, like a heated blanket on a cold day, instant all enveloping comfort.

He wanted to say yes. Wanted to at the very least nod his head, but everything all at once was so very too much, everything he’d been working towards, that they’d been working towards, the band practices in Dougie’s garage, the ‘gigs’ at the Hideout, all the talk, the plans, the promises to themselves that they were gonna make it, they were gonna do something with their talents.

He’d hated it. He’d hated everything about it. He couldn’t even recall if Wayne had been mentioned during the whole ordeal. Was Wayne still around? Was he present? In his life at all? Had he just abandoned his uncle for deeply unfulfilling fame and fortune?

His next exhale came with a sob he couldn’t hold back, and instantly he found himself drawn into two broad arms and a strong embrace. “Oh, Eddie… hey, no it’s okay, I’m here, it’s okay, you’re okay” words uttered so softly into his hair, close enough to his ear that he didn’t have to strain to hear them over the opened floodgates that were his sobs.

He’d tried so hard, for so long with that one goal in mind. And he’d hated it. He couldn’t even stick around for a whole day without the promise that he could get the fuck out of there at any point, and even WITH that promise, he’d bailed early. He couldn’t handle it. He didn’t want it. After all that planning, all those promises to himself, to the band… he didn’t want it.

He was already too far into his life to plan for anything else. He wasn’t getting into college, he struggled to hold down normal jobs, not that he could even get one with his family name hanging over his head, with Al and his bullshit haunting him around every goddamn corner. People wouldn’t even hide their damn sneers, probably wouldn’t even interview him even if he did wanna work there, which he probably didn’t.

His life was one big dead end. How would he even face his friends? How would he even explain it to them? That he couldn’t, that fame wasn’t meant for him? That the cards of life would hand him the shittiest of deals if he stuck around for that draw?

He only vaguely registered Steve moving him as he spiralled, as he sobbed into the Genie’s shirt. The gentle guidance that took him from the living room where they’d rematerialised, to the chaos that was his own bedroom, and then onto his bed, ever so gentle in his manoeuvring that Eddie only realised they’d switched locations when Steve actually wrapped him in his own blanket, always with one arm around him. Never letting him go. Ever so attentive to his charge. Eddie chanced a look at him, his eyes wet, red rimmed, Steve looked perfect.

Of course he looked perfect. Not a hair out of place, his skin shimmering gold in the light. Perfect and entirely too soft in his attention on him.

“I—” Steve shook his head, his smile lacking in pity but drenched in sympathy.

“It’s okay, Eddie… I get it. This is a lot, what you’ve seen, witnessed, what you now understand about that life it’s a lot to take in. You’re going to hurt for a while, but you’ll be okay.”

“W-what do I even—even do now? I—I was gonna—the plan was always—I don’t have anything else, Steve… what am I gonna do?” His friends would be fine. They’d always be fine. They had options, parents who forced them to think of what ifs, of back ups for if the fame and fortune didn’t work out. Funny how it wasn’t because it wouldn’t happen, but because it would, and that it’d suck.

Eddie hadn’t even let Wayne try and make him think of back ups. Fame was it, stardom was the end goal, they’d be famous, and everything would be perfect. How naïve he’d been.

“Whatever you want, Eddie, you have a genuine Genie right here” he even motioned to himself, smile widening a little in a kind tease, before it softened once more just for him “but right now, I think you should sleep, we can go through the rules of Genie ownership in the morning.”

“Rules?” Eddie sniffled, lifting a blanket covered hand to wipe at his face, it was fine, his blanket had seen worse. God he was so tired all of a sudden. Probably the meltdown.

“Genies come with rules, Eddie, we come with guidelines. You kinda ploughed through with that big one right from the jump, didn’t really give me a chance to give you the run down, no harm no foul though, you’re safe, and you’re wiser. We can go through everything in the morning when we’re less frazzled.”

“Okay… but wait, my uncle, he’ll be home in the morning, he doesn’t—doesn’t know you’re here, where are you even gonna go?”

“Crone used to say that like the Fae—” Eddie wasn’t going to bring that up but he clocked it, the word snagged in his tired brain like a fish in a net, Fae, there were Fae? Fae were real? Steve continued undeterred “—‘my surroundings adapt to my presence’, like how she just blends into wherever she pops up, it’s weird, but it’ll be like I’ve always been here to him. He won’t even notice the difference. Nobody will. Just don’t send me back to my bottle, don’t tell me to go into my bottle. Don’t do that.”

“… Why?” Not that he would if Steve didn’t want to be in the bottle, but didn’t Genies just… stay in their bottles? Wasn’t that like, their homes?

“Cause you’ll lose me, I’ll lose you. I told you this already but…it's been a long day. Listen... sending me back to the bottle is equivalent to banishing me and you’ll never get me back again.” Maybe not home then, Eddie’s eyes widened, suddenly sobered by the idea of Steve just vanishing because he’d said something stupid. “I had a master last half an hour once because he told me to get back into the bottle to hide from his wife. I’m here, nobody will know what I am, nobody will think anything is wrong with me being here, won't even question it, don’t send me back… please?” Steve took his hands into his own, holding them tight in his warm, tingling grip “I—I don’t wanna go back.”

It was the least composed he’d seen the Genie since he’d met him what felt like weeks ago. It’d been a few hours. A few hours, and that was in another timeline, time didn’t even seem to have passed in his own.

He looked… desperate. Eyes wide, pleading. A smarter man might have questioned him, checked for loopholes, traps, anything nefarious a Genie might hide in plain sight, they were supposed to be tricksters after all.

But Eddie was not a smart man, he was also completely gone over those eyes. Tragic, really.

He sniffled once more, but nodded his head, eyes drooping, exhaustion catching up to him after his almost cathartic meltdown. “Okay… but where are you going to sleep?” If Genies even slept, it wasn’t like there were many options in the single bedroom trailer. Wayne had to sleep on a fold out cot in the living room for crying out loud.

“I’ll sleep with you, that’s fine right?” Oh.

A smarter man, would also probably just use his unlimited wishes to wish for a second bed, but again. Eddie was not a smart man.

“Yeah okay, that’s uh—that’s okay.” Eddie was in fact the least smartest man he knew.

Steve smiled brighter than the goddamn sun, and Gods both young and old, Eddie was so very fucked.

#PirateWrites #IWishFiclet #Steddie #No Upside Down AU #Genie!Steve #just imagine how big of a menace Eddie could be with THAT monster #considering it wasnt invented yet back then!

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maniculum · 1 year ago

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Bestiaryposting: Wutugald

Welcome to the first installment of bestiaryposting! This week, we're going to try and illustrate everyone's favorite critter, the Wutugald! If anything about that confused you, you can find an explanation at (this link here) and all the posts in this series at (this link here).

That said, I think we can cut the introduction there... this one is actually a mildly morbid note to start on, but the order is randomized and I've decided to just roll with it:

There is an animal called the Wutugald, which inhabits the tombs of the dead and feeds on their bodies. Its nature is that it is sometimes male, sometimes female, and it is therefore an unclean animal. Since its spine is rigid, all in one piece, it cannot turn round except by turning its body right around. Solinus recounts many marvellous things about the Wutugald. First, it stalks the sheepfolds of shepherds and circles their houses by night, and by listening carefully learns their speech, so that it can imitate the human voice, in order to fall on any man whom it has lured out at night. The Wutugald also [imitates] human vomit and devours the dogs it has enticed with faked sounds of retching. If dogs hunting the Wutugald accidentally touch its shadow behind, they lose their voices and cannot bark. In its search for buried bodies, the Wutugald digs up graves. This beast has a stone in its eyes, called [redacted]; anyone who keeps it under his tongue is believed to foretell the future. It is true that if the Wutugald walks three times around any animal, the animal cannot move. For this reason men declare that the Wutugald has magical properties. In a part of Ethiopia the Wutugald mates with the lion; their union produces a monster, named [redacted]. Like the Wutugald, it too produces men's voices. It never tries to change the direction of its glance but strives to see without changing it. It has no gums in its mouth. Its single, continuous tooth is closed naturally like a casket so that it is never blunted.

So, there you are. Anyone who wants to illustrate or otherwise depict the Wutugald, post what you've got under the tag #wutugald, and I'll collect them in a round-up post in a week's time. (Appropriately credited, of course.)

And a reminder: please do not try and guess the identity of the animal described. I’m sure some of you recognized it, but keep it to yourselves. That’s not the point of this exercise, and if you start putting guesses in the tags or something, you risk influencing the artists, so please don’t.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #wutugald #cw: animal death #i guess

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amethystandemma · 2 months ago

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Welcome to chaos!

My last introduction post is like a year old, so here we go.

AmethystandEmma’s Intro

Hi everyone! I’m Emma. I’m 20 years old, autistic, and a Christian. Plus a bunch of other stuff, but those are my main three things.

My username is AmethystandEmma because Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld is one of my favorite superheroes!

I’ve been writing fics since sixth grade, so about eight years now? I��ve recently gotten into drawing as well.

My main fandoms are currently DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Harry Potter, Hogwarts Legacy, and Fantastic Beasts. They are subject to change though, so keep that in mind.

As of October of 2024, I have become less active on all social media sites. I was feeling extremely stressed and social media was part of the reason.

I’m fine with minors being on here. I remember how lonely I felt without fandoms. It’s important to be able to connect.

It literally makes my day when people comment on my stuff or share it. I usually check out the other person's profile as well and try to spread the love back!

If you have any questions or just wanna chat, give me a DM or ask!

Pfp and header is Oliver Wood and Radiant Glasspetal (Glasswood) by giselsann.

Now, for my content (under the cut).

Fanfics!

Young Love (Sebastian Sallow x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

The Funeral of Anne Sallow [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Proposal Gone Wrong (Newt Scamander x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1 -> Part 2

The Raven Meets the Auror (Theseus Scamander x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Coffee (Theseus Scamander x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Meeting on the Pitch (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Radiant Glasspetal and the First Quidditch Match (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1 -> Part 2

A Lesson in Quidditch (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Percy’s Right Hook (Percy Weasley x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

No Making Out on the Quidditch Pitch! (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Times Are Changing (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Proper Young Lady (Radiant Glasspetal) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

The Dance (Oliver Wood x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Reunion (Percy Weasley x OC) [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Rise of the Blue Comet (Dick Grayson x OC) [ONGOING]

Chapter 1 -> Chapter 2 -> Chapter 3 ->

The Wedding of Bruce Wayne and Silver St. Cloud [COMPLETE]

Part 1

Stolen [ONGOING]

Part 1 -> Part 2 ->

My Tags

DC: #aqua charming, #aqua grayson, #blue comet, #d'aqua, #callie eclipse, #macy cobblepot, #kindal blazilike, #red veil, #shane todd, #scarlet quiver

Marvel: #sunny castle, #sunshine castle, #sunny parker, #sunshine parker, #halo

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About my OCs

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#amethystandemma #fanfic writer #harry potter #wizarding world #fantastic beasts #hogwarts legacy #dc comics #marvel comics

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theredofoctober · 2 years ago

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MANNA FIC— CHAPTER ONE: PAPRIKA

Dark!Hannibal Lecter x Reader x Dark!Will Graham fic, TW for eating disorders, noncon, abuse, drugging, mild Daddy kink (it'll all make sense).

Chronologically this is the first chapter in the series.

Keep reading after the cut

Later, when you reflect on your first meeting with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, you will marvel at the Sybilan apprehension that had wreathed the merest detail of that night: the oppressive colours of his office, grey and vermillion from window to wall, the very choice to have you see him at an evening appointment, penning you in by way of the darkness.

Yet, as you sit across from Hannibal in a low leather chair, you contain only a spiteful rancour, one foot jouncing testily as the doctor attempts to extract answers from you beyond a penchant for grudging monosyllables.

“I understand that you have seen therapists in the past,” he says, in a neutral tone.

You stare at the curtains in their dissected oblongs of red and ash, like bloodied teeth against the wall: anything but meet the eyes that seem to have already picked you apart in the mere minutes you have been before him.

“Yeah,” you mutter. “A couple of times. CBT stuff. I hated it. Doesn’t work for me.”

Dr. Lecter offers you a smile so imperceptible that he might not have moved at all.

“Understandable. Cognitive behavioural therapy is a better fit for anxiety and negative thinking— it has its place, but for patients with deeper trauma, their illness may prove too complex for it to be effective. Dialectical behavioural therapy would perhaps be more suitable, in your case.”

Shrugging curtly, you do not ask him to elaborate. There is no therapy in the book that you would warm to; you had set out tonight only to put an end to familial begging, in its absence of dignity.

You resent the nakedness of your secrets before this stranger, before anyone, your suffering made public domain. Like a brow-beaten captive, you are moved to defend your self abuse against all those who seek to extract it from you.

Hannibal watches you with a dry intensity, his gaze rarely straying from your face. He is a lean, polished figure in an impeccable red check suit, dark hair swept back from a face of meticulous and rather interesting beauty.

His brows are low, almost invisible, his eyes small, and as dark as tree flux, the nose—straight, and as debonair as the rest of him—leading down from two furrows that suggest an earnest and curious whimsy.

His air, thus far, has been both tactful and polite, unperturbed by your close-mouthed unwillingness to yield to quizzing in even the most inoffensive line. You should like him, you suppose, yet you have already branded him an enemy.

He is a man; how could you ever be expected to open up to him?

“How long have you struggled with your eating disorder?” asks Hannibal.

You cross your arms over your chest, barring him out, a theological defence against the vampire of such dreaded questioning.

“You’ve read my records. You already know.”

“Certainly, but I would like to hear your experience in your own words. Such documents may represent only the most objective truths, and reveal very little of you, or what you are feeling at any given moment. Besides, they are as fallible as the professionals that create them. If there are any inaccuracies, your answers will bring them to light.”

The implication that you may share, with him, an honesty that you have refused previous therapists bears a quiet arrogance that might have won you over, were you not set so resolutely in your hatred.

“Fine,” you say. “I’ve had it since I was a kid.”

‘IT’; the word may as well be in baleful capitals, the introduction to some eponymous beast. You will give your ailment no other name aloud, have never done so, except in clandestine internet entry, forcing the thorn further beneath the nail.

Dr. Lecter digests your simple answer, finding flavour in its enigma.

“You have no intentions of recovery without intervention. What served you in your formative years, you will continue to savour.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get better,” you retort. “It’ll always be there, so what’s the point?”

The question had shaken previous professionals into stumbling objection; not so Hannibal Lecter, whose ambiguous calm nevertheless bears the same imperceptible threat as the night.

“Would you say the same to an alcoholic?” he asks. “Many live out their lives through a succession of losses and victories, and likewise, many emerge fulfilled and content in having struck out on the path of self-betterment. Yet, by your logic, you would condemn them all in their relationship to illness.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” you object; your foot bounces so violently over the arm of the chair that Hannibal glances at it, his focus unbalanced by the distraction. “It’s different for me, okay?”

“In what regard? What prevents you from regarding your own struggles with the same grace?”

“It’s... it's not the same. I don't want to talk about it.”

Panic makes you feel almost buoyant in the room, a kite with your string cut, to be devoured by the wind.

“You have not yet reached the point that recovery seems possible, or even desirable to you,” says Hannibal, across your distress. “That is quite normal. For many individuals with eating disorders, recovery can take up to ten years to achieve— a long and difficult road, yet while there is no permanent cure, there is still reward in that destination.”

This you have heard before, in other iterations; he loses you a little, a mistake that he seems to catch in your reply.

“You don’t understand.”

“If you mean that I cannot directly empathise, that is true,” says Dr. Lecter. “I do not share your struggles. Food is a great pleasure to me. Still, I comprehend the crux of your illness— that you once seized a handhold in a rock when you were falling, and still refuse to let it go when there is earth to hold you.”

You continue to jiggle your shoe in a pattern of agitation.

“You’ll never be able to hold me.”

Hannibal leans forward and places a hand upon your foot, guiding it soundly still again.

“That remains to be seen.”

Your breath peters in your throat. It apalls you that he has touched you without asking, that his hand—so warm through the leather of your sneaker—makes you imagine it within the wet turncoat of your cunt.

Suddenly you’re standing from your seat without acknowledging the motion that led you there, like a frame scratched from an old tape.

“I’m leaving,” you say, abruptly. “I’m sorry. This just isn’t for me.”

Hannibal looks up at you, and the still, smooth planes of his features alarm you in their lack of urgency.

“Please,” he says. “Sit down. You will not be leaving here today.”

He is so slim and unassuming in his tailored suit that you feel yourself the red-capped girl of fairy tale, entering an elder’s cabin to the appetites of a wolf.

“What are you talking about?” you whisper.

Dr. Lecter leans forward, speaking with a low and graceful regret.

“I must inform you that your parents have signed a written agreement for you to enter inpatient care, overseen by myself and a colleague.”

Betrayal breaks across you in a death bed sweat: how could they? What have they done?

“No!” you say. “You're lying.”

Dr. Lecter pats a folder resting on the arm of his chair.

“I would be willing to show you the paperwork, if you insist upon it.”

“I don’t care,” you say, your voice a shrill of indignation. “They can’t just send me away without my permission! It’s illegal!”

“As guardians to a vulnerable adult, it is entirely so.”

You don’t believe him, although your parents evidently did, pressed by their earnest desperation to reverse the agonies of time.

“Whatever,” you say, coldly. “I’m not staying.”

Hannibal tilts his head at an angle of frosty amusement, and suddenly you grasp that this is no ordinary intervention, but incarceration, for reasons yet unknown.

Terror snarls through you like thunder, and you run for the door, wrenching at the handle to find it locked against you.

“What the fuck?” you cry, though you had known in your most basic, animal senses that this man—this room—would be your undoing.

Dr. Lecter has gotten up from his seat and is striding towards you, seizing your arms at the wrists, as firmly as a father; you turn your head in a feral reflex and attempt to bite him, stalled by the wool of his jacket in your teeth. He turns your writhing figure towards him, your skirt bunched up to your waist in the struggle, his palm a blacksmith’s tool on your bare skin, a scarring heat.

His expression is scarcely altered by the struggle, his breathing slow, even. You are no threat to him; he has surely restrained patients like this before, a necessary training.

You will not go quietly, as perhaps others have, before you. You bring your knee into his groin until you hear him grunt in the desired pain, but he does not lose his grip upon you, only drives you back against the door, his eyes churning with a wild satisfaction.

“You will learn not to disobey, little one,” he says, and before you can absorb the threat there is a needle at your neck, and chemical night.

You half-wake some hours later to the voices of two men, one of them Hannibal, the other unfamiliar, speaking in a curt and cautious rhythm.

“This is her?” asks the unknown man— through fluttering eyelids you see him, all rumpled hair and scowling good looks, an image from some obscure Brontë novel. “The patient you talked about on the phone? What have you given her? She looks out of it.”

“A mild sedative,” Hannibal replies, “with some additional compounds. It’s alright, Will. She will revive soon, likely in a confused state. This will pass.”

Will hangs back, his mouth an angle of uncertainty.

“Forgive me, Dr. Lecter, but I’m a little confused as to what I’m doing here.”

“Your role will be paramount to the healing process,” says Hannibal, touching a hand to his colleague’s flannel sleeve with familiar tenderness. “Together, we will each be whatever our subject requires from one moment to the next. A healer, a father, a lover, a friend—”

“All while crossing the boundaries of what could be considered valid treatment into an inappropriate relationship,” Will cuts in, sharply. “Surely that’s only going to make things worse.”

Dr. Lecter approaches you, adjusting a pillow behind your head; you are too out of it to object, unsure whether it is a chair or a bed you occupy in your prone state.

“What is appropriate is not always the most effective method of healing,” says Hannibal. “This patient requires complex support. Decisions to be made for her that other professionals would not be comfortable making.”

Will shakes his head, grimly amused.

“And you are.”

“Certainly. Over the years I have seen results from the most unorthodox approaches. I have an interest in observing how she will respond to mine.”

You watch the two men exchange glances, and blearily wonder if they are merely friends, or something more.

“Dr. Lecter, I have no idea how to connect with her,” says Will. “And frankly the idea of trying isn’t something I’m particularly enthusiastic about.”

“Your discinclination to be involved may work to her benefit,” says Hannibal, smoothly. “While my part is to provide gentle guidance and compassion, you will offer the firm hand required to leash the chaos of her disturbed mind and behaviours.”

Will scoffs in disbelief.

“The good cop, bad cop routine? That seems a little obvious for you, doctor.”

“And yet it may be precisely what she craves. Stability. Discipline.”

At this, there is a certain change in the air of the room; one day, you will know it as hunger, so many appetites contained between two men.

“Well, which one is going to come first?” asks Will, relenting. “Stability, or discipline?”

“When she is fully awake, we will know," say Hannibal. "And we will deliver it.”

#ao3 writer #dark fic #manna fic #dark!fic #hannibal lecter x reader #dark hannibal lecter #yandere hannibal lecter #yandere will graham #will graham x reader #tw eating disorders #tw noncon

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soviet-supersoldier · 1 month ago

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Character Examination: Omega Red

Part 4: X-men (1991) #6

This comic is near and dear to my heart. It served as my first introduction to Omega Red as a character, being one of the first comic books that I ever read. I remember getting this comic with a Marvel Legends Sabretooth figure my dad bought in the early 2000s and every time I see this cover, I'm hit with a real sense of nostalgia:

Being the only part of this story arc I was able to read as a kid, Omega Red was really an enigma, a character that I really didn't grow to appreciate and discover his full story for until much later in life. When I first read this, I read it for Wolverine. And also Sabretooth. But they're not the ones I'm examining this story for now. How times change.

So, right out of the gate in this one, the X-men start on a rescue mission to try to get Wolverine back after managing to track down the location of the Hand's base in Berlin. This is where I saw Omega Red for the first time, popping out of nowhere to smack Beast in the face:

The way the characters are laid out on the panel here makes it rather difficult to figure out just where Arkady came from. The ceiling? The wall? Another hallway? It's a bit of a confusing perspective. Regardless, Arkady sounds like he had been lying in wait for them for a least a little while, listening to their conversation until he decided to step in and say, "Hello."

This also marks the only time Omega Red and Beast really interacted until Krakoa's X-Force. Given how Beast treats Arkady in X-Force, killing him or targeting him over the course of the series, one could argue that this moment right here is where Beast formed his grudge. That must have been one hell of a punch. And left-handed, too. Arkady has a good left hook. He throws a few of them over the course of his appearances, and as a lefty, it always makes me smile when I see it.

Before I move on from this page, there are two things I want to note. The first is with Arkady’s dialogue. As the standard of the time, villains in comics did a lot of monologuing as a way to tell the audience about themselves and their abilities. Their dialogue is used to advance the story and fill the heroes in about their opponent. Omega Red’s is no different, and it will really become apparent on the next page. That being said, Omega Red does end up developing the character trait of being a bit chatty while he fights, so it's not too out of character for him to talk, even about himself and his abilities. It's really the only time he ever gets the chance, seeing as how he only ever really showed up for fights for so many of his appearances. If he wasn't a talker, we'd never really know anything about him from his perspective at all.

The other thing of note is in the narration boxes: "Several decades ago, he was to be the world's first supersoldier -- in service to Mother Russia! Instead, he spent the last 30 years in a tomb."

After this story arc, comics that later come out about Arkady’s past really start to muddy up this established timeline. When this story came out, the narration would have suggested that the events Logan keeps having flashbacks to occurs in the 1960s. But then, Banshee is tied to his backstory (because reasons) and he said the events he took part in happened 20 years beforehand. Not only that, but Arkady was recently shown to have been a child in the 1960s. So something got messed up along the way in Omega Red’s personal timeline that still hasn't been properly addressed. Perhaps a future origin story will fix it, but for now, I suppose a solution of some sort is to say that Logan's memory sucks and that these events didn't happen 30 years ago like he thought, but rather, closer to 20 like Banshee had said and that the overall Marvel timeline is just scooted up from this occuring in the 1960s to now occuring sometime in the 1970s or 1980s.

Onto the next page:

So here Arkady talks about himself. His dialogue serving to introduce us, the audience, to what it is that he can do. He talks about his Carbonadium tentacles and their similarities to adamantium, how it is more maleable and not quite as indestructible as adamantium. However, they are still, for all intents and purposes, indestructible. That's why it really bothers me whenever I see someone cut his coils. They're still made of an indestructible material. It should be as impossible of a situation to occur as someone slicing Wolverine's adamantium claws in half. Now, ripping them out? I could see that happen. They are implants after all.

After talking about his coils, Omega Red then talks about his mutant powers, with Jubilee making a fart joke with regards to his abilities as he turns his powers on her. Brave of her to make such a joke, but then, I doubt Arkady truly understood what it was she was talking about. His dialogue suggests he's not quite listening to what she's saying. He knocks her out with a physical backhand and a sort of compliment/thank you for being an (unwilling) donor towards keeping himself alive.

This is made apparent later, but for as many times as Arkady claims his abilities are lethal, we never see him kill anyone here. He always just knocks them out, even though he continually says he needs their life energy to keep himself alive. Why does he do that when he has such an obvious need? Well, the real reason is that Marvel can't let all their heroes just die, but that leaves a weird plot hole within the story itself. Why doesn't Arkady kill these people? He has no connection to him, they're invaders into the facility he's at, and he needs life energy to live. A good guess might be that Matsu'o gave him orders not to kill, as capturing the X-men rather than killing them might draw Wolverine back in. And he is their real target. That, and Matsu'o seems to have some plans for Psylocke at least, so it would be in his best interests to make sure Omega Red doesn't end up killing her. Of course, he could have given the order to kill all intruders except the one who looks like a sexy ninja babe, but maybe he thought that would be too complicated. Regardless, Arkady, despite having death powers and a need for life energy to keep himself alive, kills absolutely no one.

As all this is happening, Logan is elsewhere with Maverick trying to fight for his life. These past hours have been incredibly taxing for him, and he's experiencing a ton of flashbacks to the time when he encountered Omega Red as a member of Team X:

So, Omega Red doesn't really appear on this page of the flashback outside of his coils shooting up through the floor here, but I want to make a few notes. The first is that Janice says, "The supersoldier has been activated." In the next issue, we find out that Team X starts their raid while Arkady is having his procedures done. He's naked in a tank being operated on when Team X shows up. And then they steal the C-Synthesizer (and later additions to this event add Sabretooth making a sales pitch to Arkady to join them and John Wraith making an appearance -- a lot ends up getting crammed into this). So, after Team X busts in and grabs Janice, Arkady has to get out of the tank, listen to Creed's pitch, kick him out, get dressed and have all the implants and things properly hooked up in order to go after them. All this right after Arkady went through (likely) the most painful process of his life. He's a real trooper for that, and you really have to applaud his speed, but man, he must have been really hurting.

The second note I want to make is with regards to how Janice dies here. Why is it important? Well, because of this lovely panel that occurs in X-men (1991) #18:

Hmm. Something doesn't add up here. Why is Logan blaming Arkady for what happened to Janice? As his own flashback reveals:

Omega Red wasn't even on the same floor as them when Janice was killed. Logan clearly saw Sabretooth murder her. So why is he blaming Arkady for it several issues later? Crappy memory? Hard to say, but after that, Janice Hollenbeck is never mentioned again and Logan never brings this up in any of his fights with Sabretooth. Just the one he had with Omega Red. To this day, it baffles me that Arkady is the one he truly blames for her death since he wasn't the one who actually killed her.

So, the next page of the flashback shows us Arkady at long last:

So, Sabretooth ends up saving everyone's skin here (at least everyone not named Omega Red) and they all escape with the C-Synthesizer. With regards to Arkady on this page here, I want to talk about a few things. The first is his dialogue. His speech bubble is very unique, along with the lettering. The styling does seem to imply that Arkady’s words are supposed to come off as menacing and sounding rather off-putting, and it probably does, but I think that it's really due to two main reasons. The first is due to the pain he's probably in right now. Remember, he just had a major operation and was told to get up and go without any sort of recovery time whatsoever. It probably really hurts to talk. Or breathe. Or move. And yet he has to do so. Arkady knows the importance of what was stolen. He has to get it back or his life is going to really, really suck. The second reason is due to him speaking English. At this time, I doubt he was a very good English speaker. There are times where he seems to struggle with it even now. He was probably still learning and unfamiliar with the language. Despite the pain he was in, he was supposed to try to communicate clearly in a second language. I say he did a good job.

The next thing I want to talk about is his appearance here:

Look at all those mechanical parts strapped to his head. We see this design for him in one other flashback in the pages of Cable, and the design in and of itself tells a rather sad and painful story. Unlike Logan, who naturally has his claws, Arkady’s coils are 100% implants. Rather complicated ones too. How do they work? How do they move? As the headgear implies, it's by a computer/brain interface. Procedures had to be done to connect the coils to his brain to allow him to mentally control and move them. And given the technology level from back in the day, it was going to end up being something that's big, clunky, hot, and heavy. He had to carry that thing around on his head in order for the implants to work. His hair had to be shaved off. It was probably a very miserable piece of equipment to be forced to carry.

As time went on, this headgear disappeared, getting smaller and smaller until now the only real implants we see left on his head are the ones that remain on his cheeks. Why there? No clue. Guess the artists just think it looks really cool and decided that they wanted to keep it. However, seeing these first iterations of his design tells us that as the technology improved, Arkady had to go through procedures over and over again to update it. To have all the old equipment removed and then replaced with new implants had to have been horrible. Major procedures without any form of anesthesia at all. It had to have been agony. He would have been treated like a machine, having parts exchanged to make him more efficient. It would be the kind of thing that would really destroy any human image Arkady would have of himself, and you really end up seeing that view Arkady ends up having of himself in some of Omega Red’s upcoming appearances.

The final thing I have to say about this flashback before continuing on is how we have never seen what happened to Arkady after this. What he had to face when he went back to his superiors and had to tell them that Team X got away. That had to have been incredibly defeating. His very first assignment as a finished (somewhat) supersoldier: a failure. I doubt that his superiors were happy with him. And after this, he had to somehow find a way to carry on and do the jobs he was ordered to do despite the pain that he now had to live with. His life must have been absolutely horrid after this and only served to build up resentment and hatred towards all the members of Team X. They ruined his life.

So Arkady appears on this page with Sabretooth and the others, but says absolutely nothing. He's likely thinking about Sabretooth though, but given what Sabretooth says, that he doesn't remember Omega Red, he probably figures it's best to just keep his mouth shut. If Creed remembers what he did to Arkady and why, he likely would not do the job -- or at least that is likely the thought. The doctor and Matsu'o also avoid saying Omega Red’s name at all either, which implies they are probably thinking the same thing. That it's best to keep Sabretooth ignorant of their past history and keep him focused on Wolverine.

So Sabretooth goes off hunting and finds Wolverine and Maverick. Here, we are led to believe that Sabretooth was the victorious one and that he and Psylocke captured them. But, as is made clear next issue, it's a ruse:

So, focusing on the dialogue exchanged between the doctor and Arkady, we get a bit of insight as to what Omega Red thinks of Creed and the situation he finds himself in. The doctor notes the irony of the situation, that Sabretooth is unknowingly fixing a problem he helped cause 30(ish) years ago. Omega Red replies with, "There is much I owe Sabretooth. And I have every intention of paying back my debts in the order of which they occured."

What does Arkady mean by that? That he's going to end up waltzing to Victor's door one day and say, "Comrade Creed, now that I've finished paying off my debts to Matsu'o, I work for you now. I have to pay off that debt I owe you."? I don't think so. I doubt that he'd ever want to make life-long slavery his life goal. I think his intentions are far darker. This ends up really getting confirmed next issue, but it is implied here that Arkady’s view of paying back his "debts" is to kill the people responsible for there being a debt in the first place. Sabretooth is on his hit list. It doesn't matter if he's "helping" here. Creed screwed him over and made his life a living hell for 30(ish) years. He's had decades to build up resentment. He wants to dish out some real payback. Just like he wants to do to Logan.

The final thing of note that happens in this issue is the cliffhanger. It was one that really stuck in my mind as a kid because I never got to see how it ended. It took years for me to find out what happened next. So I thought about this a lot. Who would Omega Red kill to keep himself alive? Which X-men character was on the chopping block? How would the team react? Turns out, I didn't have to worry at all, as Omega Red -- despite being given an open invitation to kill as many X-men as he wanted -- kills exactly zero X-men.

Why? Matsu'o even says that Omega Red needs life energy. How and why did no X-men die? Did Arkady just tell Matsu'o, "No thanks, I'm not really hungry right now. Maybe later."? Next issue, it is implied Arkady was "using" (or at least was tricked into thinking he was using), Psylocke's life energy to sustain his own (which is something I will talk about in the examination of next issue), but she's not here right now. She's in the sewers with Creed. Absolutely nothing was preventing Arkady from killing the X-men. And yet he didn't. Once again, Marvel can't bring itself to have any heroes die, but as a consequence, leaves an interesting plot hole that can only really be filled with a variation of Arkady simply choosing not to kill. It's the start of a rather peculiar "no killing" pattern Arkady ends up developing despite the condition he's stuck living with, one that becomes more obvious the more appearances of his you read.

Well, this ended up being a very long review of this issue. The next one might end up being just as long. We will have to see as this first story arc featuring Omega Red begins to draw to a close.

#omega red #arkady rossovich #marvel comics #character deep dive #ramblings and musings on omega red #character examination project #X-men (1991) 6

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thedissonantverses · 2 months ago

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Dragon Age as an Introduction to Post-Modernism(Part 1)

“The center cannot hold.” This is one of my favorite quotes in the English language. You’d think I’d have first heard it one of my many literature classes but no, I first saw it in Stephen King’s The Stand, which if you haven’t read it is a buck-wild coked out good vs evil narrative where the Antichrist uses the U.S. Military to destroy the world.

Anyhow, the full poem is by William Butler Yeats and goes like this:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

Now dear reader, I don't know about you, but when I read that I am strongly reminded of:

"And so the Golden City is Blackened

With each step you take into my Hall.

Marvel at perfection for it is fleeting.

For you have brought sin into Heaven.

And Doom upon all the World. "

Before we go any further, we need to define Post-Modernism as a school of thought. But first, we start with Modernism because it is easier to define the former against its predecessor. In a lot of ways, Modernism was driven by schools of thought like the Enlightenment. There's the idea that there is some kind of utopia humanity is striving for. If you were a say, white, upper-class man in the 1880's who sees more democracies forming, more advances in science and technology, less restrictive rule of the church, it was easy to think that humanity was going to achieve some great final universal destination. Humanity is ultimately good and eventually everything will be okay.

Then WWI happened. Yeats’ poem above? The historical context surrounding it is the utter, devastating ruin that was WWI. A war often overshadowed by the sheer, unapologetic evil of WWII, but WWI was the first time in history humanity saw what horror technology, biological warfare, and mechanical ingenuity can unleash. Nine million military dead, 23 million wounded, and 8 million civilians dead. Try to wrap your head around those numbers. How do you cope with the knowledge that humanity is even capable of that kind of unmitigated destruction. That we can rip entire countries to shreds and not even blink. At the same time, the Spanish Influenza killed, by the lower estimates, 50 million people. The human brain physically cannot comprehend what those numbers look like. An entire generation was just gone. I cannot emphasize enough what this phase of history did to humanity on a large scale, psychologically and physically. All of the worst things we are capable of a species, we did and then some.

Which is how we get to Post-Modernism. Rather than aiming for some universal ideal, we are aiming to understand. The center cannot hold because there is no center and never was. There is no universal morality. Get comfortable with cognitive dissonance and unreality. Get comfortable with the idea that two things can and must be true at once.

Just to make it perfectly clear, Post-Modernism is not a centrist philosophy. There are very hard lines in the sand when it comes to things like slavery, genocide, colonialism, eugenics, centrism, fascism. We do not tolerate such things on this blog. Okay? Okay. One of the reasons I'm writing this is because I truly think the death of media literacy is contributing to the rise of fascism we're seeing world-wide. Forgetting, ignoring, and white-washing history is not the goal.

Another large takeaway from Post-Modernism is that if you read a war story and came away feeling inspired, it's probably a bad story. I strongly recommend Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or Tim O'Brian's The Things They Carried if you want good books to explore this particular topic further. War is horror. It is the Void, the emptiness you stare into that stares back. It takes everything from you, including yourself. Trying to make sense of something so senseless is a Sisyphean task I, and many other have spent our whole lives chasing. One of the reasons I'm so fascinated by history was when I learned about the Holocaust and just could not understand.

Until I did.

As for how all of this applies to Dragon Age, what I want to spend the next four parts exploring how these ideas of unreliable narration, existential horror, history being written by the victors, and that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter are the whole point. I want to take a look at each game individually through my favorite literary school of thought. Hope to see you on the next part, where I shall tackle Origins first.

#dragon age #veilguard #dragon age meta #my takes

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oliverdeend · 3 months ago

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Introduction!

I’m Oliver and I’m a 19 year old hobby artist from Germany ☺️

This is my first time being active active on here, soo.. I’m still new to this 🫶🏻

I’m autistic and I may have spelling mistakes because I’m dyslexic and I’m not a native English speaker (please don’t be mean if I write something wrong🥲🙏🏻)

This is a tickle blog and I thought I’ll post the stuff i usually post on instagram here too! (Most of them have bad quality because I deleted the original pictures, but from now on I’ll make sure they’re in good quality😅)

I think it’s also important to mention that I don’t do commissions or anything because I’m a very slow drawer who takes lots of monthly breaks 😵‍💫 (but you can always ask/ DM me and I’m always reading asks/ DM’s ☺️ and if you’re lucky I might just draw you something if life isn’t too consuming and you’re not a demanding jerk entitled to my time)

(Help on how to do things/ run a blog and things I can do better is appreciated🙏🏻🩷)

Fandom list under the cut!

DC villains and Heroes

Tabaluga

Marvel (x-men too)

Slashers Movies

Disney Villains (maybe heroes too depending on who)

Adventure Time

Transformers (hopefully I’ll manage to get the details 🥲)

Sh-Ra (on Netflix) / He-Man

Stop motion Movies/ Short Movies (a Mister Brothers Christmas, Peter cottontail, Wendel & Wild, etc..)

Ben 10 (and everything else that belongs to the franchise)

The Octonauts

Hilda (on Netflix)

Hazbin Hotel/ Helluva Boss

The little Prince

The Sandman (on Netflix)

9 (the movie from 2005 with the little “dolls”)

Star Wars the Clone Wars

School for Vampires

The amazing digital Circus

Anime⬇️

Welcome to demon school! Irim-kun

Assassination classroom

Seven deadly sins

Overlord

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

One Piece

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts

I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss

Ancient Magus Bride

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon

Delicious in Dungeon

Dragonball Z (idk about completely all of it but I’ll try my best)

Comics/ Manga/ Stories⬇️

Siúil, a Rún - The Girl from the Other Side

The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife

The Property of Hate

Vast Unknown

Creepypasta And SCP (not all of them but some)

Video Games

Dead by Daylight

Poppy Playtime

FNAF (again idk much about the new stuff but I’ll try)

Undertale (maybe Deltarune too but i don’t know much about it)

Backrooms

Lethal Company

Fran Bow

Little Misfortune

Night in the woods

I’m pretty sure I forgot some but this is all for now 😋

You can always ask for a Fandom even if it isn’t on the list, I’ll let you know if I’ll be doing it (and hey, maybe the new fandom even lands on the list if I like it :)

Side note: these are the ones I’ll be drawing or Writing for, not all I know. I know plenty more wich I just didn’t want to include because they’re too hard to draw or just not my cup of tea

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dailyjeangrey · 1 month ago

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Hello!!!!

This is a fan blog dedicated to Marvel’s greatest telepath: Jean Elaine Grey. Also known as Marvel Girl and Sometimes Pheonix

Jean Grey was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for their new comic book series The Uncanny X-Men. Jean was the only girl on the original team (up until Uncanny X-Men #49) and served as a founding member of the X-Men alongside Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman.

Jean’s powers initially revolved around telekinesis, which allowed her to manipulate objects with her mind. As the series progressed, it was revealed that Jean was also a telepath

Jean’s story took off with the introduction of the Phoenix Force. In X-Men #101, her transformation into the Phoenix made her Marvel's first female cosmic hero. However, this also introduced an internal struggle as she grappled with the entity’s darker side. This conflict ultimately culminated in the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Her role in the X-Men is foundational—Jean is the team’s heart and moral compass, often balancing her immense strength with compassion and selflessness. She’s been a student, a teacher, a leader, and, most importantly, a symbol of the power and resilience of the human (and mutant) spirit.

Whether as Marvel Girl, Phoenix, or simply Jean, her legacy in the Marvel Universe is unmatched. We’re here to celebrate all things Jean Grey daily—her triumphs, struggles, and everything in between!

This account has two admins: 👻 and 👽. On this blog we will also talk about the current struggles within the world such as Palestine and Congo. We will try to post once a day but no promises 😁

Here is a basic reading guide for her

—The Original Marvel Girl Era (1963–1975)—

The Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1 – Jean’s debut as the only female founding member of the X-Men.

The Uncanny X-Men (1963) #4-7 – Jean’s early adventures and her blossoming relationship with Cyclops.

The Uncanny X-Men (1963) #43-46 — Jean’s growing confidence with her powers and teamates

—The Phoenix Saga (1976–1979)—

X-Men (1975) #98-108 – The Phoenix Saga. Jean bonds with the Phoenix Force for the first time, sacrificing herself and gaining godlike power.

Classic X-Men (1986) #8 and #43 – Expanded stories and insights into Jean’s time as Phoenix

—The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980)—

X-Men (1980) #129-138 – The Dark Phoenix Saga. This is the definitive Jean Grey story, chronicling her fall into darkness and ultimate sacrifice.

—Post-Dark Phoenix and Resurrection (1986–1990)—

X-Factor (1986) #1-3 – Jean is resurrected, and the original X-Men reunite as X-Factor.

X-Factor (1986) #27-30 (Inferno Arc) – Jean faces Madelyne Pryor, her clone, and wrestles with the fallout of her resurrection.

Uncanny X-Men (1988) #242-243 – Confrontation between Jean, Scott, and Madelyne during Inferno.

— Jean as a Leader and the 90s Era (1991–2000) —

Uncanny X-Men (1991) #281-283 – Jean leads the X-Men through major transitions after Professor Xavier’s departure.

X-Men (1991) #1-3 – The launch of the 90s X-Men series, featuring Jean and the team battling Magneto.

X-Men: The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994) – Jean and Scott are sent to the future to raise Cable.

X-Men (1995) #30 – Jean and Scott’s wedding issue.

— Morrison’s Era (2001–2004)—

New X-Men (2001) #114-154 – Grant Morrison reinvents Jean as a more assertive leader and explores her connection to the Phoenix.

• Highlights: Her transformation into the Phoenix once again (New X-Men #132), and her tragic death at the hands of Xorn/Magneto (New X-Men #150).

—Jean Grey’s Return and Modern Stories (2017–Present)—

Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2017) – Jean officially returns to life, returning to her role among the X-Men.

X-Men: Red (2018) – Jean leads her own team, fighting for mutantkind with a focus on peace and justice.

House of X / Powers of X (2019) – Jean plays a pivotal role in the creation of Krakoa, a mutant utopia.

X-Men: Hellfire Gala (2021) – A great showcase of Jean’s leadership and style in the modern era.

Jean Grey (2023) – A modern retelling of Jean’s history and her role in the X-Men’s future.

Pheonix (2024) - Jean starts her journey as a cosmic hero

Time Displaced Jean Reading order:

Jean Grey’s Teenage Era, when the time-displaced original X-Men were brought to the future during the events of All-New X-Men. This storyline dives into how a young Jean grapples with her legacy, powers, and the knowledge of what her future self becomes.

The Beginning: All-New X-Men (2012–2015)

All-New X-Men (2012) #1-5 — The younger X-Men are brought to the present by Beast to show Cyclops the consequences of his actions during Avengers vs. X-Men.

All-New X-Men (2012) #6-10 — Jean’s telepathic abilities awaken prematurely in this timeline, forcing her to learn psychic skills quickly. She also starts developing her own identity apart from her older self.

All-New X-Men (2012) #11-15

All-New X-Men (2012) #18-19(Battle of the Atom) — A crossover event where the future X-Men try to force the younger team to return to their original timeline

Jean Joins the X-Men in the Present Timeline

Guardians of the Galaxy (2013) #11-13 — Trial of Jean Grey. The Shi’ar put teenage Jean on trial for crimes committed by the Phoenix Force. She teams up with the Guardians of the Galaxy

All-New X-Men (2012) #20-35 — Jean continues to grow into her own person

Teen Jean Faces the Phoenix and Her Legacy

All-New X-Men (2015) #37-41 — Black Vortex Crossover, Jean and the team are pulled into a cosmic conflict involving the Black Vortex, an ancient artifact that unlocks unlimited potential. Jean receives a vision of her ultimate power and begins to grapple with the inevitability of the Phoenix Force.

Extraordinary X-Men (2015) #1-12 — Post-Secret Wars, After the Secret Wars reboot, teenage Jean joins Storm’s X-Men

Jean’s Solo Adventures

Jean Grey (2017) — Teenage Jean gets her own solo series, where she prepares to face the Phoenix Force head-on. This series delves into Jean’s internal struggles, and her attempts to change her destiny

The End of the Teenage X-Men Era

X-Men: Blue (2017) #1-36 — Teenage Jean leads the time-displaced X-Men in their final adventures.

Extermination (2018) #1-5 — The teenage X-Men’s story concludes as they are sent back to their original timeline

(We're sorry if this is bad neither of us know how to make a reading guide)

In other media

Shows/Animated Series-

X-Men: The Animated Series (1992)

X-Men: Evolution (2000)

Wolverine and the X-Men (2008)

Marvel Anime: X-Men (2011)

X-Men '97 (2024)

Films-

X-Men (2000) (Played by Famke Janssen)

X2 (2003) (Played by Famke Janssen)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) (Played by Famke Janssen)

The Wolverine (2013) (Played by Famke Janssen)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) (Played by Sophie Turner)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) (Played by Sophie Turner)

Dark Phoenix (2019) (Played by Sophie Turner)

Video Games

X-Men Legends (2004)

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009)

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011)

Marvel Super War (2019)

#jean grey #marvel #x-men #marvel girl #phoenix #reading guide

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alisinwndrlnd · 2 months ago

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ooc: THIS POST IS SUBJECT TO EDITS FROM TIME TO TIME

introducing: aliona harmon / black siren

smau alena: here

(created by @mgannmrzz)

[fc/muse: sia kumar or priyanka chopra]

gender: afab

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: bisexual

age: 15 - 22, depending on the timeline. generally an adult. (18 years old for @jnephrite’s jason!)

hihi, this is just my little dump for anything dc oc related. i was heavily inspired by @jnephrite and decided to draft up ali out of impulse 🙂‍↕️

honestly, i have no idea where to start, so this’ll just be a temporary little introduction space until i figure out how to make this nicer lmao.

ships wise, i live for oc x canon literally… i’ve paired her up with jason todd / red hood, he’s my love and the dc character i consume the most content of. however, i’m definitely open to oc x oc literally send them my way!!!

DNI if you actively support incest. (batcest etc.) get the fuck away. doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or not. BACK FELL, BEAST!!!

other accounts: @alsyushaz (diff au alena), @liveatsonions (olivia choi), @missblitz (dianne zatara), @chrryblissom (pjo! alena), @blckcanaryz (dinah rp acc), @orientalsilver (erina lejeune / marvel oc), @mgannmrzz (mun)

main relationship is with jason todd! smau alena is with alex mcqueen.

friends list!: @irl-batsignal / @batsignal-irl, @liveatsonions, @missblitz, @frozen-ice-prince, @black--moon-light, @pewpewtodd

family: oliver queen / @blckcanaryz (adoptive parents)

< READ MORE UNDER THE CUT! >

A LITTLE NOTICE - i will mostly be following canon dc lore, i’m going to read up more about the world as well as jason’s stories. if i inaccurately state something based on jason / the dc world, feel free to let me know! i will be mostly centered around the ‘green arrow and black canary’ comic for aliona’s backstory.

i will also be following the jaceverse (@jnephrite) lore for morgan, and since she’s childhood besties with jason, i’ll run with that too (of course, the girls meet thru jason!)

LORE RESOURCES

document - for profile, backstory, world building & scenarios!

aliona’s tags - #aliona harmon , #ali’s asks , #ali speaks

also, sometimes ali talks in russian as either inner monologue or just her thoughts. please excuse it if the translation is horrible, since i’m literally learning it on duolingo💀 i’ll try my best with the back and forth for languages, so please be patient with me!

[also im a minor but im cool with in character flirting just dont be weird lol. and muse is an adult!]

[moodboard🔮]

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thequiver · 6 months ago

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Who is.... Xuân Cao Mạnh | Karma? - A Reading Guide

Xuân Cao Mạnh is an X-Men affiliated character from Marvel Comics first introduced in 1980. Xuân is a Vietnamese refugee who parents both died on the passage to America, leaving her in the care of her uncle and in charge of herself and her younger siblings. Xuân's family is very important to her and drives much of her story. Xuân is most commonly associated with her first team and close friends, the New Mutants, and spends a considerable portion of her appearances with them. Xuân is also a lesbian and an amputee!

Despite the heavy importance of her heritage to her story, it was not until 2023, some forty-three years after her introduction that her name was officially changed to something recognizable in Vietnamese. This interview, with Vietnamese comic creator, Trung Le Nguyen, who had the opportunity of writing Xuân in 2023, does a great job of breaking down the issues with the spellings we see in earlier comics. While the change has been made to correct her name now, for most of the issues in this reading list you will still see the unfortunate old name of Xi'an Coy Manh and the nickname "Shan."

Reading list under the cut!

Introduction and New Mutants

Xuân was introduced prior to the formation of her first team. She spent a fair amount of time with the New Mutants before moving on to a more personal mission. Please note that this period contains some absolutely disgusting and highly targeted fatphobia towards Xuân specifically.

Marvel Team-Up (1972) #100A Marvel Graphic Novel (1981) #4 New Mutants (1983) #1-6, 29-34 New Mutants Special Edition (1985) #1 X-Men Annual (1970) #9 New Mutants (1983) #35-37 Secret Wars II (1985) #9 New Mutants (1983) #38-40, 43-44, Annual 2 X-Men Annual (1970) #10 New Mutants (1983) #46-48, 50-52 Fallen Angels (1987) #1-2 New Mutants (1983) #53-54

Search for Siblings and Adulthood

Xuân makes the choice to leave the New Mutants to search for her younger siblings, and embarks on what also becomes a journey of self discovery! She doesn't always have a HUGE role in these issues, which is heartbreaking, but when it comes to Xuân it's helpful to have as much information as possible even if she's only in one or two panels...TRIGGER WARNING: during New X-Men there is a deeply uncomfortable plot in which Rahne (Wolfsbane) forms a romantic relationship with a student....and all of the students are mad at the child and the staff (Xuân included) talk about how they need to forgive Rahne....

Wolverine (1988) #4-8 New Mutants (1983) #81 Wolverine (1988) #27-30 New Warriors (1990) #45 X-Force (1991) #33-34 Beast (1997) #1-3 New Mutants: Truth or Death (1997) #1-3 X-Force (1991) #75 Mekanix (2002) #1-6 X-Men Unlimited (1993) #43A New Mutants (2003) #4-13 New X-Men (2004) #7, 9, 13-15 New X-Men Yearbook Special (2005) #1 New X-Men (2004) #16-19 Decimation: House of M- The Day After (2006) #1 X-Men: The 198 (2006) #1 X-Men (1991) #183A X-Men: Manifest Destiny (2008) #1C Uncanny X-Men (1981) #501-503 X-Men: Worlds Apart (2008) #4 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #504 X-Infernus (2009) #2, 4 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #508

New Mutants- Again

In 2009, Xuân joins the newly reformed New Mutants and things are....definitely interesting.

New Mutants (2009) #1-4, 6-10, 12 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #235 X-Force (2008) #26 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #524 X-Men: Second Coming (2010) #2 New Mutants (2009) #15, 17-22 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #246 New Mutants (2009) #25, 27-28 Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega (2012) #4-5 New Mutants (2009) #33

Regenesis & Utopians

Following the schism between Cyclops and Wolverine, Xuân followed Wolverine to Westchester where she once again found work at the school. After Utopia was abandoned she joined a group known as the Utopians.

Astonishing X-Men (2004) #48-56, Annual 1 New Mutants (2009) #44, 49 Avengers vs. X-Men (2012) #11 New Mutants (2009) #50 Astonishing X-Men (2004) #57-59 X-Termination (2013) #1 Astonishing X-Men (2004) #60 Age of Apocalypse (2012) #14 X-Treme X-Men (2012) #13 X-Termination (2013) #2 Astonishing X-Men (2004) #62-66, 68 All New X-Men (2013) #40-41 New Mutants: Dead Souls (2018) #1, 4, 6 Uncanny X-Men (2018) #12-19 War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men (2019) #1-3

Krakoa

Like most mutants, Xuân moved to the island nation of Krakoa, where she rejoined the New Mutants...again and underwent the crucible in order to give her twin brother another chance at life.

New Mutants (2019) #1-2, 5, 7, 9-11, 14-19 Marvel's Voices: Pride (2021) #1L New Mutants (2019) #20-24, 26, 30-31 Love Unlimited Infinity Comic (2022) #31-36 New Mutants: Lethal Legion (2023) #1-5

Extra:

The 2023 Magneto series goes back over some New Mutants (1983) things to bring back Magneto the teacher, Xuân's in it and it's written by JMD so you know I had to recommend it!

#xuân cao mạnh #karma #xi'an coy manh #(tagged just because her name was only recently fixed)#new mutants #x-men #xmen #x men #x-men reading lists #reading list #reading lists #reading guide #reading guides #comic reading list #comic reading guide

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